Molasses Cookies

In the spirit of the holidays, here's an incredible cookie recipe. Seriously, I LOVE these cookies. There's not a lot of stuff that I eat and immediately fall in love with. When I smelled them baking, I thought someone was baking a homemade pie. They have such a great (but pleasantly MILD) spice essence. They're NOT like ginger snaps. They're much more mellow. They're like sugar cookies with a Christmas-y twist. And the best part is, when I made the recipe at home, it came out just as good (no offense, Carrie - it was your baking of these that inspired me)! And the recipe is really quite easy. You MUST try them....

MOLASSES COOKIES

Note - this recipe card came with the "history" of the recipe, so I feel like I should include that here...in honor of those who made this recipe what it is and were kind enough to share it with future bakers: (Liz McFaul)->Mary Underwood->Carrie Valentine->Kat Michaels

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar plus more for rolling
¾ cup shortening
1 egg
4 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves

Directions:
Using an electric mixer, first mix all ingredients except flour, then add in flour and mix a bit more (doesn’t take much mixing…probably about a minute, but I don’t suppose it would hurt to mix more – as long as all the ingredients are well combined). Place a couple of Tablespoons (or more) sugar on a small plate. Take the dough, and make into balls (about rounded Tablespoon sized). Roll each ball in sugar and place into a bowl. Chill the dough balls for about an hour (this prevents the cookies from coming out really flat).Then bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes (my oven is pretty accurate and it took 15). This recipe made 28 cookies for me, but of course, it depends on how big you make the dough balls.