EXCERPT FROM OLD FARM COUNTRY COOKBOOK
By Jerry Apps & Susan Apps-Bodilly
One cold winter afternoon when I was about three years old, my uncle George was looking after me while the folks had gone to town. I had just gotten Tinker Toys for Christmas, and Uncle George and I spent that afternoon at the dining room table making the most wonderful creations. Tinker Toys consisted of wooden spools with holes drilled in them, plus wooden sticks that could be placed in the holes. We made a barn and a shed and a windmill that actually worked. We laughed when our creations didn’t work—which was often. During a break from our building projects, we ate my mother’s molasses cookies, with coffee for Uncle George and milk for me. Uncle George was a quiet man, a bachelor who lived with my grandfather in Wild Rose. On this winter afternoon, I had him all to myself, and we got to know each other around that old wooden table.
Ingredients
- 2 c sugar
- 1 c shortening
- 4 eggs, divided
- 1 c molasses
- 4 c flour, plus 1/2 c flour to use while rolling out
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
Blend the sugar and shortening until fluffy. Add 3 of the eggs and the molasses. Mix well. In another bowl, mix the 4 cups flour with the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Add the flour mixture gradually to the egg mixture to make dough. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet. Roll out about onethird of the dough on floured pastry cloth to about 1/4-inch thick. Keep the rest cold until ready to roll out. Cut out the cookies with a favorite cookie cutter and place on the cookie sheet. Beat the remaining egg with a fork. Brush a bit of the beaten egg on each cookie. Bake until just set, about 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Continue making cookies with remaining dough.
