Crinkles of Molasses

This is actually a recipe for Molasses Crinkles, but I like Crinkles of Molasses better. I've had this recipe since Home Economics in high school. I know that's not in anyone's curriculum since probably the late '70s. I loved that class. There were no boys, a respite in the middle of the day from testosterone gone wild. However, there were the awkward dramas, like the time my group had to miss P.E. to clean the oven. Mrs. Davis told us not to choose the recipe with strawberry filling. The truth is, I preferred cleaning the oven to P.E.

One of our projects was to begin compiling a recipe box for use to prepare meals for our husbands after we graduated high school. Yeah, that was the expectation in 1968. There were little tab labels on the cards to separate the recipes, such as casseroles, side dishes, and salads. Desserts was an expected tab, but that section in my box was so thick I had to separate the choices into cookies, cakes, pies, etc.

The teacher, Mrs. Davis, had no idea we'd be searching the internet for recipes from around the world and saving them to our Pinterest boards. She also would never have considered we wouldn't be cooking supper every evening for husbands or would be feeding our children from a drive thru window, collecting toys with their boxed meals.

One of my very first recipes was Molasses Crinkles. The handwritten card became marked with splatters of dough and bent at the edges. Sometimes the grit of the dried sugar and molasses caused it to stick to the card in front of it, and I couldn't pull it from the box. More than once I thought I'd lost it forever.

This cookie is one of my family's favorites. It's also a favorite of Petra in my novel, Blue Feather Mystery, Book Four of the Meg Miller Cozy Mystery Series. Petra leaves the ranch to help Meg plan the move of family items to her little cottage. At a luncheon with Jean, they fall in love with the spices and chewiness of these cookies:

Molasses Crinkles

3/4 c. shortening 2 t. soda

1 c. sugar 1/4 t. allspice

1 egg 1/2 t. salt

1/4 c. Brer Rabbit Molasses 1 t. cinnamon

2 c. sifted flour 1/2 t. ginger

Cream sugar and shortening. Add egg and molasses, blend well.

Add sifted flour, soda, salt and spices.

Mix well and chill.

Form into one-inch balls and roll in sugar. Before putting in the oven touch the top of the cookie with a finger dampened with cold water.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 375 degrees.