Secret Cookie Recipe Revealed!!!

Ingredients

• • 1 large egg
• • ¼ to 1/3 cup unsulphured molasses (I usually use the "Grandma's"
• brand, "Robust" variety, but whatever…)
• • 2 ¼ cups + 2 Tbsp. flour (I prefer unbleached, all-purpose)
• • 2 tsp. baking soda (I usually use this ingredient, but I once
• serendipitiously discovered that it can be optional, depending on your
• intended results – see below *)
• • ½ tsp salt (I usually use sea salt)
• • 1 to 2 tsp. ground cinnamon (I'm not a cinnamon snob…yet…so ceylon or cassia,
• whichever you prefer)
• • 2 tsp. ground ginger (someday I plan to experiment with fresh grated
• ginger, or even better, with tiny bits of candied ginger…)
• • ½ to ¾ tsp. ground cloves
• • ¼ to ½ tsp. ground mustard (yes, dry mustard – please don't grab the
• yellow bottle from the fridge!)
• • Granulated Turbinado sugar (for rolling your balls of cookie dough
• in before putting them in the oven. Regular white granulated sugar
• will also work, but my taste testers confirm that Turbinado is best)

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar.
2. Add the orange zest, egg, and molasses, and beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and mustard. Make sure that the ingredients are mixed evenly and thoroughly. (* If you happen to leave out the baking soda, you end up with a denser, harder cookie. When this occurred the first time, I almost overreacted and tossed out the batch of dough. I’m glad I didn’t. The result was wonderfully crunchy on the outside, with a dense, firm but not too hard, chewy center. I have only tried this with the smaller cookies – I don’t know how the larger cookies would turn out).
4. Thoroughly mix the sifted dry ingredients into the butter/sugar/zest/egg/molasses mixture. The dough should be stiff, but not too dry (and not too wet either).
5. Heat the oven to about 375º, and place the rack in the center position.
6. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease them lightly with butter. Pour about ½ cup Turbinado sugar into a bowl.
7. Now, how big do you want your cookies, and how many cookies do you want? This recipe will make either 1 dozen giant cookies, or about 2½ dozen smaller cookies. For giant cookies, take a scoop of dough and shape it into a slightly-larger-than-golf ball-sized ball (about 2 ½ inches diameter). Roll each ball in the Turbinado sugar until it is completely coated, and place it on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, resisting the urge to eat the raw dough, as the baked cookies are considerably better than the dough. For smaller cookies,make the dough balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Note that the cookies will expand while baking, so don’t crowd them; on one of my baking sheets, I can fit six of the large dough balls, or a dozen of the smaller). Using your fingers (or other suitable tool) flatten each dough ball on the baking sheet slightly, until it is a sort of thick, round-sided disk (1 to 1.5 inches in thickness).
8. Bake the cookies for 13-17 minutes, until the tops have cracked and split (* if you omitted the baking powder, the tops will not crack and split), and until the cookies are slightly browner than the dough. You may want to experiment with baking time, because your oven is different than mine and I also like my cookies more well- done (crunchy outside, chewy inside) than you might. Allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes