Friday, February 19, 2021

The Molasses Cookie Conundrum, and Mother's Sour Cream Jumbles


Ginger Doodles, displayed in the kitchen of our Amish Farmhouse, 2016

These are the molasses/ginger cookies which are my stand-by recipe.
The original called for more sugar than I use.
My adaptation follows:

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. demerara or light brown sugar
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
1 t. Vanilla
Beat the above until well blended.
Add: 
2 c. flour sifted with
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 t. ginger
1 t. cinnamon

I use a melon ball sized scoop to drop onto a cookie sheet.
You could use a teaspoon or tablespoon to scoop up dough and roll between your hands if you prefer.
Sprinkle tops of cookies with sugar or a cinnamon/sugar mix;
Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes--usually the longer time.
Let cool slightly on pan, then remove to wire rack.

Mother's Sour Cream Jumbles
I have not made this recipe, although I remember that my mother made them often. 
The cookies had a soft cake-like texture.
My sister has made them using the recipe on mother's handwritten card.
She felt the cookies were 'dry.'

So, no recommendation from me, but here it is!
1 c. sugar
3/4 cup sour milk or cream*
1/2 c. shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Sift together and stir in:
2 c. flour
1tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Drop on greased cookie sheet, Bake at 375 until cookies are lightly browned on edges and tops spring back when touched.
*Living next door to my grandfather's dairy farm, our milk came from there as raw milk.  Mother used clabbered sour milk for these cookies.  If I made them now I would use cultured sour cream or yogurt--starting with 1/2 cup, adding extra if needed.
Mother sometimes added raisins to the mix, and the tops were always sprinkled with cinnamon.
Electric Mixers hadn't come into general kitchen use when I was a child [!] so this cookie dough was hand mixed.
The proportion of milk/liquid to flour seems a bit off to me--a rather 'loose' batter.
I recall the cookies as spreading in soft mounds on the cookie sheet.



 

8 comments:

  1. Those ginger cookies look good! Have a great weekend ~ FlowerLady

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  2. We love our soft cookies! Thank you for the recipe!

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  3. How lovely to have one of your mom's recipes. That does sound a very soft batter if using that amount of milk/cream. I will put up my Cornish Fairings recipe on my blog, so you can compare (and perhaps try if you fancy).

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  4. I can't wait to try ginger doodles recipe! I love cooking with molasses! I'm going to sit here for a while with my cup of hot tea and try to catch up on the posts I've missed! We still have patches of snow here but at last the foot of snow is melting! Hope all is well.

    Blessings,
    Dianne

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  5. I was just thinking a few days ago that I wanted to find a ginger cookie recipe. Thank you Sharon.

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    1. SY; In terms of your question re maple syrup grades--I think the designations have undergone some changes since we 'sugared' in Vermont years ago. When we have VT relatives coming this way we arrange to get syrup--it is now designated 'Grade A, Dark Color, Robust Flavor.' I buy what I can locally--made in US or Canada--its all the dark, full flavored. That's all we've seen available and we like it.

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    2. Swanyawn's original comment which prompted the reply regarding maple syrup. Do you prefer the Amber Rich grade, a light amber color syrup or the Amber Robust dark amber color with a more pronounced maple flavor? We can't find a good tasting syrup in the stores.

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