Snow-Capped Molasses Cookies

Ahhh, Christmas.  I love everything about this friend-visiting, gift-giving, house-decorating, cookie-baking, card-addressing season!

This last week has been a flurry of shopping, wrapping, making lists and cooking.  No stress involved, I love it all.

Today, Caitie came home and my world is complete.

Today's Playlist

• "Jingle Bell Rock".........Brian Setzer Orchestra
• "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas".......Johnny Mathis
• "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer"......Burl Ives
• "Rocking Around The Christmas Tree".....Brenda Lee
• You're A Mean One, Mister Grinch"......Brian Setzer Orchestra
• "Frosty The Snowman"......The Charlie Daniels Band

Snow-Capped Molasses Cookies (makes 24 large cookies)
Printable Recipe

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon shortening
• sanding sugar

Gather  your ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, molasses, egg, cinnamon and ginger.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the flour,

and the baking soda.

Mix to combine.

Roll into balls or scoop with a cookie scoop and drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 

 My cookies are formed with about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie.  They're pretty big.  You can make your cookies any size you like, just be sure that they are uniform in size.

If your cookies are large like mine, you will need to bake them for about 12 to 14 minutes.

For the record, I baked mine for 14 minutes.

If you made your cookies smaller (or larger), adjust your cooking time accordingly.

They are done when the top is crackled and they are barely starting to brown around the edges.  At that point they are perfectly cooked; they will be crispy on the outside, yet soft and chewy inside.

Please don't wait until they are really browned.  At that point they will be overdone.

While you are waiting for your cookies to cool, prepare the chocolate to dip them in.

Place 1 cup of white chocolate chips in a small bowl that is deep enough to dip the cookies in.  Add the tablespoon of shortening.

Place in your microwave (uncovered) and heat on HIGH for one minute.  Remove and stir until all the chips have melted.

At this point I am going to give you my advice on white chocolate chips, so if you have been reading my blog regularly you may skip to the next picture because you've heard this all before:

PLEASE use a good, quality brand of white chocolate chips.  NOT a store brand.  A cheap brand will be made with sub-par ingredients and will not melt properly.  If you think it won't make a difference and decide to go with the cheap chips you will regret it when your melted chips are a gunky mess.

And now we return to our recipe.

In addition to the melted chocolate, I am going to dip the cookies in some shimmery sugar.  You can use any type of sprinkles or colored sugar that you like, or you can just stick to the white chocolate dip with no additional decorations.

Dip one side of the cookie into the melted chocolate.  Allow the excess to drip off.

Then dip into the sugar.  

Place the cookies on a sheet of waxed paper and allow the white chocolate to harden.  This should take about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!