Spicy Molasses Chocolate Spritz Cookies

Kitty FloridoDecember 4, 2012

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One of my first big girl memories in the kitchen was baking cookies for the holiday season when I was about 8. I am sure that I started baking late November as I still do to this day. This happened all the time since our school year vacations go from Mid October to Mid January, so it kept me busy and out of trouble. This first recipe that opens our Christmas Cookies series is a Foodies’ Original: A mashup of several spritz cookie recipes that I’ve made throughout the years and some inspiration from a Martha Stewart recipe. This Spicy Molasses Chocolate Spritz Cookies recipe is rich both chocolate and spices. I love to add cayenne to everything chocolate, as it brings out it’s flavor, but if you don’t want to get that extra kick, hold the cayenne.

When I was about 8 or 9, I was (still) not allowed to use the big girl mixer or oven on my own, so I mixed the cookies by hand with a wooden spoon. With the oven, well, I had help from my mom or grandma Lucy (who lived across the driveway).

A few nights ago I was looking for my mom’s cookie press. She has a Mirro Aluminum Cookie Pastry Press, and from what I could find online it was made between 1950-1955. The prices that I’ve found online for this vintage cookie press goes between $35 to $85. That’s crazy! This is a high quality cookie press that I suspect my grandmother gave to my mom and hopefully I can keep the tradition going.

Unlike the newer cookie press models, this one doesn’t have a rubber coated press inside, so, some of the cookie dough goes above the press and the outcome is that by the end, you get a little bit of dough that’s just not enough to get it through the press. Over the years, I learned that with that little dough, you can do a test batch and adjust your baking times! Since this is a original recipe, I baked the test batch of cookies (just round patties with sugar on top) and saw that I needed to adjust the baking time by adding a minute. I highly recommend that with that little extra dough you test your baking times.

Kitty

Spicy Molasses Chocolate Spritz Cookies

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yield: 50-60 spritz cookies

Ingredients:
½ cup of butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 egg
¼ cup of molasses
1 tablespoon of milk
2 cups of all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of ginger
¼ teaspoon of all-spice
¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon of cloves
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
¼ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of baking soda

Directions

Preheat the oven at 375ºF and prepare your cookie press.
Sift all-purpose flour, ginger, all-spice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until combined. Bean in one at a time and scraping the sides of your mixer’s bowl the egg, molasses, and milk.
Add by tablespoons the sifted ingredients to the mix, scraping the sides.
Fill in your cookie press and form your cookies on ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle them with sugar.
Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes.
Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely on cooling racks.

Have you made this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture with the hashtag #thefoodieskitchen!

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