Molasses Drop Cookies Of New England
This is my personal AfroAmerican family recipe from the New England. Oh yes, they were hard line puritans and methodists, proud of their British ancestry and loved to cite the Constitution of the United States Of America when they were going into the arguments- and this was one of the most precious times of our lives- to listen to their arguments and discussions at the Thanksgiving table. Yes, slow as molasses they were in their decisions, but sharp as the tomahawks they were in their arguments.
1 cup of dark molasses
1 cup of brown cane sugar
1 cup of pork lard - MANTECA lard will do fine
1 cup of boiling water
3 teaspoons of baking soda dissolved in a little hot water - Calumet or Glabber Girl baking powder will do fine as well
1 Pinch of kosher salt - Morton salt will do fine is a coarse one
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
41/2 cups of all purpose white wheat flour
Sift the baking powder with the flour, or mix the soda into the water, and molasses which you pour into your dough. Sift your spices, sugar and the flour and only then dilute with water. Rub your dough with hands, make a ball of dough, cover with a cheesecloth and put your dough into the fridge for several hours. The longer the dough is chilled, the nicer the ginger cookies will come out. Cookies are better if mixed up and left to stand several hours in the cold pantry or cold fridge, before baked. Drop the pieces of dough by spoonfuls onto the aluminum foil lined and spread out in the deep baking pan. Molasses cookies are traditionally dropped into the baking pan with spoon and must be baked on a well greased pan.My family was so proud of this particular recipe, that the family proverb was: " What do you want, a cookie?". The only correct cookie of my family- up to Malinta, Ohio was only the molasses drop cookies. Traditional festive dinner of my grandmother from New England was: the molasses cookies was her first choice, the chowder was her second choice second and the cake was the third choice of my gerandmother. Let your choice be similar to hers- Very truly yours.