Nice and spicy and for my Christmas Baby who turns 40 on Christmas day.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all are spending the holidays with family and friends and enjoying some of the recipes I have posted here. My son and his family in Chicago will be spending their Christmas in Minnesota this year and I sent a box of these cookies to the in-laws house for him to enjoy on his birthday — ohhh, my Christmas baby. Seems like just yesterday we were rushing to the hospital in Louisville to meet our first born. He was born 12:26 a.m. on 12-25-73 (I was one minute too late to match his birth date).
I have always loved baking, and making cookies has always been the top of my list of baked goods. My kids mostly grew up on homemade cookies because that’s what I did — baked. Occasionally I would slip and buy some Oreo’s or Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip but the chocolate chip of course never measured up to homemade.
Didn’t all kids have hot cookies and milk waiting for them when they came home from school. My daughter, Alexis was always our sugar cookie baker because I never had the patience to cut and decorate that type of cookie. I have my share of cookie cutters and probably have over 75 for sure but I’m usually looking for a quick way to decorate them.
I love going to Sweet Mandy B’s Bakery in Chicago. My son’s favorite cookie is their molasses cookies and they have a thick layer of buttercream frosting on top. SMB is famous for their old fashioned desserts and you will find bars like PB Rice Krispie, Magic Bars, Turtle Brownies, chocolate chip cookies, snicker doodle, macaroons and the list goes on and on. They are delicious but very expensive. On one trip to the bakery the last time we were visiting, I wanted to pick up a few cookies for dessert that night; $25 later I walked out with a box full. It’s hard to know when to stop. Their cookies are big, rich, sweet and delicious.
Nice firm dough that’s easy to roll.
I used a small ice cream scoop to make balls; put about 3″ apart.
Frosting is quick to whip up.
Cool and ready to be frosted.
Pile on as much frosting as you want.
Buttercream Frosted Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c. butter softened
- 1 c. brown sugar packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 c. dark molasses
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 c. flour
- 1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 c. buttermilk
- FROSTING:
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 4 teaspoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar.
- Beat in eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Combine the flour, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
- Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours. When you are ready to bake cookies, roll in small balls (I use small ice cream scoop). Put on cookie sheets about 3" apart. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will crack in the middle.
For the frosting beat the butter until smooth using a stand or hand mixer. Add in the vanilla and ginger. Slowly add the powdered sugar along with a teaspoon of milk at a time until you have smooth consistency.
2 Comments
Rusty Spur
December 25, 2013 at 6:08 amThe cookies sound delish and like something my husband would like.
I am curious how you pack these frosted cookies to ship them. Does the frosting look good on the receiving end?
Sherry
December 30, 2013 at 7:01 amI put some wadded up plastic wrap in the bottom and in-between the layers of cookies I just kind of crunched up wrap around edges and across container. My son said they got all the way to MN just fine. I did let the frosting firm up a bit before packing them.