This is the eighth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post.
Original Recipe
Molasses Cookies
1 ½ c. N.O. Molasses
1 c Lard
(Boil this together) Let cool
3 eggs
½ cup white sugar
Cinnamon 1 teasp
1 teasp ginger
4 cups flour
1 teasp soda
Mix all this together at night and let stand over night and bake in the morning
Page 1, Recipe 1
Where better to start than at the beginning? Well, sort of – as with any handwritten recipe manuscript, determining the first entry is not always so easy. And technically speaking, since I had already made three recipes for an assignment in the first class of my gastronomy masters program (four if you count the pie crust for the lemon pie separately), this would be the fourth recipe…
But a recipe for molasses cookies was the very first recipe in Irene Caron’s manuscript, and that has to count for something, even if it’s just an excuse for me to use a cliché opener to get this blog series started.
Happy Holidays
It was the holiday season when I decided to embark unpon this culinary journey, so a cookie recipe just sort of made sense. It gave me a great excuse to pawn off the calories spawned from my kitchen on my helpless friends, family, and colleagues who were all bound by holiday tradition to have to accept proffered sweets.
Sometimes I feel like a cross between Santa and the witch from Hansel and Gretel intent on destroying the world one cavity and waist line at a time… At least my cooking does not include my guests. Yet… Just kidding.
Anyway, back to the cookies, Irene’s molasses cookie recipe presented two main problems when trying to make them: what is “N. O. Molasses,” and how to bake them (i.e., temp and duration).
“N. O. Molasses”
I tried to figure out what N. O. Molasses could have been by Google searching, but fun fact: Google loves to interpret “N. O. Molasses” as “no molasses.” 🤦♂️
Unfortunately, my other avenues of research returned a similar level of information. In the end, I decided to use Grandma’s brand Unsulphured Molasses. Partially because it seemed old, partially because the name seemed fitting, and partially because it was surprisingly hard to find other brands of molasses…
Close enough.
Temp and Duration
Temperature and duration, however, were something I couldn’t cut corners on. Irene’s recipe does not have any instructions about how to actually bake the cookies other than to do it after the dough rests overnight. So, I had to do some research and look at other recipes for molasses cookies.
Most of the recipes I found called for 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 to 13 minutes; however one recipe I found called for 425 degrees for 7 minutes. 425 seemed quite high to me since 350 is normally the magic temperature for baking, but the recipe was called “Old-Fashioned Molasses Cookies…”
So, I tried cooking a batch of cookies at both temperatures and durations, and while there was not a massive difference I think the lower temperature for longer worked the best. Besides, one of the recipes calling for the 350 temperature came from King Arthur Flour, which is one of my favorite food related companies and a company that often publishes really great baking advice.
Making the Cookies
While my tiny apartment kitchen is not really set-up well for cinematography, I did my best to record my attempts at making the cookies. I then uploaded the videos to YouTube and created a playlist out of them, which you can view below along with some pictures.
Updated Recipe
Based on my research and experience making the cookies, below is my updated version of the recipe.
Irene Caron’s Molasses Cookies
Yield: 6-7 dozen cookies
1 ½ cup Unsulfured Molasses
1 cup lard
½ cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
4 to 4¼ cups all-purpose flour (4 cups will make a thinner cookie)
1 tsp baking soda
3 large eggs
Pearl or other coarse grain sugar for rolling (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix lard and molasses together in a saucepan and bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Once boiling, remove from heat and let cool.
While the lard and molasses cools, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and baking soda in a large bowl. When lard-molasses mixture is cool, pour into dry ingredients and add eggs. Mix until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge overnight.
The next day, scoop into small balls, roll in sugar if desired, and place on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 11-13 minutes.
Next Steps: Doughnuts
Stay tuned for my attempts to make other recipes from my great-grandmother’s manuscript including doughnuts, pickles, and even a Lady Baltimore cake!
My coworkers and friends better renew their gym memberships!
You can read about my adventures making her doughnuts in my Irene’s Recipes #9: I Doughnut Know What I’m Doing post.