Tasty Tuesday - Egg Nog Cookies

Yes, I posted a cookie recipe last week. And yes, Christmas was two days ago, but I have another great cookie recipe that I just have to share. First of all, I can't be the only one with egg nog left in the fridge and no desire to drink any more of it, can I? Second, I entered this cookie into a local cookie contest, and it won so of course I have to share with you, right? That's what I thought.

Egg Nog Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c butter, softened
1 t vanilla
3/4 c egg nog
2 eggs
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t fresh ground nutmeg
2 t cinnamon
4 1/2 c flour

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until it comes together again. Add the vanilla and egg nog, then beat again. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon and mix well. Add the flour, stirring slowly until mixed.

Drop heaping spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet or sil pat and bake 14-17 minutes until lightly browned just at the very edges. Let cool on a piece of waxed paper or the sil pat to keep them soft and chewy. While they are still warm, sprinkle them with a little extra cinnamon to make them look extra pretty, something I neglected to do but wish I had.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Tasty Tuesday - Molasses Cookies

I host an annual cookie exchange now. Really, it isn't so much about the cookies as it is about getting together with friends and actually having some time to spend together, chatting and enjoying each others' company. Of course, cookies are involved, and it's all yummy. Just like with bake sales, I don't want to choose something obvious and similar to what others do. I also happened to have just cleaned my cabinets - two days of pulling everything out, tossing it or cleaning it, washing the inside and outside of the cabinets twice and letting them dry then putting everything back again - and discovered a partially full jar of molasses.

That made the decision easy, right?

Molasses Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 c vegetable oil
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4-1/2 c molasses
2 1/3 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves
Additional white sugar for rolling (1/3-1/2 cup)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your cookie sheets (or get out your sil pats).

In a bowl, beat your oil and sugar until it’s lightened in color and has come together nicely. Add the egg and beat well again. Stir in the molasses (use ¼ if you aren’t huge into molasses or closer to ½ cup if you like the stronger taste – we went about halfway between). Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves to the batter and mix well. Slowly stir the flour into the dough. This will be a stiff dough, more so than a chocolate chip cookie dough and definitely less sticky. The cookies will still be fine.

Prepare a small bowl with the extra granulated sugar. I use my dough baller to portion these out to make a smaller cookie. It made 40 cookies for me, but you can make larger cookies, too. Place a single portion into the sugar bowl and gently roll in in there. You can shape it a bit in the sugar, but don’t push the sugar into the dough. Set them onto your baking sheet, and bake for 9 minutes for smaller cookies potentially up to 11 or 12 for large cookies.

When you take them out, not all the tops will have cracked yet. That’s fine. So long as you’re starting to see cracks in many of the cookies, you’re good to go. If you want your cookies soft and not crunchy, leave them sitting on the sil pat to cool, or put them on a sheet of wax paper. It makes a huge difference. I let mine cool for three or so minutes, then carefully lifted my sil pat to place it on the counter and let it cool the rest of the way. Fortunately, I have three sil pats, so I could rotate them through the batches as I was baking. If you don’t have enough sil pats, the wax paper works just as well.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.