Welcome to the launch of a new series on the site! Among the many family recipes we have, I came across a recipe box belonging to my great-grandma Etta McCallum.These recipes are unfamiliar to my mom and I, so I have decided to make them all!
(Maybe make them all.) There are some interesting ones (to say the least), but I wanted to start a recipe that probably meant something to Etta: a recipe titled Mother’s Ginger Cookies.
Etta was ten years old when her mother died in 1884. The recipe card is dated 1882, with the initials C.M. Her mother’s name was Catherine Moore.
This recipe, like many in the box, was partially there. Some words were illegible while other key details, like baking time and temperature, were left off. But off I went, and the cookies ended up being really good!
The recipe called for rolling the dough thin, but it was really wet, so I just dolloped it on the tray. They came out thin, but soft and flavorful!
The verdict: they were delicious! The cookies got high marks from my mom, nephew Colton, and niece Kaydence. (My niece London tried one bite and was disappointed they were not chocolate chip.)
Would I make them again?: YES. They were a nice treat with few ingredients. Very appropriate for autumn.
Mother’s Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup molasses
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar together. Add molasses.
- In a seperate bowl, mix dry ingredients.
- Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix until incorporated.
- Spoon tablespoon-size lumps onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Leave room as the cookies spread! I did about 8 on a sheet to get them not to run into each other.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, 8 minutes if you want a softer cookie. At 10 minutes the middle is soft but the edges have a nice crisp. (12 minutes will burn and not make the cookie crisp.)