Best Cookies Ever!

Mmmmmm...molasses crinkles! These are my all time favorite cookies. I made them religiously the summer I lived in Vermont and yes, ate them all myself! Well, maybe I shared a few with my friends. The recipe comes from my mom's side of the family. I remember making them for the first time with my Aunt Phyllis while I was visiting her. The original recipe calls for butter which makes the cookies nice and flat, softy and chewy. The ones pictured here I made with Smart Balance which makes them light and fluffy and more like gingerbread. You can also use margarine or other vegetable oil spreads and get the same result. I was too impatient to wait for the butter to soften! Not as tasty, in my opinion, but still very delicious. Here's the recipe:

3/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

set aside

1+ cup granulated sugar*

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until smooth, add egg and molasses. Stir in flour and spices. Cover and chill dough for 2 hours. (this is the hard part!) Preheat oven to 375. Put granulated sugar in a bowl. Form dough into round 1 inch balls, or larger if you prefer. I wouldn't go much larger than 2 inches. Roll balls in sugar and evenly coat. Place on a cookie sheet, evenly spaced. For 1 inch balls, 12 cookies per sheet. For 2 inch balls, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on a wire rack, or place on a brown paper bag. Aunt Phyllis taught me this trick! The bag soaks up some of the buttery grease from the cookies (and you don't have an extra dish to wash!) Makes about 2-3 dozen cookies depending on the size.

*If you don't have granulated sugar, like Sugar in the Raw, plain white sugar works fine as well.