Molasses Cookies for Christmas

I'm not much of a baker. Oh,I can whip up a pie. With J peeling and slicing, we can have an apple pie "as quick as a cat can wink it's eye." And my parents baked bread all the time -- brioche, white bread, salt rising, even baguettes baked in loaf pans made from down spouts. It was the 1960's, and there wasn't a Williams Sonoma on every corner!

As you can see, the cookies are a "can't miss" recipe!

 But not cookies. I never baked many cookies.

So at the holidays, I would bake only four kinds, and none of them fancy. Toll House, peanut butter, oatmeal, and ginger. Ginger are my favorite.

They were my mom's, too.

I don't think of Mom around Memorial Day when she died, or in January, on her birthday. But I do miss her as I'm making the one batch of cookies I will make this year. I wish she was around to enjoy one with me.

Molasses Cookies
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

3/4 cup margarine, melted
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup white sugar

In a medium bowl, mix together the melted margarine, 1 cup sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger; blend into the molasses mixture. Cover, and chill dough for 1 hour.
Roll dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until tops are cracked. Cool on wire racks. Makes 30-36 cookies.