SHF #7 entry- Molasses ginger cookies

Molasses ginger cookies 

Whoo, this is my first entry for SHF and this time it is hosted by Derrick of An Obsession with Food. The featured ingredient is molasses. Molasses is quite a challenge because the only thing that it resonates with is gingerbread. Not quite something you want to eat when the weather is warming up. After the sugar-high, calorific Wednesday, a low fat treat was what I was looking for. Also, it should be something that distributes our fat intake over several days. I found this really crazy recipe that I had tagged a long time back by Marcie Rothman, the author of a book called $5 chef. It uses balsamic vinegar (an ingredient that should be honored in one of the SHF events) and there is only the fat from an egg.

The original recipe calls for dark brown sugar but I substituted it with the light version. Fresh ginger, not the ground version, was the way to go for giving a powerful kick to the brute that is molasses. I also added half a tsp of homemade five spice powder. Here is the recipe with my modifications:

1 cup dark unsulphured molasses
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1 tsp. cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1 large egg
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 heaping tsp. finely grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Butter baking sheet, set aside.
2. In a bowl, add molasses, sugar, ginger, vinegar and egg. Mix well with a fork or spoon.
3. Sift in the flour, baking soda, five spice powder and salt. Stir until blended. Spoon the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. On a standard size baking sheet, you can make six.

4. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven until the edges are golden (watch closely as the color difference is not really striking) but the cookies are still soft,about 9 to 10 minutes. For me, after the first batch, the cookies were done in 7-8 minutes.
5. Cool a minute or two on the baking sheets. Remove from baking sheet with a large metal spatula and transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. They will crisp as they cool. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 32 cookies.

They are not much to look at for they spread unevenly on all sides (uneven heat in oven may be?). These are huge, crisp, spicy and fulfilling. I bet they will go great with ice cream sandwiched between. The chili and peppers in the five spice accentuated the effect of ginger. Yet, the show-off molasses pervades.