How to make Claire Saffitz' Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
Great cookies from her book "Dessert Person"
Hello! Hello!
Earlier this week, I finished my round-up of cookbooks from the past year or so. Alphabetized by author’s last name and hyper-personal, I chose books that were in my Connecticut kitchen – you can find A-L here and M-Z here. And, because I wanted you to be able to taste something from the collection, I published a recipe from ZOE BAKES CAKES for Zoë François’s Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake and included two of her frostings, both great with the cake. Today, it’s a recipe from Claire Saffitz’s DESSERT PERSON.
There are so many ways you could have come to Claire and fallen in love with her. There’s her website, her Instagram, her articles and her truly wonderful videos – I love them because they make me feel as though I’m in the kitchen with Claire, baking something wonderful, learning a bunch and having fun. Claire has a lovely way about her – she’s competent, funny and self-deprecating all at once. You catch Claire’s personality in her videos, but you can get her on the page too. In her book, DESSERT PERSON, the text is serious – footnotes included – and the recipes are beautifully considered. But nothing’s fussy. And there are crumbs and rough edges, drippy jam and cookies that are slightly off round. Just the way they are when we bake at home.
Claire Saffitz and her new book "Dessert Person" (photos: Alex Lau)
As always with good books, I had a tough time deciding what to make. So many choices that are so right for the season. I toyed with the idea of making one of Claire’s recipes that used Concord grapes, but I was afraid that some of you would have a hard time finding them. (If they’re an easy grab, you might want to try her Concord Grape and Apple Crumble Pie or her Concord Grape and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies.) Of course, I want to make the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake, for the cake, sure, but also so that I can say the name as many times as possible in one day. It’s at the top of my list for when I can give the yeast batter a leisurely chill in the fridge.
At last, I settled on an evergreen – a cookie as good today on the cusp of fall as it will be when we want to pack boxes of cookies for the holidays: Claire’s Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies. They’ve got the classic molasses cookie look – round and fissured; both flattish and bumpyish on top. Claire flavors the cookies with a lot of ground ginger, some ground black pepper (which I love in the mix), allspice and nutmeg.
When I told Claire what recipe I'd picked, she said," "These cookies are so perfectly chewy with the ideal amount of spice and bittersweetness from molasses. They're the consummate holiday cookie, particularly because they're so easy to make."
I couldn't agree more.
Just a couple of words on a few of the ingredients:
Diamond Crystal kosher salt is what Claire specifies – Morton’s Kosher Salt, the other popular brand, is almost twice as salty as Diamond Crystal (fine salt is twice as salty, too) and so substituting one for the other can be a big deal. Here’s a good round-up from Food 52 on how the salts differ.
Unsulfured Molasses is Claire’s preference and the preference of most bakers I know (mine, too). It is made by extracting and boiling down the juice from sugar cane (or sugar beets). Because the cane is mature when it's processed, it doesn’t need to be treated with sulfur dioxide and so it’s labled “unsulfured”.
Demerara Sugar is what Claire wants you to roll the balls of cookie dough in before you bake them. Demerara is a type of minimally processed raw sugar that’s golden brown and rough, so that it when you sprinkle it on cookies or crisps or crumbles, it holds its crunch. Because you’re using the demerara as a topping, if you don’t have it, I’d say you could use turbinado, raw or sanding sugar.
As always, if you bake these cookies or any of the xoxoDorie recipes, I hope you’ll post them so that we can all see them. And tag me, please – I don’t want to miss them. My tags are up top.
Have a great weekend – I’ll be back Tuesday.
xoxo Dorie
Dessert Person images by Alex Lau/All others by Mary Dodd
Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies from "Dessert Person"
CHEWY MOLASSES SPICE COOKIES
Adapted from DESSERT PERSON, by Claire Saffitz (Clarkson)
Makes about 42 cookies
Season: All / Active Time: 45 minutes / Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes (includes 1 hour for chilling - you might need more) / Difficulty: 2 (Easy)
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (17 oz/488 g)
1 tablespoon baking soda (0.63 oz/18 g)
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (see above)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (6 oz/170g), melted and cooled to room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar (10.6 oz/300g)
2 large eggs (3.5 oz/100g), at room temperature
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses (5.6 oz/160 g) (see above)
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (0.33 oz/9 g)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup demerara sugar, for rolling (see above)
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, pepper, allspice, salt, and cloves. Set aside.
Make the dough. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl if using a hand mixer), beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until slightly pale, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the molasses, vinegar, and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, beating just until the last trace of flour disappears. The dough will be very soft and sticky.
Chill the dough. Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, and press into a 6 x 6-inch square. Refrigerate the dough until firm, at least 1 hour (longer is better) and up to 2 days.
Preheat the oven and prepare the pans. Arrange two oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll the dough into balls. Place the demerara sugar in a small bowl. Remove one square of dough from the refrigerator, portion into 1-ounce (28g) pieces, and roll each into a ball (they should be about 1 1/4 inches in diameter). Toss the balls in the demerara sugar to coat all over, then place on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 3 inches apart (the cookies will spread during baking). Refrigerate any balls that don’t fit on the baking sheets.
Bake. Bake on the upper and lower racks until the edges are firm to the touch but the centers are still very soft and slightly shiny, 12 to 14 minutes, switching racks and rotating the sheets front to back halfway through. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheets before using a thin spatula to transfer them to a wire rack. Repeat the rolling and baking process with the remaining dough and demerara sugar.
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How to make Claire Saffitz' Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
How can I get a printable copy of the recipe?
The cookies came out, looking beautiful, however not sure if they cooked enough. The tops of the cookies look perfect however, the bottoms look slightly undercooked? I agree with the other comments about the measurements for the flour.