Tailgating. . . fall campfires on chilly evenings . . . kids’ (and adults’) Halloween parties. . . They all call for hearty cookies. And (of course), I found a hundred-year-old recipe that fits the bill. Spice Cookies are a molasses cookie spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. These cookies are slightly crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside.
Here’s the original recipe:
This recipe was on a page in the old cookbook that was covered with (nearly 100-year-old?) food stains. Was this recipe a particular favorite of the original owner of the cookbook?
Here is the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Spice Cookies
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening or lard
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 375° F. Put molasses in a dutch oven or a large saucepan; bring to a boil using medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, butter, and shortening or lard. Add ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda, stir to combine. Then add flour and eggs, and stir until well-mixed. Refrigerate dough 1/2 hour or until chilled. On well-floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch circles. (I used an upside-down water glass as the cookie cutter.) Place on greased baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Do not over cook if a moist cookie is desired.
A Hundred Years Ago 
It sounds like a great recipe, but I don’t think I like molasses enough to use a whole cup of it.
If you don’t like the taste of molasses, this definitely is not a recipe for you.
These are so good! Try dipping them half way in white chocolate….😋
mmm. . . this sounds wonderful, and would look so pretty. I’m going to have try partially dripping these cookies in white chocolate the next time I make this recipe.
Food stains on the cookbook–I have so many of those!
So do I – and it’s always on the pages that contain my favorite recipes.
I’m sure it was a favorite cookie recipe…just think it has survived this long. 🙂
I would love to know the history of the cookbook that contains this recipe. I bought the cookbook from Ebay. It’s a very worn book with a missing back spine and tape holding it together.
I make a biscuit very like these, though I do use black treacle rather than molasses, which is quite hard to come by here. Tasty!
Until I read your comment, I had never heard of black treacle. Based on what I found when doing a google search, it sounds very similar to molasses. It’s fascinating how ingredients and cooking terminology differ across countries.
They are similar. But molasses, which I have used, is even blacker and less sweet.
These sound good.
They are tasty.
Look very similar to my favorite hermit cookies. See my post about it at https://frommainetokentucky.blogspot.com/2011/12/family-recipe-friday-hermit-cookies.html
Thanks for sharing the link. Your Hermits recipe looks wonderful. Is a defining characteristic of Hermit cookies the inclusion of raisins?
Sheryl – I do not know, but it’s very possible. I can’t imagine Hermit Cookies without them.
I can’t either. 🙂
My mother-in-law used to make crispy molasses spice cookies for Christmas. She gave me her recipe, but I was never able to make them – no matter how much I chilled the dough and floured the board and rolling pin, he dough was so sticky that it clung to the pin and the board and it was impossible to form into a cookie in any way. What an unholy mess! I’d like to know if this recipe gave you a more workable dough, or if you have a secret trick.
I didn’t have any difficulty with the dough. It was very stiff, but definitely rollable. I intended to chill it for 1/2 hour and then roll it out, but I got distracted by another project and may have actually chilled it for a little longer.
I like this kind of recipe. I posted years ago my family’s heirloom recipe for molasses cookies. They last several weeks before going stale. Thanks for your recipe. I book marked it.
I think that these cookies also probably last for quite awhile before going stale – though they weren’t around long enough for me to be sure.
These sound fantastic! I have a favorite spice cookie recipe–I need to go compare it to this one and see how it differs (if at all).
This recipe is tasty – though it won’t surprise if the spices called for in your recipe differ somewhat from the spices in this one. There are so many variations of popular old recipes like this one.
This sounds wonderful. I need to compare it to my go-to spice cookies recipe, which doesn’t require rolling and cutting. Of course, these may be a little crisper because of the method used — more like a gingersnap, perhaps.
When I decided to make this recipe, at first I thought that the dough was rolled into balls (similarly to how peanut butter cookies are made) -which I think would have resulted in a moister cookie; but then I read the old recipe more carefully and saw that it said “roll out,” so that is what I did.
These are like the company cookies my great-grandmother always had ready. This was my mother’s father’s mother and she lived with one of her children. We always had this cookie when visiting…I was pretty young then and we dunked them in milk. She put a powdered sugar glaze on hers, kind of a thick circle on top and the glaze would crack and crunch as you bit into it. Every once in awhile some one in the family will make these and they show up at get togethers. I have made occasionally, for nostalgia. But we like the chewy gingersnap recipe that came in a gas company pamphlet that was my maternal grandmother’s. We do like molasses, so we always have molasses on hand.
It’s fun to read your comparison of different family recipes. This reminds me of how I have several old family recipes for macaroni and cheese. I seldom make the version that my mother used to make – but rather make the recipe that is attributed to an aunt of my husband.
This sounds like a really delicious cookie. Did you try them?
Of course – my husband and I always eat the foods that I make for this blog. The cookies were yummy.
They sound really fantastic.