I have recovered from yesterday's rant.
The turkey is ordered- fresh, free-range, no hormones and other nasty stuff. It will be lovely.
My baking is almost complete. I realized today that it is a week until Christmas. By my calculations I am ahead of myself. My office is still a mess but I find if I drink the expired egg nog it doens't bother me as much.
It is funny how I get inspired with baking. With these cookies I was inspired by a photo I saw somewhere. The picture featured a stack of amazing looking molasses cookies covered with tiny chunks of white sugar. The contrast between the white chunks of sugar and the molassess cookie looked striking and unusual. I had never seen sugar like that before.
It turned out to be pearl sugar.
Pearl sugar is a type of specialty sugar that is often used in baking in Scandinavia and a few other countries in Northern Europe. The sugar is not completely round, like real pearls, but it comes in large round-ish chunks of sugar. The most remarkable thing about this type of sugar is that it doesn’t melt easily when exposed to moisture or to high heat, meaning that you can mix it into some cookies for a little crunch or sprinkle it on top of a cake and the sugar will stay put (and stay very visible) as you bake.
I looked for some, experienced no success, and promptly gave up.
Then last week I spied it in a gourmet food store in Buffalo. Yes, I never give up completely once I have an inspiration. It was from Sweden and it was expensive. I cared not however for I had seen that photo and now I could create the cookies.
When I got the sugar home I realized that I had no recipe. I figured that if I found that picture again there'd be a recipe nearby.
You guessed it, I could NOT find that bloody picture again.
No worries, using google I searched for molasses cookies pearl sugar and was successful with a recipe!
These cookies are amazing. They are soft, each bite is full of spicy goodness, and the pearl sugar adds a wonderful crunch to every bite. I think that they may be my new favourite cookie EVER!
Pearl Sugar Molasses Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened but still cool
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark molasses
About 1/2 cup pearl sugar
Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, pepper, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars together at medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add yolk and vanilla; beat until combined (about 20 seconds) and scrape down sides with a spatula. Add molasses and beat until fully incorporated (again about 20 seconds) and scrape down sides again. Add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl again. The dough will be thick and soft.
Place pearl sugar in a bowl for rolling. Scoop dough by the tablespoon–it’s easiest to use a cookie scoop–and roll completely in pearl sugar, gently pressing to adhere the sugar to the ball of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart (cookies will spread).
Bake about 11 minutes, until cookies are browned and still puffy, with cracks revealing what seems to be raw dough. Remove from oven, place pan on wire cooling rack, and allow cookies to cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes. Do not overbake; residual heat from the oven will finish these cookies off and leave you with a chewy, deliciously underbaked center. After their cooling time, cookies may be removed and cooled to room temperature.