Cocoa-Spice-Chockie-Chip Molasses Cookies. And leaves. And Burliness.

All of the sudden my peacefully slumbering horizontally shaped self was snatched up in one swift hoist and (gently) placed, vertically, on my own feet. Good Morning! Woah. At some point within that two-second sequence of seamless burliness, I was awake. And cold. And confused. It was 6:59 am. It was LATE! The sun was already up, what was I doing still sleeping!?

When we arrived at the top of the next flight of stairs my husband did the same thing to the peacefully slumbering 85lb dog (except he slumbers in a donut shape with his ear conveniently covering his entire face)

He's on steroids you know.

Not the dog, the husband ...did I mention that? Then he tore into his toast with He-Man sensibility, picked up a case of drill bits, a rain coat, a coffee, a drill, some boots, and my newly vertical shaped self, for a kiss, and poof; he was off to milk the cows (more on that next time...)

I was left here with these two. You know Wild Bill. And that is Eunice. I named her, fitting don't you think?

Oh, the 'roids... you might be wondering why my man is on steroids... not just for the purposes of a heroic wake-up call, actually, he somehow got tangled up with poison ivy... and it is BAD. We coated him with vinegar and baking soda, we gave him cold salty oaty baths, we tried everything before it was unbearable. All he had to do was go to the drug store and lift up his shirt and the pharmacist was on the phone (behind a protective glass wall) and he was pumped up on Prednisone. I am a little worried. I won't include photos of the rash. No one wants to see a rash.

How about this face instead:

That's Ada. Also known as the image you see when you open the dictionary to "impossibly cute". Oh but she has a sister...

And Eloise has a friend Alex...

Cuteness meter is blowing up. And you haven't even seen the parents! or the dog-bro... Ok, before we get off subject... lets talk about the fact that Jess & Dustin (these girls' parents ((who were told by an Eastern European soothsayer of sorts that they would "need to buy a shotgun for the future"))) came over for dinner last night and brought a divine donut shaped cake. An applesauce cake with a perfectly sweet glaze. I don't have the recipe, yet. But I do have a ton of apples...

from our little tree. So I also made something with applesauce.

Around here, we don't mess around with some pansy paring knife when it comes to makin' sauce...

Remember the steroids.

Just kidding, just kidding, the key ingredient to these upcoming Autumnally delightful cookies, is not a subtle Eau d'Diesel or a hint of Husqvarna...

These cookies do however contain some soul. and spice. and unexpected ingredients. and holy crap, looking at the ingredients...against my better judgment I think they must also be low-fat!? EW, forget I said that, don't be alarmed, they don't taste like your average sorry-excuse-for-a-cookie-diet-dessert, but with only 6 tbsp of butter for the whole batch (I don't know how many the batch yielded because I think I ate at least six when they came out of the oven and then we paired them with the applesauce cake and maple gelato last night... and there are still 13 in the jar and 'Roid-man probably tore into AT LEAST four before breakfast... I am estimating there were no fewer than 30 3-4inch diameter cookies in the batch. Daaa-ang, as Jess would say. And, the best part; they will take you a mere 30 mins to make, give or take, start-to-finish. If you don't have a He-man cookie monster type at home, just cut the recipe in half... or freeze some and take them out for Thanksgiving!

So what are you waiting for! Get after it!

Cocoa-Spice-Chockie-Chip Molasses Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

3/8 cup cocoa powder

1.5 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cloves

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

6 tbsp melted butter (3/4 of a stick)

1.5 cups sugar (preferably raw)

fresh grated ginger (a lot... approx. 3 tbsp micro-plane grated)

3/8 cup applesauce

3/8 cup molasses

1 tbsp (approx) whiskey or vanilla extract or both

1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

extra sugar to roll the dough balls in

optional: 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

**Remember, I am all about "winging it" and "substitutions" - I don't subscribe to the "oh no, baking is a science" mantra - if you don't have fresh ginger, use a teaspoon of ground ginger or if you don't have allspice, don't worry about it - just whatever you do, remember to TASTE THE BATTER - if it seems like it needs more spice then go for it. I also think a dash of cayenne pepper would be worth a try if you like spice...

Preheat oven to 350.

SIFT your dry ingredients (the first 9 ingredients) in a medium-size bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or another bowl if you are going to be old-school about it and use electric beaters or hand -run eggbeaters or a fork & some raw muscle power w/or w/out 'roids) combine: 6 tbsp melted butter with 1.5 cups sugar and beat until blended, then add your 3/8 cup applesauce, 3/8 cup molasses, grated ginger & whiskey/vanilla.

you will have a nice soft dough that smells like autumn

Then, pour some sugar on a plate. Take tablespoonfuls (or mini ice-cream scoopfuls) of dough and roll them in the sugar

DONT WORRY - that is NOT the cookie you are making, that is a peanut butter cookie but I forgot to take a photo of the sugar-rolling process so wanted to illustrate it here. (the roll-in-sugar is what makes cookies have that lovely crackly crisp exterior)

Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and put them on in the oven! After 5 minutes switch the trays - ie: take the tray that is currently on the lower of the two racks and switch places with the tray that is above it. Take the cookies out after 10 minutes - you might think that they aren't done yet but I bet they are... If you have a convection oven, I recommend checking them at 8 minutes...Then spatula them over to a cooling rack (or slide the parchment paper with the cookies over to the rack) and bust into one as soon as you can do so without burning yourself. I always burn myself but it is worth it. Actually it is also a good idea to have ready a steaming hot cup of chai or a shot of cold milk. or Bailey's on ice.

If you do overcook them, which I have done before, not to worry again - just wait until they are cool then put a piece of non-stale bread into the (airtight) jar with the cookies. The moisture from the bread will transfer to the cookies and you will have stale bread and perfect cookies.

(there is a slice of bread on the bottom and on the top)

Voila' ! I think this is the perfect batch to whip up any old day, any old time of the day.

Let me know how it goes! Oh - people keep asking me how to "comment" on a blog post - see the word "comment" below? It is not very obvious and I am going to some investigation on that front but I do appreciate your comments, if you are so inclined to leave a little two-second note :)

xoJvT