Aunt Hazel’s Molasses Cookies

This is a recipe from my Great Aunt Hazel who was born in 1902. My sister found a card with the molasses cookie recipe and took pictures for us. I loved these cookies when I was a child. She made them any time we came to visit. It was magic to see the syrup foam when she added the baking soda!

Ingredients

• 2 cups of first or second molasses syrup
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 or 2 cups of chopped pecans
• 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter or margin
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• All purpose flour (at least 4 cups) I’ll come back and update this once I make the cookies and see how much flour is needed.

Tools:

Rolling pin, baking sheet, 8 to 10 inch cast iron skillet, cookie cutters (cut out the cookies with a knife), wire rack to cool cookies, spatula

Instructions

1. Bring the syrup, butter (or margin), and spices to a boil in cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
2. Lower heat medium high, and boil for 5 minutes.
3. Let cool for 10 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, if baking right away.
5. Add the baking soda and stir vigorously. Adding the baking soda will cause the syrup to foam. (Base and acid reaction)
6. Stir in the nuts and and enough flour to make a soft dough. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a disk. Note: It can be refrigerated at this time for days. Wrap the disk in cling film. When ready to bake, take a disk out of the fridge 30 minutes ahead of time to let warm up so it will be easy to roll out.
7. Lightly flour your bench, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick, cut out cookie shapes, place on cookie sheet, and bake until just firm (about 10 to 15 minutes). Remove the cookies from pan and let cool on wire rack. Gather the leftover dough and and form it into a disk and re-roll it out, and repeat cutting out cookies, baking, and cooling.