Anna Sultana’s Soft Molasses Cookies, Iced Soft Molasses Cookies and Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread / Tossing Christmas Cookies by Margaret Ullrich

Went grocery shopping yesterday.
They don’t have any sugar, neither white nor brown.
I saw another shopper crying.


Honey and molasses are sweet, traditional and still on the shelves.
A cook’s gotta do what a cook’s gotta do, especially during the holidays.
Okay… a few days ago I posted honey recipes.
Today we’ll take a look at molasses recipes.

Here are a few molasses recipes I’ve posted over the years.
Some are even traditional for Christmas.
The Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread is served for morning toast with butter during the Holidays.
Tell the family to think of the new recipes as a cultural experience…
or whatever excuse you think they’ll swallow.


Anna Sultana's Panettone and Gingerbread
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2021/12/anna-sultanas-panettone-and-gingerbread.html

Gingerbread and Seven Minute Frosting / Buttermilk Substitute for Baking - Margaret Ullrich
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-seven-minute-frosting.html

Anna Sultana’s German-Style Chocolate Cake, Kuchen and Gingerbread for Father's Day
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2023/06/anna-sultanas-german-style-chocolate.html

Anna Sultana's Qaghaq ta' l-Ghasel (Honey or treacle rings, Maltese Style)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2010/12/anna-sultanas-qaghaq-ta-l-ghasel.html

Anna Sultana's Qaghaq tal-ghasel #2 - Treacle Rings, Maltese Style
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2013/08/anna-sultanas-qagaq-tal-gasel-2-maltese.html

Anna Sultana’s Pfeffernüsse (German Christmas Cookies)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2015/12/anna-sultanas-pfeffernusse-german.html

Anna Sultana’s Gingersnap Cookies
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2015/12/anna-sultanas-gingersnap-cookies.html

Gingerbread Cookies (Christmas Cookies) and Royal Frosting - Margaret Ullrich
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-cookies-margaret-ullrich.html


Hints:

About the Soft Molasses Cookies…
Combine 1/2 Cup raisins with 1/2 Cup of the flour mixture before you add them to the molasses mixture.
These cookies will stay fresh, covered at room temperature, for one week.

About the Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread…
You may need to add a little more flour so that your dough will not be sticky.

Molasses bread generally takes a bit longer to rise than white bread does.
Make sure the dough rises at least a couple of inches above the bread pan’s rim before baking.


                        Soft Molasses Cookies

Have on hand 3 ungreased baking sheets.

Sift together into a medium bowl
2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Set aside.

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup shortening or oil
1 Cup sugar (brown will be fine)
Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add
1/4 Cup dark molasses
Beat until combined.
Add
1 large egg
Scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, beat until well combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients, about 1/2 cup at a time, to the creamed mixture.

Place in a rimmed pan
1/2 Cup sugar (add more if needed while making the cookies)

Preheat the oven to 350º F

Form dough into balls about 1 1/2 inches, and roll them in the sugar in the pan.
Place on a baking sheet, about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until browned and edges appear set.
Let cool for five minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling racks.
Repeat with remaining dough.


                        Iced Soft Molasses Cookies

Yield 36 cookies
Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift into a large bowl
3 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Set aside.

Place in a 2 cup measuring cup or medium bowl
3/4 Cup molasses
3/4 Cup buttermilk, room temperature
Stir well with a fork to thoroughly mix.

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
Cream together until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add
1 large egg, room temperature
Add the molasses / buttermilk mixture.
Scraping the bowl often, stir mixture on low. It will look curdled.
Gradually add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
Turn off the mixer and stir a few times with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom.

Preheat oven to 350° F

Drop measuring tablespoon size balls of batter onto the cookie sheet, two inches apart.
Bake for 12 minutes or until the cookies are done.
To test poke a cookie with a finger. If the indent bounces back then they’re done.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Repeat with remaining dough.
When the cookies have cooled, make the icing.

Icing

Place in a medium bowl
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 Cup cream or milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stir together until well combined and smooth.
Either dip the tops of the cookies into the icing bowl or spoon the icing over the cookies, allowing the excess icing to run off.
Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired.
Allow the icing to set before serving.


                        Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread

Makes 2  1 1/2 pound loaves

Grease well 2 9x5x3 inch loaf pans

Place in a small bowl
1/2 Cup lukewarm water
1 Tablespoon sugar
Stir together and add
2 teaspoons dry yeast
Let stand without stirring for 10 minutes.

Stir together in a large mixing bowl
2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
When the yeast is ready, stir it and add to the flour.
Stir in
1/3 Cup melted butter
1/2 Cup molasses
3/4 Cup lukewarm milk
1 large egg, beaten
Mix slowly for 5 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth with no lumps.
Gradually add
2 Cups flour
You might need to add more flour for a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
Add
2 Cups raisins
Knead until the raisins are evenly distributed in the dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to knead for 10 minutes.
Place the dough in a large bowl, then cover the bowl with a damp tea towel.
Leave it to rest and rise for two hours.

Punch the dough down and knead it for a few minutes, then let it rest for 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 6 equal portions and form each portion into a ball.
Place 3 balls of dough in each prepared loaf pan.
Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise until it is about 2 inches above the rim, about 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350° F

Bake for 45 minutes. The top and bottom crust should have good colour.
Turn the loaves out onto a wire rack to cool.
Brush the tops with melted butter to soften the top crust, if desired.


                                                       ~~~
I also wrote the following essay about Christmas traditions for our CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting’. Over the years our listeners asked for some seasonal stories to be repeated.
They seemed to like being reminded that we were all in the same holiday boat, a communal ship which made us feel like we were all sinking fast.

Ah… Christmas shopping, holiday baking and holiday customs…
Why do we do it?

I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, there are two questions no one should ever ask a woman.

The first is How old are you?
The second is Have you done your holiday baking yet?

Why is it that, when the thermometer falls, we're supposed to bake? 
Does the Queen whip up a fruitcake before writing her speech?
I don't think so.  

Holiday baking has been with us an awfully long time.
Did you know that ginger was popular in Greece over 5,000 years ago? The Egyptians were eating gingerbread when the great pyramid of Cheops was just a brick and a prayer. I wonder what their gingerbread men looked like.

A few years after Egypt's building boom, an English King and his hunting party got lost in a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Well, they were clever lads full of English pluck, so they threw everything they had - meat, flour, sugar, apples, ale and brandy - into a bag and cooked it. Wallah!!  Plum pudding. The Iron Chef would've been proud.  

On Christmas Day in 1666, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that he had risen earlier than his wife Who was desirous to sleep having sat up till four this morning seeing her maids make mince pies. 
I really admire Mrs. P. She just sat and watched her maids do the work, yet her husband felt guilty about her workload. How did she get him to suffer like that?   

Some Christmas carols seem a little too focused on food.  For example:
     Now bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer!
     We won't go until we get some, so bring it out here.
Those were somebody's friends?  Somebody should've called the cops.


Holiday baking has followed us into modern times. The 1970s was the decade of old time family television shows like The Waltons and memoir books.
Have you ever browsed through a memoir book? It could make you weep. They reminded us of times like this...
Evenings when a cold blustery wind howled outside were perfect for sorting through recipes. They were cozy times. The children were sitting at the oak table helping Mama chop fruit and raisins. Papa was cracking and shelling nuts and crushing fresh spices in the grinder.

Isn't that sweet? Sentences like that convinced me that if we did things just like people did before television was invented, the world would be a kinder, gentler place.

We'll never know. Paul told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to grind nuts for a cake he didn't even want.
Alright. Scratch Paul grinding his nuts. I bought ground nuts.

Step two... the batter had to be mixed. Back to that memoir...
When all the fruits were in, Grandmother called, 'Come, stir the batter!'
We all took turns giving it a stir - clockwise for good luck - and made a wish.

I made a batter, threw in the fruits and called out Come, stir the batter!

Carl pointed to the electric mixer sitting on the counter and said that he was staying on the eighth level of his computer game, The Temple of Ra. He also told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to stir batter for a cake he didn't even want.

I stirred the batter, clockwise.
Don't ask what I wished.


It's been downhill ever since. Do you know about the charming Swedish custom of hiding a whole almond in a serving bowl of rice pudding? The lucky person who finds the almond has to get married or do the dishes. Either my husband or my son - the fink never confessed - managed to swallow the almond every time.

I tried the German version: whoever finds the almond receives a marzipan pig. By then Paul and Carl had their own tradition: swallowing the almond. I felt so guilty looking at that poor rejected pig.
I started my own tradition and ate him... along with the cake.

There's a Christmas carol that goes: Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Well, the goose isn't the only one.

Anna Sultana’s Orange Honey Cookies, Honey Cookies and Honey Cake / A Christmas Bargain by Margaret Ullrich

Honey Cake

This has been quite year for cooking in Canada.

Starting in February 2023, the Windsor Salt workers in the salt mines in Pugwash, Nova Scotia and Windsor, Ontario went on a 192 day long strike.
Since Windsor is the salt supplier in Canada that meant that the there was a gaping hole on the shelves where we normally could pick up some salt.
Yes, just like toilet paper at the start of COVID-19, salt was nowhere to be found until September.

Then, on September 28, 138 workers at Rogers Sugar refinery in Vancouver went on strike.
For a while there was enough sugar on the supermarket shelves.
Well, now it’s holiday baking time and the shelves are bare.
The clerk told me that people are showing up at 7 a.m. hoping that a bag or two will make an appearance.
Professional Canadian bakeries and chocolate makers are also having problems due to the lack of white sugar.
The sugar strike has been going for two months and there’s no end in sight.

In Canada salt is supplied by Windsor and sugar is supplied by Rogers.
That's it. Nobody else.
So, if they aren’t producing there’s nothing on the store shelves.
Okay… first world problems, but we’ve just gotten through the COVID-19 restrictions, we’re tired and we just want to do a traditional thing, like cooking up family favourite recipes.

Alright, on to plan B.
Sugar is out, so honey and molasses are the sweeteners for the duration.
They may not be what the family is expecting, but home baked items are less of a a shock than ending a holiday meal with Oreos and a McCain cake.


Hints:

About the Cookies…
Don’t like orange? Use lemon extract and lemon juice.

These cookies are very soft and lose detail when they bake.
Just use really simple cookie cutters. Non-detailed, simple round cutters work best.


                        Orange Honey Cookies

36 cookies

Grease well or line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper

Sift into a medium bowl
2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup butter
1/3 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup honey
Beat at medium speed until well blended.
Add
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon grated orange rind or 1 teaspoon orange extract
Stir in the flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time.
Cover and chill 1 1/2 hours.

Place half of the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Cut dough into desired shapes and place on prepared sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown.
Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.

For the Orange Butter Frosting

Combine in small bowl
1 teaspoon grated orange rind or 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
1 1/2 Tablespoons orange juice

Place in a small bowl
1/4 Cup butter
Beat until soft, then blend in
2 Cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
alternately with combined juice and rind.

Ice the tops of the cookies using a baster brush or a knife.


                        Honey Cookies

36 cookies

Grease well or line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper

Place in medium bowl
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup light brown sugar

Place in small pot
1 Cup honey
Over low heat, heat until boiling, then add to the butter and sugar.
Stir until sugar is dissolved then cool 10 minutes.

While honey is cooling, sift into a large bowl
2 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Add to the butter and sugar
1 large egg, beaten
Stir to combine, then add to large bowl.
Stir well then add
1/4 Cup buttermilk
Stir to combine.
Cover and chill overnight.

Place half of the dough on a lightly floured surface.
If it feels sticky gently knead in 1/4 Cup flour.
Roll out 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Cut dough into desired shapes and place on prepared sheets.
Bake 12 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown.
Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.


                        Honey Cake

Heavily grease an 8 inch square pan

Sift together in a medium bowl
1 1/2 Cups flour
3/4 Cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Place in a large bowl
1/2 Cup shortening or oil
1 Cup oatmeal
Stir in
1 Cup boiling water
Let stand 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325º F

Add
2 large eggs
1 Cup honey
Beat to combine well.
Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.
Bake 60 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into centre comes out clean.

While the cake is baking place in medium bowl
1/4 Cup butter or margarine
3/4 Cup chopped nuts
1/3 Cup honey
1/4 Cup coconut, flaked or shredded
Combine to make a topping.

Remove cake from oven and spread topping on cake.
Broil until bubbly, then remove from oven.


                                                       ~~~
Back in November, 2002, I wrote an essay for the CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting' about getting Christmas gifts.  
It was a meant as a light piece, filled with hints.
Many of our listeners were seniors or college students, folks known for having to stretch their dollars.
Now, in addition to Covid-19 and its variants making us nervous about going to crowded places, we’re facing problems in the supply chain.
Christmas shopping never gets any easier.  Darn!!


Okay… listen up! There are five weeks left until Christmas. That means gifts. I know, I know, it's more blessed to give than to receive. But, unless you have ways of shopping that you'd like to keep secret, giving gifts means money.  

It's a little late to start a Christmas gift account at your bank and the utility companies really lose that Ho Ho Ho spirit if you try to skip paying their bills. 
 
If the charge cards are already maxed out - or you just want to keep your nearest and dearest on a cash and carry basis - gift getting is going to take a little effort.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures. As we're all stuck with holidays - oh, lucky us - I'll tell you some of my desperate measures.

Live off your hump. You know what I mean. Things like the 18 cans of tuna you have left from the time you bought 20 cans so you could get 50 bonus airmiles. Now's the time to crack those babies open. I know the family hates tuna. That's why there are 18 little cans of fishies swimming around your pantry.
Well, the family would hate a Giftless Christmas even more.

Think about it. Lousy dinners happen to everybody. But the family Grinch who comes up giftless at Christmas gets blabbed about throughout the neighbourhood and the generations.
You don't want to be remembered by your great-great-grandchildren as Granny Grinchie.

Try creative cooking. Pretend you're on the TV show Iron Chef. You've just been given a tube of ground beef, a bag of marshmallows, a jar of salsa, a bottle of raspberry vinegar, a carton of frozen spinach, a jar of maraschino cherries and a box of rice-a-roni. Think only a nut throws odd things together? How do you think raspberry vinegar was invented?
If the family gets snarky, tell them you found the recipe in a magazine. Drop names. Martha is always good, and if they can't appreciate all the effort you put into making dinner interesting… Well!
You know the speech.
Remember, guilt, when the other person has it, is a good thing.

Go ethnic. Granny's recipes don't have to be saved for Folklorama. God bless family. Go to an Italian restaurant and get a load of the prices they charge for a plate of Pasta Fagioli. That's two cheapies: noodles and beans! Grandma would die laughing if she saw those prices. Starch and beans got millions of people through tough times. Go thou and eat likewise.
  
Beans aren't good enough? Go past the recognizable cuts and shop the mystery meats. Put enough spices on them and the family won't know what hit them. I once made spaghetti and meatballs using animal organs only a mother could love. Guess what? Hubby had invited a friend. Well, the buddy was getting a free meal, so I followed the Cook’s Golden Rule: Don't apologize and don't explain.
The buddy said it was delicious, like the meatballs they serve at the Bay.
Hmmm… I notice the Bay is still in business. There's more than one way to skin a cat.   
  
Shop your house. No kidding. Grab a bag and stroll through your house. Look for things somebody foisted… uh… gave to you. Well, why should you be stuck with it until you're six feet under? Unless it was made by your preschooler - don't even think it, they DO remember - you're free to pass it on to someone else.
Just don't give it to the person who gave it to you.
   
Pack your own. Ever notice the little overpriced goodies the stores stuff into baskets and bowls? One current gift item is a box of pasta, a tin of sauce, some cheese and some wooden spoons nestled within a large bowl.
Are you too stupid to do the same thing? I didn’t think so. It's one way to get rid of some of those extra airmiles purchases. Let somebody else eat the tuna.


Still thinking about the folks in the flyers looking wildly happy over a toaster? 
Toss the flyers. Those models were paid big bucks. Stores want you to buy. A stress-free family holiday is not their goal. If they had their way you'd replace everything and pay 50% interest.
     

Remember how the best presents were things that showed that someone cared?
Maybe somebody hunted down an out-of-print book by your favourite author.
The gadgets that looked amazing seem strange on December 26.  
    
While you're shopping, get yourself some treats. 
I have a friend who picks up a bag of  pfeffernusse cookies every year. When she feels like all she's doing is giving, giving, giving, she pops a pfeffernusse into her mouth and gives herself an old time Christmas. It doesn't take much.   

God bless us, everyone.