Man, I love these cookies! No matter how good I am trying to be on my diet, I can usually, never resist one of these cookies. Some people call these cookies, Soft Molasses Cookies. I've always been a "gingersnap" kind of girl. I can remember my mom making plain old gingerbread cake. The smell always makes me hungry long before the cookies come out.
1 1/2 c. Shortening
2 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Molasses
2 Eggs
4 C. Flour
1 tsp. Salt
4 tsp. Soda
4 Tbsp. Water
2 tsp. Cloves
2 tsp. Ginger
2 tsp. Cinnamon
Makes 3 1/2 dozen 4" cookies.
Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs one at a time. Mix soda and water together in a small bow and set aside. Sift dry ingredients. Mix dry ingredients alternately to egg mixture with soda and water . Mixture should be heavy. I use my dough hook before I add the last 2 cups of flour. You can refrigerate for better handling, but I can never wait that long. I always use an ice cream scoop to form the balls that I roll in sugar. I then line them on the cookie sheet and push the tops down with the bottom of a glass before baking at at 350 degrees until they start to crack,like snickerdoodles, about 10 - 12 minutes.
You can always let them cool and then put a ball of ice cream in between two cookies. If you are a sandwich cookie person, make some cream cheese frosting and use that in between two cookies. YUM! YUM!