Molasses Candy Cookies!

So I've been reading cooking forums and blogs and watching the Food Network a lot in the past few months, and one thing that everyone agrees on is that though most things cooked don't need to be measured exactly, baking does.

Well, I can't help it. I like to experiment. So I do measure...at first. Then I add something that changes the recipe and then I have to add more of this or that...well, at least other people don't have to eat my baking.

Well, except when I'm baking specifically because people are coming over.

Hmm, that sure isn't what the original recipe said....


....well, everyone keeps going back for 2nds, 3rds, 5ths of the cookies, so I guess they're alright.

Actually they're great. I love thick, soft cookies, and that's exactly what these are. The molasses means that the dough itself isn't too sweet, but the heath and white chocolate bits help to bring more sweetness into the overall cookie. It's pretty much perfectly balanced.

Molasses Candy Cookies
Ingredients
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tspn salt
1 tspn baking soda
1 tspn baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups light brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Eight 1.4 ounce bars)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (well, I chopped squares for it, since they don't sell w.choc chips here)
1/2 chopped almonds

Directions
1. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine heath, white chocolate chips, and almonds.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream (haha, yeah right, like I have a mixer) the butter, add the sugar and molasses. Mix it up all good! Add eggs one at a time, and vanilla.
3. Add flour mix and heath/w.choc/almond mix alternately, in thirds. Make sure everything is well combined, and the flour isn't sticking to the candy-ish bits. Pop that thang in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I put it in there for almost and hour and a half.
4. Preheat oven to 375 F. Spoon 2" balls of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet, setting 2" apart. Bake cookies for 9 minutes, remove, let cool, and transfer to a plate or a cooling rack or something. Eat!

Makes about 3 dozen.

If you don't like soft light fluffy thick cookies, first of all I don't understand you, second, you should probably omit the baking powder and only use about 2 3/4 cups flour.

The original recipe I was referencing didn't have molasses, so I thought I'd substitute that for some sugar, then it was too bitter so I added enough sugar, and the 2 1/2 cups flour didn't make the dough dough-y enough, so I added more flour. So this recipe is kind of guessed at, but the measurements should be about right.

I'll add pics when Fae brings my camera back. :)