Moravian Christmas Cookies Baked Until the Edges Set
Prep 20 minutes · Cook 5 minutes · Rest 1 hour · Total 1 hour · Yield 100 Cookies
Moravian Christmas Cookies Baked Until the Edges Set is filed under Cookies and built around light brown sugar firmly packed, baking soda, and salt. Plan on 100 Cookies.
Count on 20 minutes of prep, 5 minutes of cooking, 1 hour of resting, about 1 hour from the first measurement to the plate.
What goes in the bowl
- ½ cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon ginger
- ¾ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 1 cup molasses
- ½ cup shortening
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
How the cooking goes
- In a medium bowl whisk together the sugar, soda, salt and all the spices.
- In a medium saucepan heat the molasses just to the boiling point but do not boil. This doesn’t take very long so watch it.
- Mix in the shortening until perfectly smooth. Cool slightly.
- Move it onto the bowl of a electric mixer or use a hand mixer to beat in the sugar mixture. Add a bit of the flour, stirring to combine. As soon as it starts to hold together in a sticky dough, scoop it out onto the well-floured counter. Your bench flour in this step is part of the 4 cups total flour.
- Knead in the flour with your hands until the dough holds together. You used about 3 ½ cups of flour. The dough will become very stiff and that is what you want!
- Roll into a ball and refrigerate until firm. You refrigerated it overnight.
- When you are ready to roll (ha! Sorry.), heat the oven to 375° and line several sheet pans with parchment.
- Cut off a portion of the dough and roll paper-thin on a well floured surface. Cut into 2 inch circles, you used the fluted cutter because that is how the cookies looked at Wake. A small offset spatula works well for lifting the delicate circles from the counter. Brush off any excess flour and place on lines sheet pan. They don’t spread at all, so you baked mine less than ½ inch apart.
- Bake 4 minutes; rotate tray; bake 2 more; cool on sheet pan; stack and repeat.
- You only baked one sheet at a time because the oven sucks and there is no such thing as a top third and a bottom third. Divide and conquer at your own risk.
- They bake and cool so fast that it really doesn’t slow you down.
After it comes off the heat
Cool the sheet on a rack before the pieces are stacked. A covered tin keeps them for a few days.
If you want another plate from Cookies, open Snowball Cookies Baked Until the Edges Set and Royal Icing with Meringue Powder after Supper.
