Spiced Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband often reminds me that I don’t make chocolate chip cookies enough. They are his favorite and all the other cookies that I make are just not sufficient. I figure that chocolate chip cookies aren’t the most exciting thing in the world to post on the blog, so unless the recipe has some significant variation, I don’t often post chocolate chip cookies.

Recently, I have gotten a couple of different ingredients that I want to use for recipes. One is sorghum honey, which we picked up from the local honey vendor. I had never seen sorghum honey before, and it looks a lot like molasses. The vendor said that it could be used as such, so I thought that would be good to test it in a recipe calling for molasses. My husband sent me a couple of links for recipes, including this one, that uses molasses. And it’s also a chocolate chip cookie, so bonus for my husband!

This recipe has a lot of similarities to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, but there’s no brown sugar, and it has the additional spices and molasses. I didn’t use salt when I made these, and they certainly need it, so I added salt to the ingredients listed here. You don’t have to press additional chocolate chips into the cookies, but they honestly look better if you do. The molasses/sorghum honey is quite subtle, and I think I would add a larger quantity of the spices. Who doesn’t love cinnamon and ginger? I sure do.

Spiced Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses (or sorghum honey)
2-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips
Additional sugar
Additional chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and molasses and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Just before the dough comes together completely, add the dark chocolate chips, and stir on low to incorporate.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and roll in additional sugar. If desired, top each cookie with additional chocolate chips. Place the cookies on a plate and place in the freezer for about 8 minutes.

Place the semi-frozen cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. The cookies will look slightly under baked but will firm us as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The View from Great Island

Peanut Butter Caramel Pretzel Cups

Knowing that I had pretzels remaining as well as some leftover Halloween candy, I went looking for a recipe where I could use them. I have made many cookie cups for this blog and they are one of my favorite things to bake. When I came across this recipe, which is cookie dough, stuffed with a peanut butter cup, topped with caramel and a pretzel, I knew that I couldn’t go wrong.

Since these cookies bake in a regular-sized muffin tin, they do make big cookies. Thankfully, the recipe only makes a dozen, which is somehow better. I didn’t change anything from the recipe with the exception of the caramel- I used a prepared caramel sauce rather than making my own by melting down caramels. The prepared sauce is a lot easier, but it doesn’t firm up quite as much. Ultimately, these cups are on the messy side because of that.

Despite having several steps, this cookie is very easy to make. I liked not having to measure the dough between the muffin pans. I just guessed and had a little dough left, so I added a bit more to the smaller ones. The baking time is best calculated by when the edges of the cookies are golden. If they are slightly under baked it works out in the end as you press down the cookie with a peanut butter cup. These are said to mimic a Take 5 candy bar, and they are pretty close. Not nearly as close as the Take 5 candy that my dad makes, but very tasty!

Peanut Butter Caramel Pretzel Cups
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 peanut butter cups (snack size, not miniature)
12 mini pretzels
Caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a standard muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, salt, and baking soda and stir until the dough comes together.

Divide the dough between the 12 indentations in the muffin pan.

Bake for about 14-16 minutes, until the edges of the cookie cups are golden.

Once the cookies come out of the oven, top each with a peanut butter cup, pressing the cup into the cookie until the cup is lower than the edge of the cookie. Place the muffin tin in the refrigerator and allow the chocolate to set.

Once the chocolate has set, remove the cookies from the pan and transfer to a wire rack. Spoon a small amount of caramel on top of each cookie, and then press a pretzel into the caramel. Allow the caramel to set before serving.

Recipe from Lovely Little Kitchen

Pretzel Caramel Thumbprints

When my husband and I visited my parents a while ago, they sent us home with all sorts of things. I made a couple of different things with Kit Kats, which I posted over the summer. They had also sent us home with pretzels, as they had bought a big container. I had planned to make these cookies, but in the end, we ate the pretzels. Oops! I recently purchased some more pretzels so I could make this and other recipes.

 From not liking thumbprint cookies as a kid, I sure make a lot more of them now. There can be so many flavors incorporated into a thumbprint that I find them to be endlessly interesting. This version is a fairly standard cookie dough that is paired with crushed pretzels and a filling of caramel. How could you go wrong? With my fresh bag of pretzels, I made these right away.

 As I am doing smaller batch baking, I halved this recipe, which made about 15 cookies. The only difference in the cookie recipe is the inclusion of honey. Since we have local honey farmers around us, I had recently stocked up on honey. The cookies work well, and they are just sticky enough that the pretzel crumbs cling with no issue. The cookies are a little flatter than I’d like, but not too bad. Since they are on the flatter side, a little caramel goes a long way, so don’t fill the cookies too much! I added just a little salt, but it certainly packs a punch! The caramel is a little bit messy, so best to eat these at home.

Pretzel Caramel Thumbprints
1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups pretzels, processed into crumbs
Caramel
Sea Salt

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs, honey, and vanilla and stir to combine. Add the flour and salt and stir on low until the dough comes together. The dough will be soft. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll the balls in the pretzel crumbs. Place on the prepared baking sheets and make an indentation in each cookie, with your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden. Reshape the thumbprint when the cookies come out of the oven. Allow to cool before filling with caramel.

Fill the thumbprints with a spoonful of caramel and sprinkle with sea salt.

Recipe from Big Green House