Wonderful and Whimsical: Gingerbread Molasses cookies

First off, let me start by saying that I am NOT a professional baker, nor do I claim to be! I'm sure that some of my baking techniques will make all you pro bakers cringe and if you are a pro baker, you may want to shy away now.

With that being said, I do have quite a few recipes that I have gotten from friends or family or found on the internet and tweaked to make them our own. Since I am allergic to nuts, I almost ALWAYS have to fix my sweet tooth with some home baked goods and I like to add a little bit of my own inspiration to things that others have inspired me to bake.

These cookies are, of course, inspired by Starbucks molasses cookies (which contain traces of nuts -as most baked products). I have done a few tweaks to a recipe a friend gave me and could eat the entire batch in a day if I were to let myself haha.

So here's what you will need:

1 1/4 cups of butter

2 cups of sugar (plus another cup for coating the balls)

2 eggs

2/3 cup of molasses

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp of ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp of ground ginger

1/2 tsp of ground cloves

First cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (yes, I know I use the wrong mixing tool on my mixer, I just find that for this recipe, it makes the cookies fluffier and more light -it does require more patience to use this tool as you have to keep unclogging it, but I promise it makes a difference!)

Then add 2 eggs and beat together on medium until well incorporated (be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl as you mix).

Add the molasses and mix together.

In a separate bowl add the salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and flour together and mix well with a whisk. Again this makes the flour very fluffy.

Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix well on medium.

Once fully mixed seal the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours.

After cooled, make small balls with the dough, I usually make about 20 with this batch of dough but if you'd like them bigger/smaller adjust the size of the balls. After making the balls, if you wish to freeze them, now is the time. Place them into a well sealed container and they will store for 3-6 months. When you wish to bake them out of the freezer, allow for 1 hour defrosting time before the next step.

Roll each ball in a sugar and be sure to separate them about 1 inch apart on the baking tray, otherwise they will spread and become one big cookie!