Molasses Walnut Drop Cookies

Chocolate Cream Pie Murder

## Ingredients

* 1 and ½ cups melted butter ***(3 sticks, 12 ounces, ¾ pound)***
* 2 cups white ***(granulated)*** sugar
* ½ cup molasses ***(I used Grandma's Molasses)***
* 2 beaten eggs ***(just whip them up in a glass with a fork)***
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* ½ teaspoon nutmeg ***(freshly ground is best)***
* ¼ teaspoon cardamom ***(if you don't have it, you can substitute more cinnamon more the cardamom)***
* 4 and ½ cups flour ***(don't sift it—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)***
* ½ cup finely chopped walnuts
* Walnut halves to place on top of the cookies before baking if you DO NOT plan to glaze them with Brown Powdered Sugar Glaze. ***(Recipe follows.)*** If you DO plan to glaze your cookies, wait until you glaze them to place the walnut halves on top of your cookies.

## Directions

* DO NOT preheat the oven yet. This dough must chill before baking.
* Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat it on HIGH for 1 minute. Leave the bowl in the microwave for another minute and then check the butter after to see it's melted. If it's not, give it more time, in 20-second increments, until it is.
* Take the bowl out of the microwave and mix in the white sugar. Mix until it's all combined.
* Add the molasses to the bowl and mix it in. Mix until it's thoroughly incorporated.
* Let the butter, sugar, and molasses mixture sit on the counter while you get out the eggs.
* When the mixture in the bowl is not so hot it'll cook the eggs, add them to the large bowl and stir them in thoroughly. Be sure to mix until they're well combined.

**Hannah's 1st Note: This is a recipe that you can stir by hand if you wish, but it's a lot easier if you use an electric mixer.**

* Sprinkle in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Mix until all the ingredients are well combined.
* Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition.

**Hannah's 2nd Note: If you coat the inside of your measuring cup with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray before you measure the half-cup of molasses, it will slide right out of the measuring cup into your mixing bowl.**

**Hannah's 3rd Note: Once you add the flour, your cookie dough will be very stiff. Don't worry. This is exactly as it should be.**

* Mix in the chopped walnuts. If this is too difficult with a spoon, simply add the walnuts to the top of your mixing bowl and knead them in as you would if you were making bread.
* Once the walnuts have been added and are incorporated into the cookie dough, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. ***(Overnight is even better.)***
* When you're ready to bake, take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit, still covered with the plastic wrap, on your kitchen counter. It will need to warm just a bit so that you can work with it.
* Preheat your oven to 350°F, rack in the middle position.
* While your oven is heating to the proper temperature, prepare your cookie sheets. You can either spray them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or line them with parchment paper. ***(The parchment paper is more expensive, but easier in the long run. If you use it, you can simply pull the paper over to the wire cooking rack, cookies and all. It's also easier to glaze the cookies if they're still on the parchment paper.)***
* Remove the plastic wrap from your cookie dough. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls with your impeccably clean hands and place them on a prepared cookie sheet, 12 dough balls to a standard-size sheet.
* Press walnut half down into the top of each dough ball.

**Hannah's 4th Note: If you form the dough into smaller dough balls, the cookies will be crisper. If you choose to do this, you'll have to reduce the baking time. If I roller smaller balls, I start checking the Molasses Walnut Drop Cookies after 8 minutes in the oven.**

* Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until they're nicely browned. The cookies will flatten out, all by themselves. Let them cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheets and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

**Hannah's 5th Note: Molasses Walnut Drop Cookies freeze well. Roll them up in foil, the same way you'd roll coins in a wrapper, put them in a freezer bag, and they'll be fine for 3 months or so.**

Yield: 6 to 10 dozen (depending on the size of your dough balls) tasty, molasses-infused, and delicious cookies.

Once your cookies have baked and cooled, move them all to parchment paper on your kitchen counter and glaze them with Brown Powdered Sugar Glaze ***(recipe follows)***.