I do like molasses cookies. I realize that molasses tends to be polarizing. You either love it or you hate it. I personally can’t say that I LOVE it, but I do like it and everyone once in a while, have a hankering for it. I had such a hankering the other day and I knew given my newfound whole foods, less refined foods lifestyle, that I would have to create my own recipe.  I wanted to use whole grain and a healthy sweetener.  I decided to try using sucanat, which is a non-refined sweetener that retains all of the vitamins, minerals and trace elements found in the natural sugar cane plant – it has a flavor closer to traditional brown sugar but a different texture. (for a closer brown sugar replacement, try muscovado sugar.) I used white whole wheat flour which is whole grain but not quite as gritty as whole wheat but not as finely ground as whole wheat pastry flour. I would say you could easily use the whole wheat pastry flour in this recipe but I didn’t have any on hand when I made these cookies. You could also use unbleached white flour but I have transitioned to whole grains and sprouted grains whenever possible so I get more “bang for my buck” when I eat grains. The best molasses to use is unsulphured molasses. Also, be sure to use butter not margarine. I know it is tempting to us margarine because it is cheaper but it is costly to your health.

Oven should be set at 350 degrees.

2 cups of white whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground allspice

pinch of salt

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup sucanat

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg plus 1 egg white

1. Prepare cookie sheets – line pans with parchment paper.
2. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.
3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
4. Add sucanet, molasses, egg, and egg white and mix slowly to incorporate.  For a denser cookie, only use egg white.  For a more cake-like cookie, use both egg and egg white.
5. Slowly add dry ingredients mix and stir slowly until well blended; dough will seem thick.
6. Roll dough into 3/4 to 1 inch balls.  Place on cookie sheet.
7. Use fork and make gentle a criss-cross pattern depression on top of cookie
8. Bake for 8 minutes.  Don’t overbake or they will be dry.  The dough will be somewhat soft when removed from the oven.  Allow to cool on sheet for one minute and move to a wire rack.

(there are ways to make this even healthier – use pastured eggs and butter from grassfed cows (like kerrygold brand.)  also using organic products whenever possible is best.)