I only recently started cooking when I moved back to North America (it's too easy to get delicious cheap food in Asia to bother with cooking).
Turns out I can bake! My cookies in particular are awesome, though, really all I'm doing is following the America's Test Kitchen recipes.
Edit: here's the recipe.
Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
The key is taking the cookies out of the oven while they still look underdone, this gives them the chewiness.
Ingredients
1/3 cup (71 g) granulated sugar
2 1/4 cup (319 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but cool
1/3 cup (71g) packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (170 g) molasses (light or dark)
Details
Measure molasses in liquid measuring cup. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time. Cookies baked on the bottom rack won't develop the attractive cracks. Cookies should look slightly under-baked when removed from the oven.
Steps
- Adjust oven rack to middle postion and heat oven to 375 F (190 C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1/2 cup sugar for dipping in a bowl or pan.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined, set aside.
- Beat butter with brown and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, if using stand mixer, use paddle attachment and medium-high speed (3 minutes). Reduce speed to medium-low, and add yolk & vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated (20 seconds). Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated (30 seconds). Give dough a final stir with rubber spatula to ensure no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft. (all of this can be done with just a rubber spatula and a bowl, you don't need a stand mixer).
- Scoop heaping tablespoon of dough and roll between palms into a ball; drop the ball into the bowl of sugar, toss to coat, set on prepared baking sheet, spacing balls about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake 1 sheet at a time for about 11 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cookies should be browned, still puffy, edges have begun to set, but centres are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone). Do not over-bake.
- Cool cookies on baking sheet about 5 minutes. Use wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack; cool cookies to room temp and serve!