Soft and Chewy Molasses Cookies

One of my favorite winter desserts is a bold molasses cookie.  I love the richness of molasses, and coupled with ginger, cloves and allspice – oh my!

I usually default to the Cook's Illustrated Molasses Spice Cookies with Orange Essence recipe, but I decided several weeks back to try another CI recipe, for Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies.  This recipe was super easy to whip up, and even in the face of less molasses than expected, I was able to put together a deliciously rich and warming cookie.  

First, I sifted together the dry ingredients as the oven warmed up.

I then creamed together the wet ingredients, substituting light brown sugar for dark brown sugar and adding in approx. 1/8 cup of maple syrup because I didn't have enough molasses to get to a full 1/2 cup.

Then incorporated dry into wet ingredients, and formed rounded balls.

I then baked the cookies for ten minutes, slightly less than the 11 minutes called for in the recipe.

I almost want to make the same inadvertent substitutions the next time I make these cookies because this first batch turned out so well!