What's Christmas Without Fresh Baked Cookies

What’s better to make for your family and share with others than delicious holiday cookies? Jackie Peel enjoys being in the kitchen and brings her cooking talents to life during the holidays. She says she especially likes the tastes and scents of holiday spices and molasses coming from her kitchen. 

There are many cookies she’s made through the years but her molasses cookies are some of her favorites. She says “They bring back memories of her dad having his tea with some good ole’ molasses,” as he called them. Try her recipe for these soft, chewy cookies to bring the scents and tastes of the holidays into your home. 

Molasses Cookies
ingredients:

• ¼ c vegetable/canola oil
• ½ cup shortening     
• 1c. sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 tsp baking soda          
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 c. raisins

prep:

Mix together oil and shortening then add sugar, egg & molasses.

In separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients--flour, salt, soda, ginger and cloves until well combined. 

Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients and mix to combine. 

Stir in raisins.

Make little balls of dough & roll in sugar (kids like to help with this), place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Every December, Peachtree Corners resident Donna Cosola, gathers with her mom and sister for some big time holiday baking. They spend the day at her mom’s house baking lots of different cookies. Of that day Cosola says, “By the end of the day we usually have an assortment of about 10 different items. Someone's always mixing or pulling something from the oven. But it's really a time where we forget what's going on in our lives at the moment and really focus on good memories (and sampling).”  Below is one of Donna’s favorite cookie recipes. 

Clark Bar Cookies or Buckeyes
ingredients:

• 1 c. butter
• 2½ c. powdered sugar
• 1 box graham crackers, crushed or one box crumbs
• 2 c. peanut butter – 18 oz. jar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 (12 oz.) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 (12 oz.) bag peanut butter chips

prep:
Mix together well the butter, powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter and vanilla.

Roll mixture into small balls and chill. (The balls, not you.)

Melt together chocolate and peanut butter chips.  

Dip the balls into chocolate-peanut butter mixture.  

Chill. (Again.) 

Any remaining chocolate/peanut butter mix can be used to dip pretzels.