My ancestors are from Germany – and I remember my Grandma making these traditional holiday cookies when I was very small. I thought I would kick off December with this recipe! They are excellent – very moist and flavorful!
Don’t be put off by the number of ingredients. They are VERY easy to make!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp anise extract
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening, and butter in a small pan over medium heat. Stir until creamy, remove from heat, cool to room temperature. Stir in eggs, and both sugars. Add in anise extract.
- Combine the flour, cardamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, black pepper and salt in a large bowl. Add in the molasses mixture. Stir until well combined. I used a hand mixer.
- Cover tightly, refrigerate at least 2 hours, I allowed the dough to chill overnight.
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Roll the dough into acorn size balls, place onto lightly greased cookie sheet, at least 1" apart. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Don't over bake!
- Remove from cookie sheet to cool, dust with powdered sugar.
As always – enjoy!!!