Endings

I finished the Branching Out scarf for Fiona's music teacher, Angela, just in time for her last class (sneef) yesterday. I put a row of crocheted loops at the ends, just to soften the thing (and to prove to myself that I can still crochet a loop which is about the only thing I can crochet).
It looks lovely on Angela--I could never wear that color. Fuschia and I are not a happy combination.

Today was Fiona's last day of preschool (all these "lasts" which I know will turn into a load of "firsts" when she starts Kindergarten in the fall) and I decided I needed a little comfort to deal with all this parenting emotion. Today was my writing day and luckily I had some left over molasses cookie dough in the fridge so I only had to take 5 minutes to roll out some balls, roll the balls in granulated sugar and put a little blob of raspberry jam in the middle.
These are really terrific cookies that I don't make often enough. They are perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon--a little spicy a little sweet, but complementary rather than competitive with the flavor of the tea. And since I'm dwelling a little on parenting in my own life, I worked on the family dynamics of my main character today. I didn't manage to integrate the cookies and tea into the story yet, but give me time...

Molasses Cookies
recipe from some college friend's mother who used to mail us these cookies...

3/4 C butter, softened
1 C brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 C molasses
2 1/4 C flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t ground cloves
1 t ground ginger
1 t cinnamon

granulated sugar
raspberry preserves

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg, then molasses. Sift together dry ingredients then mix into butter mixture.

Put a little granulated sugar in a bowl. Pinch off a blob of dough and roll into a sphere and then roll in the sugar. Put your sugared spheres on a lined baking sheet.

Now you have a choice of how thick and chewy you want your cookies to be--for thick cookies which are a little chewy and a little cakey use your thumb to make a dent in the middle. For thinner cookies that are a little crisp and a little chewy, use the bottom of a glass to squash the spheres to about 1/4" thick. Then make a wee dent with a finger. In the dents, put a scant 1/2 t of raspberry preserves. (The ones in the above photo used the bottom of the glass method; the previous batch used the thumb squash. I like the texture of the bottom of the glass cookie a little better, but you can put a little more jam in the thumb squashed ones and I like as much jam as I can get...)

Pop in the oven and check in 8 minutes. They might need a minute or two more depending on the thickness and size of your spheres. You want the edges to begin to brown (which isn't so easy to see on a dark brown cookie...) but try not to overcook or they get a little dry and loose the chewy factor.

Cool on a rack. Serve with tea.