Mole-Ass Cookies and Great Grandmas Fudge

I hate neglecting my little blog, but goodness my little parasite is making me so sick! We're about 17 weeks along and Cletus the fetus is now the size of a turnip. The morning sickness has not let up, and I'm still not in maternity pants because I've lost so much weight. The good news is that my weight has stayed the same for a few weeks, so hopefully I'll start popping out soon! We'll find out in a few weeks if we're having a boy or a girl, and I'll be sure to post that (very important) info when I get it!

I'm a little late posting this, but I promised some friends my go-to holiday cookie recipes.

Mole-Ass (Molasses) Cookies:

3 C + 2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 C butter, softened
1 C packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp ground ginger
1/2 C molasses
2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1/2 C boiling water
1/3 C sugar

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and ginger (just the first 2/1 tsp ginger, save the second 2 Tbsp,) cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg into a bowl.

Put butter, brown sugar, and extra ginger into bowl of electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in molasses. Beat in flour mixture, alternating with baking soda/water mixture.

Shape dough into a disk (or plop into a bowl like I do) and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in sugar. Arrange 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with wax paper. Bake 10-12 minutes until top is cracked. Let sit on baking sheets for about one minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container for up to one week. Makes about 30 cookies.

Great Grandma's Fudge Recipe

1.5 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 small jars (you want about 1 pint, but two of the 7-ish oz. jars works fine.) marshmallow cream (Fluff!)
4 1/2 C sugar
1 tall can (15-ish oz.) evaporate milk
1 1/2 cubes butter
1 tsp vanilla
Optional-1 C chopped nuts (we don't like our fudge to be nutty, so we leave it out. No crazy candy for us!)

Mix chocolate chips, (nuts, if you want them.) and marshmallow cream in a bowl, and set aside. It's messy, so I just do the best I can.

In a large heavy bottomed pan, bring to boil sugar and evaporated milk very slowly. Boil to soft ball stage (230 to 240 degrees). It's very important to get it all the way to at least 230 degrees, so keep stirring and don't remove it from the heat until it's there. Almost every time I think it's going to burn or boil out of the pot, but it never has. Trust me.

Pull off heat, and add butter and vanilla. Fold in chocolate chip mixture. Mix well--it should be a uniform color and texture (unless, of course, your fudge is nutty. Duh.) Pour into a buttered 13 x 9 inch cake pan (at least 2 inches high.) Cool and cut into bite sized pieces, about 1/2 inch. Makes a ton--so if you're planning to gift some of it, you probably don't need to double batch it. Grandma used to wrap a block in tin foil and we'd keep it in the fridge for days (or as long as we didn't eat it all--Mom has a soft spot for Grandma's fudge, hee hee.)

Enjoy!