Molasses Jam Cookies

I think we all have favorite recipes that remind us of our childhood.  When I was a little girl my mother would make my grandmother’s “Raymond Cookies”.  I don’t know why they were called “Raymond Cookies” and can’t seem to find out no matter how many recipe searches I complete.  In all of our family cookbooks recipes have names such as “Sarah’s Cake” or “Mrs. Farnsworth’s Candy”, so perhaps it is as simple as the Raymond family made this recipe and it ended up with my family.  In any event, it is a recipe in our family cookbook that always makes me think of being a little girl and getting to help my mother bake in the kitchen.

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of molasses

1 cup of shortening

4 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of hot water

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of ground cloves

1 teaspoon of ginger

2 teaspoons of baking soda

One problem with our family cookbook is that after listing the ingredients there are no further directions.  No mixing instructions, no temperatures at which to bake things and no baking times.  I often wonder how these women who did all the cooking remembered the rest of the directions for so many recipes.  Baking is generally pretty specific.  I’m sure the cookies could turn out differently if one knew the appropriate way to complete the recipe.  I took a chance.

Step One: Combine flour, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and baking soda.  Set aside.

Step Two: Cream the sugar, molasses and shortening in a mixer.

Step Three: Add the eggs to the sugar mixture.

Step Four: Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture.

Step Five: Add the hot water to the crumbly flour and sugar mixture.

After you mix the ingredients together, let them rest in a bowl (covered) in the fridge for twenty four hours.

After the dough sits for 24 hours it needs to be rolled out to a thickness of 1/4″.

I cut mine with a small circular cutter.  I remember my mother’s being a little larger.  I think these could also be made by rolling the dough into small balls and then smooshing them with a glass bottom.

Each round is then covered with (additional) sugar.

The rounds are placed on a cookie sheet and a little well is made in the center of each with a fingerprint.

Add jam to the center of each cookie.  I am partial to strawberry, but I’m fairly certain these used to be made with raspberry.

I baked the cookies at 375 for about ten minutes.  When they come out of the oven they are soft.  I think it is best to let them cool completely so that they become crunchy much like a ginger snap.  Being that one of us is British, you can imagine the amount of tea drinking going on in the course of one day…these are the absolute perfect cookie to accompany a cup of tea and I know that they will not last long!