Welcome! If you're new here, you may want to learn what Saving Naturally is all about.

Join 3,000 others and stay up-to-date on the latest posts and deals by subscribing for free by RSS feed or email!

I can’t for the life of me remember the last time I made real cookies. Not those grain-free, sugar-free healthy cookies that taste almost like the real thing, but a real cookie full of butter, flour, and cane sugar (even if it is unrefined).

Don’t get me wrong, I suppose these could be considered healthy. I make them with freshly ground spelt, unrefined sugar, real butter and lard (or just butter), and plenty of good molasses. Oh and the spices. I hate it when you make a recipe for anything containing spices – pumpkin anything for instance – and you can’t actually taste any spice.

So these cookies are more like a spicy gingersnap in flavor. I increased the ginger and cinnamon significantly when compared to other molasses cookie recipes and then added some cloves on top of that.

These cookies spread significantly and therefore have a crunchy exterior and a chewy interior. It’s like a soft molasses cookie and gingersnap in one.

These may not be traditional Hanukkah fare, but for our celebration this year they are perfect. I had plenty of molasses, spices, and spelt ground by my five year old and myself. With only one stick of butter, though, I used 1/4 cup of lard to fill in the gaps. They turned out delicious this way, but if you would like feel free to use all butter. I’ve never met a cookie that didn’t like butter.

Oh, and if you are wondering where the photo of the final cookie went… well, lets say they filled tummies faster than I could remember to snap photos.

Spicy Spelt Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups freshly ground whole grain spelt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup sucanat
• 2/3 cup unsulphured molasses
• 3/4 cup butter, softened or 1/2 cup butter + 1/4 cup lard
• 1 egg, at room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheet.
2. In a medium bowl cream together the softened butter, lard (if using), and sucanat. Add the molasses and cream until well combined. Beat in the egg.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, spices, sea salt, and baking soda. Stir well with a fork to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, 1/3 at a time until just combined. Once the batter has come together get out your greased cookie sheet and add cookies by the scant tablespoonful to the sheet pan, leaving at least 1.5 inches between each cookie.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have just started to brown and the center is not too soggy. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. Rebutter sheet pan and repeat with the rest of the cookie dough.

Anyone else baking up some yummies for Hanukkah?