Old-Fashioned Dark Cookies

This recipe comes from The Blueberry Hill Cookbook, by Elsie Masterton.

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 egg
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup dark molasses
¼ cup maple syrup
½ cup warm water
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 ½ cups flour


Here are Elsie’s exact directions:

“Start the electric mixer going, slowly. Add, one after the other: Brown sugar, shortening, egg, salt, dark molasses, maple syrup, ½ cup warm water, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 2 ½ cups of flour, or enough to make a consistency for drop cookies. Blend with mixer until very smooth, turning it up to a higher speed after all ingredients are in.

Drop by teaspoonfuls or by tablespoonfuls on greased cookie sheets. Bake in a moderate (350˚ F.) oven about 10 minutes. Remove cookies from oven before they are too well done, while they are still a little soft. I bake them fairly large and they are quite fat and chewy. Put them in a cookie jar as soon as they’re cool, so they won’t dry out.

These cookies freeze beautifully. Freeze them on a tray until they are frozen hard, then drop them in a plastic bag, to be removed one by one as you want them. Don’t put them directly in the bag, because they will stick together in freezing and you’ll have trouble separating them to remove them. Try eating one before it’s completely defrosted—almost better than hot.”

Makes 30 large or 60 small cookies.