Im really interested in how these turn out. Can’t wait to bake them up.
Let’s have it….
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Im really interested in how these turn out. Can’t wait to bake them up.
Let’s have it….
The molasses came through quite a bit more than I was expecting, and I thought they were better the second day. Oh, and they didn’t spread AT ALL!
I don’t keep shortening on hand, so I just used butter. I don’t know how much it affected the taste or whatever, but they baked up nicely. I also halved the recipe and got about 25 cookies using my mini-scoop.
Not sure about the taste yet- I am taking them to playgroup today, but from all the mix-ins, I think they will be popular. I used peanuts, golden raisins and chocolate chunks.
I can’t wait to make these either.
Excited about these!! Can’t wait to make them, doubting on either using margarine or butter instead of shortening… Advice?
I used only butter and they worked out great.
These were much better after a few days in the freezer (the dough, not the baked cookies). Not so photogenic, though.
I really liked these cookies! I used half raisins and half figs…yum. I agree with Caitlin that they don’t spread at all!
I did use shortening in the cookies, but I really think butter would be fine.
I really liked them. Plus they have less fat than most cookie recipes, and you can’t beat that.
Does anyone know what might be a good sub for the molasses? Agave syrup? Corn syrup? I’m not a fan of molasses flavor, so I would prefer to leave it out.
I ran out of molasses and used honey to make up the difference. Seemed to work just fine!
Thanks!
I am loving the idea of less fat in these cookies! They sound wonderful and I am going to bake them this weekend. Im excited to add some extra goodies!
I agree – not very photogenic, but they were snatched up like crazy (baked as is). Jill: I only had mild molasses and used that – still might be too much for you, but it’s not as strong as full-flavored.
I just looked at my bottle and it says mild. If that’s mild, I don’t want to know what strong molasses tastes like!
Even better? :)
Sorry, had to say it. From what I remember, there’s not that strong of a molasses flavor after baking, but Bridget’s suggestion of honey is a great one!
>Jill
I just looked at my bottle and it says mild. If that’s mild, I don’t want to know what strong molasses tastes like!
Thanks for all the heads-up on the molasses. I have some extra thick maple syrup that I think I’ll use instead.
once we add in the nuts, choco chips and coconut, i think we have tons of fat in these!
Darn, I forgot about all those add ins!! Fat city here we come;))
Yes, but nuts and coconut are healthy sources of fat! Or something like that. And think about chocolate chip cookies – close to the same amount of flour, but with 2 sticks of butter plus chips. And no raisins.
I swear, these are practically granola bars.
Not.
To anyone (like me) thinking of making only half a recipe – I had 22 cookies 12 minutes ago. Now I have 11. You do the math.
I made half a recipe, only baked 4 of the 17 cookies and froze the rest. THAT’s good math for me! ;)
I, too, am worried about a strong molasses taste.
I don’t know if molasses will taste good with chocolate…
I love molasses, but had strong doubts about molasses + chocolate, so I left the chocolate out (I knew I’d like molasses + fruit + nuts), and then stuck some semisweet chips in a few of them. They were quite good without the chocolate, but I surprised myself and really liked the ones with the chocolate too.
I haven’t made these yet, hopefully this weekend, but I plan on using the chocolate and not sure what kind of dried fruit I’ll use if any. I’m thinking that the molasses and chocolate should work fine together – it reminds me of the flavors in the gingerbread we did a while back with the chocolate frosting.
That said, I happen to love molasses, so I’m looking forward to how these might turn out.
I did not find the molasses taste too strong and the cookies are great with the fruity bites and sweet chocolate bites mixed in.
My oven is preheating! Can’t wait to try these out! Adding dried cranberries, raisins and figs! :)
I’m not a big fan of molasses as well. I ended up substituting the molasses with Lyle’s Golden Syrup , and the cookies turned out super yummy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_syrup
Corn syrup could be another substitution.
I just bought Lyle’s Golden Syrup for another cookie recipe and it’s so good! I think I’ll use for these, too.
I subbed Lyle’s Golden Syrup for half of the molasses and wish that I had not used any molasses. Big mistake.
SO funny! I was JUST thinking that maybe I should use golden syrup (which I love) instead…
I don’t mind molasses flavor, but I am skipping this week, sorry! I am just not into the fruit & nut cookie thing right now, and I know no one else here would eat them.
Anyone else keep thinking of the chocolate chunkers we made before?
http://ldylvbgr.blogspot.com/2008/09/tuesdays-with-dorie-chocolate-chunkers.html
yes, i totally thought of the chunkers when i saw this recipe…am interested to see how they compare.
I’m out this week too,as they wouldn’t appeal to anyone around here:(
The chocolate chunkers were made well before I joined, but I found a couple of the oatmeal chocolate almost candy bars in the freezer last night. Still fantastic!
I was fearing that these cookies would be a combination of the choc/gingerbread (which I didn’t like) and the choc/chunkers (which I ended up thinking had too much going on). But I liked these – with the chocolate and without – more than either of the other two recipes. Nice and chewy, complex but not overwhelming. The lack of “Christmas spices” helped the molasses play nicely with the chocolate, for me, at least.
I made these but used treacle in place of the mollasses. I was told that the flavour is pretty much the same anyway. They were really good but I think I would have preffered them without the chocolate (shock horror!)
Think honey would work?
I used about half honey and half molasses because I ran out of molasses. Worked great.
I know someone else used agave, too, and it also worked.
I’m thinking of using honey as well. My husband does not like molasses at all!
I asked my son~~the chef~~and he suggested dark brown sugar.
I should have listened to your son! I used agave syrup, which is sweet but didn’t add much flavor. Brown sugar would have been a better choice.
I made these last week for a fundraising event. I made the original recipe and although the molasses wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be, I still wasn’t happy. I reduced the molasses to 1 tbs and increased the sugar to 3/4 cup. I also added a little nutmeg and cinnamon and used butter crisco vs. regular. These were awesome!
I used all butter and no crisco. I just couldn’t use the crisco. I hate that stuff. I used cashews, a dark/semisweet mix, and a dried fruit mix from Trader Joe’s that had golden raisins, cranberries and I forget what else in it. They turned out really well! DH liked them until I told him about the dried fruit and then decided he didn’t.
I ended up really liking these. I added figs, raisins and dried cranberries. Though, if I made them again I’d probably just focus on one type of fruit…probably the figs.
The molasses brought a cool flavor to the cookies. These were fun and my coworkers and family loved them!
I made these last night and brought them in for treat day today…we’ll see what the vultures think about them! :)
I used semi-sweet chips, pecans and dried cranberries. They came out really yummy!
These cookies are so good! I made them two nights ago , ate two and quickly stuck the rest in the freezer. I added tons of goodies, to many to list! I also used a 1/4 of cup of mollasses and they turned out perfect! I didn’t add anything else in place of the missing mollasses and they were fine!
I subbed 1/2 cup brown sugar for the molasses and used all butter. My add-ins were dried cherries, roasted peanuts, coconut and bittersweet chocolate chips. I just LOVE these! But am sticking them in the freezer now so I don’t have another. :)
I liked the molasses in these. If I make them again, I’ll probably use fewer chocolate chips, though Brianna wouldn’t like that, since the chocolate is her favorite part. =) No need for coconut (not allowed in the house), and I left out the nuts so the kids would eat them. I used a half-cup each dried cranberries, dried mango and prunes for the fruit.
I should have taken a pass on these cookies. I don’t like molasses and I’m not a fan of mixing fruit and chocolate. It’s not surprising that I didn’t like them, is it? Bleh.
OTOH, I also made Dorie’s Lenox Almond Biscotti this weekend and absolutely loved that recipe!
I baked these last night and surprisingly LIKE them very much! I like molasses but don’t like fruit in my chocolate which is why I surprisingly LIKE these. Possibly because the ratio of chocolate to all the other ingredients was in my favor… I couldn’t really taste the coconut. I thought the cookie dough before the mix-ins was really yummy!
i don’t like fruit and chocolate, either, but i also liked these!
Me three! They all worked well together in this recipe.
I used golden syrup instead of molasses and soy margarine instead of shortening, since I wasn’t able to get my hands on molasses or shortening and still had some soy margarine in the fridge and golden syrup in the pantry. These are delish!
Would you experts mind answering a ? for this beginner? :)
How much butter should I use to replace the shortening?
Thanks for the reply and keep up all the great baking/posting. I’m loving your group.
The Molasses is SO strong in smell – however, it seems to have baked out for the most part and ended up being very mild – I used Milk chocolate chips, almond slivers, banana chips and dried mangoes and pineapple. SO GOOD!!! Kind of expensive and time consuming to make but worth it for sure! I agree though, honey would be my choice for the next batch, oh and SO NOT photogenic.