Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Chocolate, Nut, Molasses Cookies

Cooler weather always brings out the desire to have hot tea and eat wonderful cookies. These cookies are my latest experiment in the kitchen.  The recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter. You can make the "drops" larger or smaller to your liking.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 3/4 cup molasses (black treacle if you live in Africa)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 2 gently rounded tablespoons unsweetened chocolate (I used cocoa powder)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used a mix of white and whole wheat)
  • 1 cup of  oatmeal (or enough to make a drop cookie batter, see photo)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:


In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs, vanilla and salt, beating until well blended. Beat in chocolate and stir in flour and chopped walnuts.  Add oatmeal until you have the desired consistency.



Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on well-greased baking sheet.I have a coated sheet so I did not grease the pan.


Bake in preheated 350° oven 10 minutes, or until edges are crisp. Cool for 1 minute; remove to rack to cool completely.



I enjoyed these cookies. You can readily taste the molasses, chocolate and nuts. If you don't like the strong flavour of molasses you could substitute about 1 cup of sugar for the molasses.  I've read that the treacle is not as dark as molasses so I'm assuming that molasses also gives the cookie a stronger flavour. 

Enjoy the cookies with hot tea or milk.


23 comments:

OneStonedCrow said...

The cookies look delicious - and talking about tea, I've recently discovered an 'instant' ginger tea which I love ... do you drink any of the exotic type of teas?

Vores have said...

Hello Joyful.
Mmm, lovely cookies.
Thanks for the recipe.
Wishing you a good Wednesday.
Hugs Hanne Bente ♥

Joyful said...

Hello Grahahm, I'm so glad you like the cookies. I do love all kinds of tea. Ginger was never my favourite though it has all kinds of wonderful properties. I did buy some milky/sugary ginger tea once to try and get used to it. I am not sure what I did with it because I never ended up drinking it.

I like lemon (herb) tea. I'm getting used to drinking rooibos. Mostly I love Earl Grey and Kenyan black tea with fresh mint. I also have some herbal chai (decaf black with spices). I've been drinking a lot of the decaf stuff and the rooibos with the cooler weather we've been having.

Can you recommend any exotic tea besides ginger?

Joyful said...

Hello Hanne, I hope you can try the recipe some time and post your pics. I'll go to sleep now and greet Wednesday in about 8 hours. I wish you a wonderful Wednesday.

Diane said...

The cookies look great. I will go with Graham though so far as tea is concerned, we both love ginger or ginger and lemon tea. Diane

EG CameraGirl said...

These cookies look scrumptious! Cookies and tea sounds delightful!

issatchieu said...

NUT & CHOCOLATE = DIVINE. Looks like a great effort!! well done :)

Joyful said...

Thank you, Diane. Cookies always seem to go great with tea!

Joyful said...

EG Wow, thanks! I agree ;-)

Joyful said...

Melissa, thanks! You have a wonderful day ;-)

Regina said...

Hello Penny. First of all, what a striking header- just gorgeous!! Those cookies look delicious and the images sharp! Your background is terrific too.
This was the first time I'd gotten so far behind with everything. As I type, I wonder about myself (lol) Anyway, I appreciate your visits and missed you-
Thanks for the recipe too-

Joyful said...

Hi Regina, I'm so glad you like the header. I love the Fall and I thought the brightly coloured leaves made an excellent contrast with the new background.

I hope you've been getting some rest while you've been on a break from the blogging. Hugs my friend. xx

Candice Suter.....Sweetstuff said...

Yummo! These look awesome! May have to make!

Heidrun Khokhar, KleinsteMotte said...

Think I shall try this but I'm going to opt out of the flower and just increase the oats. We are stopping wheat in our home due to wheat sensitivities that are showing up more and more I've actually just bought the book Wheat Belly to read and learn more.
Thanks for stopping by and wishing us well as hubby goes under the knife!!

Heidrun Khokhar, KleinsteMotte said...

By the way I bought treacle and it's a golden clour, comes in a tin and has different taste than molasses. What's up with that??

Joyful said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joyful said...

Heidi, I always substitute whatever I have on hand for other items in recipes so I'm sure adding oats will be just fine.

As for the treacle being a substitute for molasses, I picked that up from a blogger friend in South Africa. I checked on line and it says there are two kinds of treacle (syrup), the lighter gold one and the black one. So I'll change my recipe to say "black". How's that?

Fred Alton said...

Lovely, Penny! I love love love anything with molasses, especially on a cold day. Pull up a chair next to the fireplace and set the cookies and coffee nearby! Mmmmm Good.

Joyful said...

Thank you, Fred. Having cookies by the fire on rainy or wintery day sounds lovely. I liked the cookies a lot. They were a nice change from the usual ones I make.

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

They look very tasty.

~Cheryl said...

Oh boy. I'd snarf these cookies down in a heartbeat! Maybe I will take up baking and sewing again after I retire. ** some day *** I also enjoyed your sky watch photos, and that yellow rose macro is exquisite! Thank you for commenting on my whale of a cloud; I'm glad you liked it. I'm thinking you may be in Vancouver. We enjoy that area very much!

Joyful said...

Thank you, Pieces of Sunshine.

Joyful said...

Hi Cheryl, I know what you mean about needing to retire in order to have time to sew and bake. It really is nice to have some time for such things and other things that bring joy. I'm so glad you've enjoyed my photos and yes, I'm blessed to be on the coast ;-)

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