The Best Food Ever!!

Dan Tyler’s Spectacular Scrumptdidilyuptious Molasses Sugar Cookies


This is a time-honored family recipe of easily the most fabulous cookies on the planet. I release this information to be used at discretion, although I hope it shall be disseminated widely that the world may become a better place.
The benefits of many of the ingredients were suspected but not fully realized until this assignment.
Although Crisco (or any sort of vegetable shortening) is probably not the best thing to eat in large doses, a certain amount of fat is needed in the diet to keep things lubricated and runny smoothly, and these cookies beat pork chops, right?
Mom always used white (bleached) flour and refined (white) sugar, but I substitute whole-wheat flour and raw sugar, and the results are agreed to be better by those in-the-know (a.k.a. my siblings.)
*(I’ll admit Whole Foods Market at Gayley and Weyburn is more easily accessible than any of the Farmers Markets in this town, which are decidedly biased in favor of the car-driving folks, but I do know where they are and have been to many of them in past quarters less busy.) ☺

Molasses Sugar Cookies

1 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
½ cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp each of ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, salt

Roll into balls
Dip tops of balls in sugar and bake at 375 F for 10 minutes.
* Note: It is infinitely important to add a healthy portion (3 or 4 songs) of music to every batch of cookies (or anything else oven-baked, for that matter.) While this ingredient can be increased according to taste, it cannot be substituted lest the flavor be diminished.
You can always taste the love.

Molasses

Molasses or treacle is a thick syrup by-product from processing sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which is in turn the Greek mellas — honey.
The sugar cane plant is harvested and stripped of its leaves. Its juice is then extracted from the canes, usually by crushing or mashing. The juice is boiled to concentrate and to promote the crystallization of the sugar. The results of this first boiling and removal of sugar crystal is first molasses, which has the highest sugar content because comparatively little sugar has been extracted from the juice.
Second molasses is created from a second boiling and sugar extraction, and has a slight bitter tinge to its taste.
The third boiling of the sugar syrup gives blackstrap molasses. The majority of sucrose from the original juice has been crystallized but blackstrap molasses is still mostly sugar by calories, however, unlike refined sugars, it contains significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Blackstrap molasses is a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron. One tablespoon provides up to 20 percent of the daily value of each of those nutrients!
Molasses can be used as a bio-fuel like diesel or kerosene, though the practice is largely discontinued.
Molasses is a chelating agent: a rusty object placed for two weeks in a mixture of one part molasses to nine parts water will lose its rust due to the chelating action of the molasses.
The Great Boston Molasses Flood occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston. A large molasses treacle tank burst and a wave of molasses ran through the streets at an estimated 35 mph, killing 21 people, and injuring more than 150 others. The event entered local folklore, and residents claim that on hot summer days the area still smells of molasses.

Ginger

Ginger is an effective treatment for nausea caused by motion sickness or other illness. Chinese women traditionally use ginger to combat morning sickness. Ginger ale and ginger beer have been used for generations.
Several studies demonstrate a decrease in joint pain from arthritis after taking ginger. It may also have blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties, making it theoretically effective in treating heart disease.

Cloves

Cloves are used throughout the world and are smoked in cigarettes known as kretek in Indonesia, mixed with marijuana to create marijuana spliffs, and are also an important incense material in Chinese and Japanese culture.
Clove essential oil is used in aromatherapy and oil of cloves is widely used to treat toothaches. Cloves are also a natural anthelmintic (de-wormer.)

Cinnamon

Cinnamon has also traditionally been used to treat toothaches and fight bad breath, and to stave off common colds and aid digestion.
It is also used as a natural insect repellent and grown when manufactured insecticides are not wanted.