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Connecticut Spice Cookies

These Connecticut Spice Cookies are soft, a little chewy, and have a rich flavor and a slight bite. Perfect for sharing on a sunny front porch.

Connecticut Spice Cookies

When I was a little girl, I would sometimes curl up in my grandmother’s bed in the early mornings, where she’d tell me stories of our family and sing to me in French. She called Connecticut home, though she lived more of her life in New York than Connecticut.

The Nutmeg State was where our family’s homestead was located, where she’d spend summers on the shoreline with her mother, sister, aunts and cousins. It was where holidays were spent, gathered around a big table.

By the time I was born, the family homestead – a Victorian house and farm – had been sold and much of the family had relocated to Cape Cod. But the house is still there, just a few miles from where I live now. It’s no longer a home or a farm though. The land has been sold off, and the house loosely converted into offices.

Still, it retains the charm and magic that captivated my family for nearly 70 years.

I spent summers here as a child with sandy feet and salty wet hair from the Long Island Sound and for the last 10 years, I have called it home.

This recipe is adapted from our family cookbook, The Moulding Board, a 30-year-old book that combines recipes from my extended family and diary pages from my Great-Great-Grandmother, all compiled by my cousin Barb. According to the cookbook, a former neighbor at our family’s homestead, Mrs. Phil Webber, used to make these cookies for my Great-Great Aunt Sarah, my namesake.

For my rendition of these classic cookies, I’ve replaced shortening with butter, changed the method a little and added nutmeg — in honor of Connecticut (which is nicknamed the Nutmeg State).

These Connecticut Spice Cookies are soft, a little chewy, with a rich flavor and a slight bite. They’re sweet but not crazy sweet. They would be amazing served with coffee, shared on a sunny front porch with a cousin or neighbor.

Connecticut Spice Cookies

Connecticut Spice Cookies

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, , softened to room temperature
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 tbsp molasses
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 tsp baking soda

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the unsalted butter, egg, sugar and molasses until well combined. The mixture should look a little like mousse.
  3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and baking soda. I like to use a whisk for this -- so easy.
  4. Change the stand mixer's blade to your paddle attachment. Turn it on to its lowest speed and add the flour mixture a little at a time, until its fully combined.
  5. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out cookies and place them on the prepared baking sheet leaving about 2-inches between them.
  6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through. Let cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Gluten-Free Spice Cookies

Friday 17th of October 2014

[…] Gluten-Free Spice Cookies adapted from Sarah’s Cucina Bella […]

marla {family fresh cooking}

Tuesday 12th of July 2011

Go you representing the state!! These cookies look wonderful. We are in our final week of Get Grillin' - Dessert is the theme and we would love if you submitted up to any 3 recipes (they don't have to be grilled) to our link up. This one would be perfect! This week we have a Rouxbe Cooking School giveaway. http://su.pr/2YaIiV

michele

Thursday 7th of July 2011

Very sweet story about your childhood with your grandparent.

Elizabeth

Friday 1st of July 2011

As native Connecticutian myself (and someone who ger up on Long Island Sound) I can proudly corroborate that CT is the nutmeg state because is was a hotbed of nutmeg counterfeiting, having many busy ports and all. The CT license plates used to say nutmeg state, but they have since changed to the constitution state because someone thought referring to a criminal past was unsavory. I miss it though.

Sarah Caron

Friday 1st of July 2011

Oh my goodness! I had no idea (obviously). Love that story though. Thanks!

Liz

Friday 1st of July 2011

If I remember what I learned in school correctly, people in CT like to sell fake/wooden nutmegs to people.

Sarah Caron

Friday 1st of July 2011

Thank you so much for the clue-in. That's so funny. Fake nutmeg!

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