Kaki!

It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!  Too long.  When can we remedy this.*

I visited my long time friend Stephanie in upstate New York a few weekends ago, as she was someone else it had been much too long since I’d seen in person.  I got to spend time with her and her husband and their son Baylor, who is four months old and freakin’ adorable.  He smiles all the time, it is incredibly cute.  Plus it was great to see him while he was still just a little guy!

We spent one evening while I was there at a friend’s game night, to which I naturally brought some cookie dough.**  We may have killed it at Cards Against Humanity that night, but the cookies, the cookies killed it at tasting awesome.  These, Kaki, are the fall-flavor cookies I’ve been searching for!

Now the, upsides: you can totally taste the rum flavor in these babies, which I really liked.  They also have just the right amount of chewiness.  And they don’t use that much rum so you can bring the remainder with some Dr. Pepper to said party and boom, you brought dessert and drinks.  And the greatest guest award goes to…

There were a few slight downsides, though.  The dough is soft, really soft, and super sticky;  I found it difficult to work with.  But once you’ve dolloped them on the cookie sheet in little blobs they do flatten out all on their own in the oven.  Also, we had leftovers for a few days and they got a little tougher each day.  I’d say they have about three days of shelf life in them, which is shorter than I’d prefer for baked goods.  Do you have any good baking ingredient tips that extend shelf life?  Or would you store a cookie like this in the fridge, maybe?  I don’t typically do that, but maybe that’s what I needed to do.

Molasses Rum Cookies

adapted from TheKitchn

makes, um, a medium amount?  We didn’t count.  The original recipe says 18 cookies, which seems about right.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
• 2/3 cup molasses
• 6 tablespoons dark rum

Pre-heat oven to 375*F.  Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray or line with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Add the ginger, clove, allspice, and salt, and stir to combine.  Add the baking soda and flour and stir again.  Add the molasses and rum and stir until the dough just comes together; it will be very sticky, not dry at all.

Dollop large spoonfuls on the prepared cookie sheet.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes.  (The original recipe notes the tops of the cookies will be all one color, without any light areas in the middle or dark areas on the edges.  I’m not sure I saw that distinct of a color change, but maybe you will.)  Remove from the oven and let the cookies finish baking on the hot cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Store in an airtight container for about three days.

I can’t wait to make these again, Kaki!  Maybe next time I see you we can make them together?  And drink apple cider?

–Caitlin

*No question mark.  That’s a statement.

**We totally didn’t run out of time to bake them before we arrived and that’s why we brought the dough, no way.

P.S.  We also visited this great apple orchard while I was up visiting Steph.  It was called Bowman Orchard, and we picked apples and ate apple cider doughnuts and I proved my corn maze navigation prowess.  It was a beautiful afternoon.

Also, they had a pirate ship:

And here is a grainy phone camera distance shot of the horses and fall foliage that were just too picturesque not to attempt to capture:

And here is a close up of their adorable spotted pig: