Molasses Crackles and Cocoa Snaps, both recipes from Joanne Fluke murder mystery book “Strawberry Shortcake Murder”.

Both of these cookies

– are from the same book

–  (doughs) must chill at least 1 hour in the refrigerator (overnight is fine too) before baking so do not preheat oven just yet.

– are sugar coated

-stay fresh a long time

-freeze well

Molasses Crackles

1 1/2 cups melted butter

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup molasses

2 beaten eggs

4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

4 cups flour

Melt butter, add sugar and molasses and stir. Let it cool slightly. Then add beaten eggs, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, stirring after each addition.

Add flour in one cup increments, stirring after each one. The dough will be quite stiff.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours *overnight is fine too).

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls, roll them in the bowl of white sugar and place them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. Flatten them with your hand or spatula.

The recipe said they will flatten out themselves but not as much as I would of liked, that’s why in a second batch I used the fork to press them down.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes.

Let them cool for 2 minutes and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling. Honestly I don’t have a wire rack and they cool just fine on a plate.

Cocoa snaps

1 1/2 cups melted butter

2 cups cocoa powder

2 cups brown sugar

3 large eggs, beaten

4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups flour

For later – 1/2 cup white sugar in a small bowl

1. Melt butter and mix cocoa until blended.

2. Add brown sugar.

3. Add eggs, soda, salt and vanilla. Mix.

4. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Chill dough at least 1 hour. Overnight is fine too. But in my opinion then the dough gets too hard. Better to use it within few  hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls, roll them in the bowl of white sugar and place them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. Flatten them with your hand or spatula.

Bake 10 minutes. Let them cool for a bit and then transfer to wire rack to cool, these cookies will stick if you leave them for too long.

So pick your favourite, are you a fan of molasses crackles or cocoa snaps? Cocoa snaps are nice and rich in chocolate and molasses crackles taste a bit like ginger bread cookies.