Molasses Cookies and Pretzels

SO yesterday I made Molasses cookies. Kind of a throw back of days in grandma's kitchen. Couldn't find grandma's recipe tho so found one on line and played with it a bit. They came out great! Mom sent me the recipe later that night and they ended up being almost identical! Here's the recipe:

Molasses Cookies
3/4 c margarine, room temp
1 c brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 c molasses
2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 c white sugar

Cream the brown sugar and margarine and add the egg. Mix in the molasses. Then add all of the dry ingredients (go ahead and sift if your the sifting type. I never do) Chill for an hour. Roll into walnut sized balls and roll in the white sugar. Place on baking sheet 2 inches apart (do not press down) and bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes.

So those came out WONDERFUL. I did however forget the baking soda and remembered after they'd been in the fridge for about 5 minutes. I mixed it in and they seem just fine! Also didn't have ground ginger so I used all-spice - still came out great! Here's a hint - You really should use margarine and not butter. The margarine is oil based and will give you a chewier cookie. Butter can also cause the dough to spread out more and makes for a thinner, crisper cookie. This isn't true for all cookies or desserts - many are MUCH better with butter.. but this recipe is one of those exceptions. Also the less you cook them the chewier they'll be. We had our batches going at about 7 minutes and they were perfect.

I also made some almond bark dipped pretzels.. which there is no need for a recipe because it was simply the entire block of vanilla almond bark melted down (in a double boiler.. aka a pot of boiling water with a heat resistant bowl over it) and pretzels. I added a hand full at a time to the bowl of almond bark and used skewers to fish them out onto wax paper. I started using 2 skewers like chop sticks and that made it even easier. Any time the almond bark started getting too thick I'd put it back on the heat to re-melt. Very very yummy. I'm surprised they're still around!