Miss Parsons' Molasses Cookies

Those of you who follow this blog, and thank you if you do, might remember last week my cousin Barbara and I put out a call for a recipe for our Aunt Marion's molasses cookies. We both have fond memories of standing on the step stool in Marion's kitchen, helping her stir the batter, flattening out each cookie with the end of a tumbler dipped in butter and sugar. Thanks to Barb, her husband, Bob, and her mom, Aunt Wilma, we now have the recipe:

1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening*
1 egg
1/2 cup coffee or buttermilk
1/2 cup molasses
2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3.5-4 cups flour

Roll into balls and then flatten cookies with bottom of buttered glass dipped in sugar.
Bake 8-10 minutes, 325 F.

*For calorie conscious readers, and who is not, I learned on Rachel Ray the other day that if you substitute canned pumpkin for part of the shortening (or butter) in your recipes, you can save a lot of calories and you still get the moisture.