These molasses cookies are the ideal lunchbox cookie, the most delightful cookie and coffee combo, and the sweet fix you want after dinner!

These are not my grandmother's molasses cookies. I know some people say that and they mean it as they are better than their grandmother's fill-in-the-blank recipe. But I do not mean that. These are really, really good cookies, but they're not my grandmother's. I have scoured the internet. Asked my family for her recipe. I've come up empty-handed. My grandmother Ruth did not follow a recipe card. She made them from memory every time...and therefore her recipe is lost with her. That doesn't mean I'll stop hunting for it, though!

Molasses cookies, for some reason that I don't really understand, have a tendency to be dubbed a holiday cookie. Maybe it's the flavor of ginger that makes people think of Christmas trees, deep snowbanks, and crackling fires....that, for me, is not the case, though. When I was a very little girl (my grandmother died when I was still in elementary school), we used to go over to her house often. My memories of her involve her always holding a tissue in her hand or stuffed in a pocket. The red retro booster chair in the corner of her kitchen. Her basement that was fitted with couches and an old bar and a million odds and ends (I used to play shop down there). Her beautiful backyard with its green grass, rock wall, and shady trees. The beaded bell ornaments she put on her Christmas tree every year. Her creamy potatoes and peas. The children's book by the couch that featured a bulldozer going through a city. And of course, her molasses cookies that held up when dunked in a glass of milk...for a few seconds, at least.

The flavor, the look, and the predictability of always having one of her cookies when I came over to her house has stayed with me through to adulthood. So, whenever I see or eat a molasses cookie (I do realize a lot of people call them ginger cookies...that is NOT what we called them growing up), not only do I compare the cookie to hers, but I think of her, too.

Which is why I am featuring this cookie on the blog! This isn't her recipe, but the flavor is just about right. But the appearance is wrong! These beautiful molasses cookies have those lovely crackles all over the front, which my family kind of loves. Hers were solid. These are soft in the middle, a good uniformed thickness, not too thin, not too thick. Hers were thicker and almost had a bit of a dome over the top. These are soft in the middle with that delightful hint of crispness on the edge. Hers were soft all over. Soft center and soft edges. Both cookies are just sweet enough with the right amount of spice extracted from the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

These are the ideal lunchbox cookie, the most delightful cookie and coffee combo, and the little sweet fix you want after dinner. And everybody loves them! I've made these cookies a ton of times and they rarely last 24 hours.

The bonus is that they don't take long to make or bake. These can be whipped up in as little as 30 minutes. Truly, a wonderful little cookie!

If you love gingersnaps (those are the harder, smaller version of these), or maybe you have some nostalgia around a ginger/molasses cookie, whip up a batch of these. Serve them to your kids, your grandkids, your neighbor's kids, your spouse, or just because. You never know - maybe this cookie will become a core memory for someone in your life, too!