Tuesdays With Dorie: Sugar-Topped Maple Spice Cookies

I’m back! I’m so sorry — it’s been weeks. I haven’t baked, or cooked, or done anything, really, except try to lose weight and finish my part of my son’s college application and edit boring business articles.

I failed at the first and succeeded at the second two, and now it’s time for yummies again.

Don’t like molasses. Not at all. And so I used maple syrup, and these were incredible. I couldn’t stop eating them. The dough was OK, but the cookies? Superb.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We had a potluck lunch to go to last weekend, which I decided was a perfect chance to rediscover my kitchen. I made the recipe exactly as written (except for the maple syrup switch); I even added the pepper, which my children assumed I’d be leaving out (an assumption based firmly on past experience, I must admit). I added the low-end amount, of course.

The dough mixed up easily. I made a double batch, leaving me with four chunks to wrap and cool. I froze two and refrigerated two, just to see if it made a difference in the final product. (It didn’t.)

The first batch I made the size Dorie recommends, but those cookies were far too big for my purposes. I was trying to feed a crowd, after all. So I experimented with the next few batches, finally ending up with 15-gram balls as the perfect size.

I also tried both regular granulated sugar and Sucanat (whole cane sugar, with bigger crystals). Sucanat won, hands down.

And I wrapped up my day of science by discovering that the cookies were yummiest (that’s the technical term) when I just barely flattened them; they maintained nice body that way.

As I may have mentioned, these were wonderful: soft and chewy and slightly crunchy and spicy and maply and wonderful. And really good.

Family liked them too, except for the freak:

Husband: I actually liked them quite a bit. [He generally doesn’t like gingersnaps or spice cookies.] They were nice and chewy for such a thin cookie. And because they were thin, the spice didn’t overwhelm it for me.

#1 Son: They were all right. I thought they could have used more spice flavor [editor’s note: I used only 75 percent of the ginger called for, because one of my sons, who will remain numberless but is leaving for college next September, neglected to put ginger on the shopping list last time he used it]. I actually liked the dough better than the cookies.

#2 Son: Those were delicious!

These are a perfect fall cookie. Make them for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or a picnic if you live somewhere it’s still warm enough for such things (here in New Jersey it was actually near 70 today, I think — gorgeous). The recipe was chosen for the Tuesdays With Dorie group by Pamela of Cookies With Boys, one of my favorie TWD blogs. (Pamela has the recipe here.)

Seriously. Make them.