Molasses Cookies

These molasses cookies are deliciously soft and chewy, the way I make them. You can probably bake them a little longer if you like crisp, crunchy cookies. These are my father in law's favorite cookie. Maybe they're just high in the rankings- not really sure. Anyway, his birthday and Father's Day were just a couple days apart so that warranted a batch of molasses cookies for him. This recipe will make A LOT of cookies! It is super easy to divide in half though. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas (I LOVE CHRISTMAS!), I make full batches and they go like crazy, just a little FYI.

-4 1/2 c. flour
-1 T. plus 1 t. ginger
-2 t. baking soda
-1/2 t. salt
-1 1/2 t. cinnamon
-1 t. cloves
-1 1/2 c. butter (3 sticks)
-1 c. sugar, plus more for rolling
-1 c. brown sugar
-2 eggs
-2 T. water
-1/2 c. molasses
Sift all dry ingredients together. Cream butter and sugars together in a mixer. Beat in eggs. Mix in water and molasses. Scrape down the sides to make sure everything is mixed well. Add dry mixture to creamed mixture slowly. Refrigerate dough in bowl for 1 hour. I refrigerate the dough to make it easier to roll into balls. After the dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in white sugar in a bowl. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool a minute before moving to a wire rack to cool.
*I've made the dough a few days ahead as a time saver, and it worked out great. I put the dough in a large ziploc bag and sealed out all the air. So just make sure that the dough is properly sealed if it's going to be sitting in the fridge longer than an hour.