This cookie tastes like my early childhood. I remember coming home (from preschool?) on a cold rainy day and walking inside to a flood of warmth and the smell of Chocolate Lassies. Mom had made cookies!

These were the only Chocolate Chip cookies my mom made. Molasses is what makes these ‘Lassies’ and adds so much rich flavor that, upon trying ‘normal’ chocolate chip cookies later in life, it seemed there was something wrong with them. They lacked ‘oomph’.

Today I made these with my own little lass. Weather forecasts have been predicting the arrival of 6-10 inches of snow in the next 36 hours. In preparation I worked my tail off earlier in the week to get housework and errands done. What’s that you say? My pantry and closet are in desperate need of reorganizing? That’s enough out of you. MOST of my house looks awesome. Today and tomorrow can now be spent enjoying cozy, snowy day time with Lilly. Or so I thought….

Imagine our surprise when we woke to blue skies and 40 degrees outside! 40 degrees?!? Most of the past 10 days have been spent in frigid single digit temperatures…occasionally wandering up into the teens. It seems the snow was not due to arrive until the afternoon. What are two footloose and fancy free girls to do with themselves in sunny 40 degree weather? Girls who have been cooped up inside for FAR too many days? Allow me to tell you with pictures:

First we go for a walk WITHOUT our heavy coats! (But apparently a bike helmet was a necessity.)Then we stomp on almost every snow clod we pass. That’s a lot, in case you were wondering.After all that work, we surely deserve some sort of sustenance. So we pick out the best looking doughnut of them all, and enjoy every single bite as we make our way back home:As clouds slowly started to roll in and temperatures began to dip, we set about making our cookies. When you try this recipe (and I hope you will!) it helps to have an awesome helper on hand, like I did:

Chocolate Lassies

Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, unbeaten
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 generous cup chocolate chips

Directions

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. (I used butter flavored shortening so it was yellow)

Beat in egg and molasses.Sift together flour, baking soda, and spices. Add and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. I used a 1/2 oz ice cream scoop. Out of habit I greased the first cookie sheet but didn’t grease the second and they both came out fine. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. I live at high altitude and bake them for 8 minutes. They came out perfect. Slightly crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy in the middle! 🙂

Knowing she would get to try the fruits of her labor once they were cool enough, Lilly decided to help the cookies along in that process:It worked!