Every Christmas, my Aunt Lena made molasses cookies. When I was at Carolina, she would send me a tin of her homemade sugar cookies along with some molasses cookies. I kept them hidden from my suite mates so I could have them all to myself. Molasses cookies originated among the members of the Moravian Church. The Moravians are among the oldest Protestant denominations dating back to 15th century. When they immigrated to America they formed two primary communities – one near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the other in and around Winston Salem, NC. My Brewer family was based in Clemmons, a suburb of Winston.
In the Moravian tradition, prominent homes hosted open houses displaying nativity scenes. Visitors were offered cookies shaped in animal forms. The cookies were traditionally sugar cookies and molasses cookies. The molasses cookies were rolled incredibly thin and became known as the thinnest cookies in the world. They are to die for. A single cookie literally melts on the tongue and is bursting with the flavor of molasses, ginger, sugar, butter and sheer goodness.
This week, I had harassed my wife Nancy about making a batch of molasses cookies nor the Yuletide Season, not knowing she would actually do it.
Baking molasses cookies is a real ordeal – a two day affair. On the second day it took her nearly a solid 4 hours to roll and bake 373 cookies in a total of 24 batches. I offered to help by staying out of her way, but was eventually pressed into service by helping to roll the batter and put and take cookies from the oven.
When it was all said and done, I sampled the cookies. Aunt Lena would have been proud. They were extra thin and crisp and as good as I remembered from years gone by.
I don’t know a lot about the Moravian Church, other than they can sure bake some delicious cookies.