My dad’s favorite cookies are molasses spice cookies, the chewy ones that are rolled in sugar and bake up with lots of big cracks and crevices that he can nibble along. He keeps wanting to buy them at the grocery store to feed his after-dinner sweet tooth, so to save him from the slew of highly refined ingredients and pesticide-rife molasses, I agreed to make a batch, and then snuck in a bunch of good ingredients: my sprouted flour all-purpose blend with some buckwheat and coconut flour, organic cane sugar and coconut palm sugar as well as molasses, and a mix of butter and coconut oil in place of shortening. The resulting cookies are full of iron, calcium, magnesium and other minerals, all of which are great for my deficient son, not to mention nourishing fats, a little boost in protein from the coconut flour, and the low-glycemic coconut sugar and blood-sugar balancing buckwheat which (I like to imagine) help counteract the extra sugar you roll the dough in.

Besides their healthy practicalities, these cookies are satisfyingly chewy, spicy, and full of rich molasses flavor, with that sugar crunch on the outside and enough crags and fault lines to satisfy my father’s oral-sensory needs. (Can you tell I spend 3+ hours a week talking with occupational and behavioral therapists?) My mom apparently only likes them warm, and I very much preferred them the next day, as I found the flavor of molasses to be somewhat harsh and overwhelming in the warm cookies. Either way, they are a lovely treat to snack on after a brisk walk through the falling leaves.

Buckwheat Molasses Cookies

Even if you are anti-buckwheat like my dad, the strong spicy flavors and dark color in these cookies sufficiently mask its presence; likewise with the coconut flour and sugar I added. Do be thoughtful about your choice of sugars and molasses:

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C buckwheat flour
1/4 C coconut flour
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/3 C butter, softened
1/3 C coconut oil
1 C sugar, plus extra for rolling
1 egg
1/3 C molasses

Combine the flours, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In a large stand mixer combine the butter, oil, sugar, egg and molasses. Mix for a minute or two until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture to the molasses mixture until evenly combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Once chilled, scoop 2 tablespoons of dough at a time and roll into balls. Roll them around in a small cup of sugar and set onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

Source: Adapted from Becky Bakes.