By Christmas. The whole family: Steve and Patty's house, noon, everyone. Kristin flew in from New York. Babcia Rose arrived with Steve, who picked her up at eleven. She brought mushroom soup and the potato pancakes and a look on her face that means she has opinions about how the table is set that she is politely not expressing. Steve opened the living room for once and put out the good chairs from the basement. Patty made the ham and the pierogi and the green bean casserole and three kinds of cookies and a chocolate babka that she made from scratch this year for the first time, which took two days and turned out perfectly.
Kristin gave me a cast-iron skillet for Christmas. Not the cheap kind — a proper Lodge, ten inches, with a card that said "For all the eggs." She said she had read my blog. I did not know Kristin read my blog. She said "I read everything you write, you just don't know it." Then she went to get more wine and I sat with the cast iron in my lap and thought about what it means to have a sister who reads everything you write even when you don't know she's reading.
After dinner, Babcia Rose fell asleep in the chair by the window, which she never does — she usually stays awake through everything, commenting. She just went quiet and her head went down and she slept for about twenty minutes. We all noticed but nobody said anything. Steve watched her from across the room with an expression I had not seen on him before. When she woke up she said "I wasn't sleeping" and everyone nodded seriously.
I made the cranberry sauce again, from scratch, and this year I added a little orange zest and some crystallized ginger. Babcia Rose tasted it and said "Different." I said yes, I added ginger. She said "It's better." From Babcia Rose, that is a Grammy. That is an Oscar and a Grammy and a James Beard Award all at once.
The ginger is what did it — that small, crystallized addition to a recipe I’d made a hundred times before, and suddenly Babcia Rose says it’s better like it costs her nothing. I’ve been thinking about that ever since: the way one right ingredient can shift everything. These no-bake ginger molasses cookies live in that same spirit — simple, spiced, deeply satisfying — and they come together without an oven, which means you can make them while the ham is still resting and the babka is still being admired and someone’s grandmother is pretending she wasn’t just asleep in the chair by the window.
No Bake Cookie Butter Spread Ginger Molasses Cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes (includes chilling) | Servings: 24 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup cookie butter spread (such as Biscoff or Trader Joe’s Speculoos)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely grated (or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup crushed gingersnap cookies (about 6–8 cookies)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar or granulated sugar, for rolling (optional)
Instructions
- Mix the base. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cookie butter spread, softened butter, and molasses. Stir until smooth and fully incorporated.
- Add flavor. Stir in the vanilla extract, grated ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, and sea salt. Mix until fragrant and evenly blended.
- Fold in the dry ingredients. Add the powdered sugar, rolled oats, and crushed gingersnaps. Stir until a cohesive dough forms. If the mixture feels too soft to roll, refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Shape the cookies. Scoop roughly 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll between your palms into smooth balls. If desired, roll each ball in powdered sugar or granulated sugar for a light coating.
- Chill. Arrange cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet or plate. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until firm.
- Serve. Transfer to a serving plate. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week, or freeze for up to one month.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 118 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 15g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 55mg