For kitchen witches, recipes make powerful spells. Cookies are one of the easiest and most effective ways to cast a spell. However, there is a drawback to all culinary magics: the eater is the recipient. For that reason, most magical recipes tend to be highly positive, with only the occasional foray into baneful magic.
I love to bake my intentions for the people closest to me into the food I give them. Caring for my loved ones is what led me to develop this recipe for fortification cookies. These delicious cookies are intended to warm, cheer, and strengthen you during the winter. They will bolster the recipient’s mood and take their mind off of the cold, if only for a while.
WARNING: These cookies have a long inactive time. The dough must be refrigerated for at least five hours, but preferably overnight. I always make my dough the night before I intend to bake them.
Ingredients:
5 Cups All Purpose Flour Bakes @ 350
½ TSP Salt For 10-11 Minutes
1 TBSP Baking Soda
2 Cups Packed Brown Sugar
¾ Cup Granulated Sugar
1 ½ Cups Butter – Room Temperature
2 Large Eggs – Room Temperature
½ Cup Molasses
2 TSP Vanilla Extract
2 TSP Cinnamon
1 TBSP Cardamom
½ TSP Nutmeg
1 TBSP Ginger
½ TSP Black Pepper
¼ cup Kentucky Bourbon – I prefer Four Roses
In a large mixing bowl, cream together room temperature butter and granulated sugar. Slowly add in the brown sugar until combined. Add eggs, molasses, and vanilla extract until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together your all purpose flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and black pepper. Slowly add the butter and sugar mixture, one cup at a time, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl often. Lastly, add in the ¼ cup of Bourbon and mix well.
As you’re stirring, pour your positive intentions into the dough. Tell the dough what you want for the people who eat the cookies.
Refrigerate, covered, for a minimum of 5 hours.
Lay down a layer of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Roll the dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and set two inches apart on your cookie sheet. I don’t care how big your cookie sheet is, it only fits 12 cookies at once. That’s the law.
Bake for 10-11 minutes.
The cookies will look slightly underbaked when you take them out – that’s good! Don’t leave them in! Just like with brownies, most cookies actually finish baking outside of the oven.
Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Sacrifice the weakest looking cookie to move first. If it breaks, let them keep cooking on the baking sheet a while longer.
