Chile molasses cookies

Sometimes I get the urge to bake, but not the urge to run to the store to pick up the missing ingredients I need. The other week, I knew I was in the mood to make something delicious, so I picked up an adorably retro bottle of molasses and headed home to make a spice cookie I found in an article from the LA Times. Unfortunately, half of the spices (like ginger and cloves) were not in my pantry. A quick adjustment lent to the addition of chile powder and an extra spoonful of cinnamon. The crisp round cookies were a spicy take on the traditional molasses cookie and managed to taste just as delicious as the ginger version printed in the paper.

Cookies ready to go into a new Jonathan Adler treat jar

I used this recipe adapted from the delicious molasses cookies sold at Milk in Los Angeles. Just switch the ground ginger and cloves for 1 1/2 teaspoons chile powder and add an extra 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. I also used a cookie dough scoop to get the perfect sized cookies and baked them on silpat sheets, my must-have tool for anything that tends to burn easily.