( This Installment of Cookie of the Month was brought to you by  a colleague of my wife, who sent us this brand new addiction as a Christmas present. God Bless You, Christina Oh! )

C

   I was tempted to knock the M&M off its current Cookie of the Month pedestal after sinking my teeth into two or three of these babies: Molasses Clove cookies. Clearly, the tried and true M&M didn’t deserve a kick to the curb but this new treat had temporarily fuddled up my thoughts.  With my eyes rolling back in my head, chanting mmuuuhhhhuhuh muuuuuhhhh after each chewy, sprinklely gnaw at ecstasy I had to shove my daughter off my lap as I became snickerdoodled into a case of gonflement phallique.  It could have made for some necessarily awkward explanations – I haven’t yet cozied up to the notion of explaining boy physiology to girl-children or how Dad came to be the kind of weirdo who gets semis over baked goods. Digress and digress. Anyhow I turned to her with half a mouthful and lips glittering with spiced sugar granules and exclaimed “Holy tshschit, Elsie! You gotta try one of these…”

   After a hesitant nibble, Elsie grimaced and said, “I don’t like it, Daddy”

   Freakin’ little pretend Philistine, I thunk. I know her routine – she hates everything at first but I’ll be stowing the Molasses Clove cookies on top of the cabinets anyway. When it comes to treats like these, her initial, sneering disapproval is a ruse; she’ll be raiding my stash the moment I turn my back. And demand was going to annihilate the supply rapidly as her brother Jack was already hooked, evidenced by his crumb-spackled grin and continuing crotch adjustments.

   Now, the cookie’s name might leave a bit too much to the imagination. You could be reading this and thinking, “Molasses & Clove? Gaaaack, I hate both of those flavors. Screw that cookie and damn it all to hell!” To which I’d reply, “Nooo! No, no, no! Just shut up for a second and put one of these in your cursing mullet…mmm? Ahh? See? I told you….”One of the real beauties of this succulent biscuit is that it ain’t particularly deep on molasses flavor and the cloves are but a teasing waft – like driving through mountainous  Kintamani in Bali or romping through Santa’s laundry. They’re exactly like gingerbread – if you could remove all the suck from that traditional holiday abomination. Ginger bread usually has too much clove and molasses – but Molasses Clove cookies don’t.

   I may take a stab at recreating these over the weekend and building a suck-free gingerbread house. A huge Molasses Clove castle to crawl inside at night to be alone with my dirty, dirty bakery fantasies. I’ll probably need a moat and some cannons to defend it. My duplicitous, demon-angel just came into the kitchen to ask, “Daddy…can I have one of those cookies?

   What cookies, Elsie? I don’t know anything about any cookies…

Get the fix here – http://www.dancingdeer.com   They appear to sell them at dandy grocery stores too.