Slower than Molasses

But not tastier! I decided to make a batch of molasses cookies last night. I used to make these with my mother when I was a kid and I always enjoyed rolling the cookie dough into little balls and then covering them with sugar. Yum. I did not remember the process being quite this labor-intensive. Everything went well, up until the baking part, which is sort of important. The first batch looked good (puffy and golden brown, just like the recipe said), so I took them out and let them cool on the air bake sheet before moving them to a cooling rack. Problem number 1. The cookies were a little undercooked on the bottom, a problem I experience frequently with the air bake sheets. It was late and I was sort of tired (problem number 2), so I made a bad decision. I thought I would just throw the cooling rack in for a minute to give the cookies a little more time. Now, if you've never made molasses cookies, you might not be aware, but molasses stays sort of liquid as it cooks, until it cools. My 12 or so cookies melted all over the bottom of the oven, dripping everywhere (problem number 3). And then continuing to cook / burn (problem number 4). I don't know how, but I managed to prevent the smoke detector from gong off (no small feat because I have set it off with far less smoke)! I learned my lesson and the rest of the cookies turned out ok. The house went from smelling like wonderful spices to smoke. Maybe some of it seeped over into my new neighbor's house -- seems he has a new roomie and they are smoking, which somehow finds its way over to my place. I cleaned the oven this morning and all is well.