recipe: elevator lady cookies

Growing up my favorite cookies weren't sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies or those awesome peanut butter ones with Hershey kisses. It was my grandmother's awesome spice cookies that we call 'elevator ladies.' Originally from Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook cookbook, Bracken gave her elevator operator a cookie to taste and the elevator lady said her spice cookies were much better. They were and Bracken published them. You can read more about Bracken and her Elevator Lady Spice Cookies here.

We eat them year round in my family, but they are an especially good fall and winter cookie with the clove scent filling your kitchen. Sorry I didn't take pics making them & they got gobbled up pretty quickly!

Recipe

Mix together:

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg, unbeaten
1/4 cup molasses

Then sift together and stir in:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda (bakers above 5,000 feet might want to reduce this slightly)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon powdered cloves
3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

Now mix it all together and form it into walnut-sized balls. Put them 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.