Moravian Spice Cookies
North Carolina's paper-thin holiday cookies: a molasses, brown sugar and shortening dough with cloves, ginger and cinnamon, chilled overnight, rolled as thin as you dare and baked in minutes.
NCpedia, the State Library of North Carolina's encyclopedia, says the Moravian spice cookie descends from German Lebkuchen and came to central North Carolina with Moravian settlers in 1753; it was flavored with molasses, ginger and cloves, made for holidays because spices were costly, and early Moravians called the cookies "cakes". The dough was made in big batches and kept for days or weeks, which deepened the spice, and it was rolled about one millimeter thin, so a batch stretched further and baked quickly. Winston-Salem is still the center of production, with bakeries including Salem Baking Company, Dewey's Bakery and Mrs. Hanes' Moravian Cookies (NCpedia). The North Carolina Folklife Institute's recipe came from Edna Spach and Pearl Edwards, members of Trinity Moravian Church who made and sold the cookies around Winston-Salem in the 1950s and 1960s.
🇺🇸 This one is American
North Carolina's paper-thin holiday cookies: a molasses, brown sugar and shortening dough with cloves, ginger and cinnamon, chilled overnight, rolled as thin as you dare and baked in minutes.
🇩🇪 The original
Europe's holiday cookies came first: Nuremberg's spiced nut Lebkuchen, Scottish shortbread and Tuscan cantucci, recipes that German, Scottish and Italian immigrants carried to America. See the Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen recipe.
📖 Origin story: What Is Lebkuchen? Nuremberg's Christmas Spice Cake, Explained →
Why it works the kitchen science
A cold, stiff dough
The overnight chill firms the shortening and molasses so the dough can be rolled very thin without tearing, and the spices bloom as it rests.
Thin and quick
NCpedia notes that molasses bakes very hard, so a thick cookie would be hard to bite; rolled thin, it bakes in minutes into a crisp snap.
Step by step
- Step 1
In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the shortening into the molasses, brown sugar and spices, stirring until smooth, about 5 minutes. Do not let it scorch.
- Step 2
Stir in the baking soda until dissolved; the mixture foams up hard. Take it off the heat, pour it into a large heatproof bowl and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
- Step 3
Stir in the flour until fully combined, form a ball, wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight.
- Step 4
Heat the oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Flour the counter and rolling pin well.
- Step 5
Cut off a fist-sized piece of dough and keep the rest cold. Roll it 1/8 inch thick or thinner, adding flour as needed, and cut 2-inch rounds (scalloped if you have the cutter). Brush off excess flour and move them to the sheet.
- Step 6
Bake 7 to 10 minutes, until barely browned around the edges. Cool on the sheet a minute, then on a rack; they crisp as they cool.
- Step 7
Repeat with the remaining dough, working with cold pieces. Reroll scraps once.
Moravian Spice Cookies
Serves 24 (4 cookies each) · about 8 dozen 2-inch cookies at 1/8 inch thick (our estimate; roll thinner for more) · 1 hr 40 min total
Syrup
- 1 cup (340 g) molasses
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp packed (3 oz, 85 g) brown sugar
- 1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp (3 oz, 85 g) vegetable shortening
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Dough
- 3 cups plus 1 tbsp (13 oz, 369 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
Method
- In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the shortening into the molasses, brown sugar and spices, stirring until smooth, about 5 minutes. Do not let it scorch.
- Stir in the baking soda until dissolved; the mixture foams up hard. Take it off the heat, pour it into a large heatproof bowl and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
- Stir in the flour until fully combined, form a ball, wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight.
- Heat the oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Flour the counter and rolling pin well.
- Cut off a fist-sized piece of dough and keep the rest cold. Roll it 1/8 inch thick or thinner, adding flour as needed, and cut 2-inch rounds (scalloped if you have the cutter). Brush off excess flour and move them to the sheet.
- Bake 7 to 10 minutes, until barely browned around the edges. Cool on the sheet a minute, then on a rack; they crisp as they cool.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, working with cold pieces. Reroll scraps once.
Adapted from the North Carolina Folklife Institute, "Moravian Cookies" (December 21, 2012), which first appeared in "The Old Salem Museum and Gardens Cookbook". The original makes "a LOT of cookies" (a quart of molasses and 3 1/4 lb of flour) and says to halve or quarter it; we give a quarter batch. Cups and weights for the quarter batch, the 2-inch cutter and the yield are ours. ncfolk.org. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- NC Folklife says rolled sheets of dough freeze up to 3 months; let them sit 5 to 10 minutes before cutting.
- Roll between sheets of parchment if the dough sticks; chill again whenever it softens.
- Store airtight; they keep for weeks.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- They descend from Lebkuchen. Documented as NCpedia's account.
- They must be paper thin. Documented as tradition (NCpedia: about one millimeter); NC Folklife's family recipe allows 1/4 to 1/8 inch.
- The dough must rest. Disputed: NC Folklife says some recipes call for an overnight rest and others are mix, roll and bake.
- Spice cookies are only for Christmas. Folklore: NCpedia says they were made for holidays and special occasions; Winston-Salem bakeries sell them year-round in flavors from lemon to key lime.
- "The world's thinnest cookie." Folklore: a common marketing line we could not trace to any measurement.
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