Today I decided to make my great grandma's Sorghum Snaps for a pot luck at work. I've made this recipe many times before and wondered if I would have anything interesting to write about. Great Grandma never fails to entertain and there were a few interesting mishaps. The recipe calls for a cup of shortening--Great Grandma used lard but since I don't have lard, I used Crisco. Add in a cup of sugar and we were off to a great start. Grab the jar of sorghum and we've hit a road block. I couldn't get the jar open. Sorghum is a sticky substance similar to molasses but a faster moving substance to be sure. I haven't made this cookies for over a year so I was afraid the jar would be glued shut. If my husband Steve had not been home, this entry might be a lot more interesting as I tried to open the jar. But Steve was home and he got the jar to open slowly and we were back in business again. The two eggs that were supposed to go in were resting on the counter. I grabbed one egg, cracked it on the counter and aimed it at the mixing bowl. The egg decided to shoot the opposite direction and some egg white landed on my bright pink shirt. I'm sure Great Grandma was giggling in heaven as she watched me making the cookies. In went the ginger, cinnamon and salt without a problem. Even the baking soda in boiling water didn't cause me any problems. At this point, the dough was a funky gray color... uh oh. I don't remember the dough looking like this. The only choices I have are to throw out the dough and start over OR continue. I felt adventurous (and realized there probably wasn't enough sorghum to start over) so I continued by adding the flour. The dough gradually came back to a brown color and I felt more confident. A little taste of dough confirmed my decision. It tasted exactly the way it was supposed to. I grabbed a small bowl of sugar, the dough and my pans and went to the table. I rolled the dough into balls and then in the dough. Criss-cross with a fork and pop them in the oven. The cookies were coming along great! I even found a way to prevent from having to roll the cookies in the sugar: put the ball of dough on the sugar and swirl the bowl. Genius! Well, it was until I swirled the bowl to hard and sugar fell onto the table. So here I sit, typing with egg white, sugar and flour on shirt... but the cookies came out great! Maybe I was right when I was ten: the cookies will come out great only if you make a huge mess in the kitchen.
