n a medium bowl stir together the dry ingredients and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter just until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until smooth, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides of the bowl.

Stir in the molasses and egg.

Mix in the dry ingredients gradually until the dough is smooth.

Roll the dough into a shape of a log and wrap with plastic wrap then roll lightly on the counter to smooth them out. Freeze the cookie logs for about 30 minutes or until they become firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) if you are using a convection oven reduce the temperature to 325F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Slice cookie dough into ¼-inch (a scant 1 cm) rounds with a sharp knife. Dip one side and press firmly in a bowl of coarse sugar if you want (you can also use granulated sugar instead), and place sugar-side up on baking sheet, evenly-spaced apart. Leave a couple of inches, about 5 cm, between cookies since they’ll spread while baking.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until deep-golden brown. The cookies will puff up a bit while baking, and then settle down when they’re done. Bake 10 minutes for softer cookies, and 5 minutes more for snappier ones, depending on your oven.

Let the cookies cool two minutes, then remove them with a spatula and transfer them to a cooling rack.

Enjoy as much you wish.