OK I need a bit of help finding a recipe for a soft, dark faairly molassass-y cookie. I have tried a couple recipes and they dont come out the way I remember the ones from my childhood.
They were thin, and sort of soft-bendy-almost crumbly, very dark and molassassy with raisins and no nuts. Lightly spiced, probably cinnamon with a small dash of nutmeg.
The recipies I have found al make a very solid almost shortbread light tan cookie.
Anybody able to help me from this vague description?
1956 Betty Crocker cookbook to the rescue! It doesn’t have raisins or nuts, but I’m sure you could add them without adjusting the recipe.
Preheat over to 375 degrees.
Mix thoroughly:
3/4 cup soft shortening
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1/4 molasses
Sift together and stir in:
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
Chill dough.
Form into balls the size of large walnuts. Dip tops in sugar. Place, sugared side up, 3" apart on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops of water to produce a crackled surface. Bake 10-12 minutes - until just set, but not hard
Yield: about 4 dozen 2 1/2" cookies.
And boy, are they yummy!!
mrAru says that is more like a snickerdoodle, but he remembers a different recipe in there that they called a shewey molassas cookie?
The cookies I remember werent dipped in sugar, or crackly , they were smooth, fairly thin/flat and bendy/chewy/slightly crumbly uit not shortbread crumbly/hard crumbly
My gramma’s ginger snaps are soft, dark, and very molasses-y because they’re made with blackstrap molasses specifically. I’d recommend using blackstrap instead of dark molasses in any recipe you try. Good luck!
The Elevator Lady Spice Cookies from the I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken sound like they might fit the bill… again, no raisins, but you can easily add some to the recipe (I’d say 1/2 cup or so).
They’re uncannily similar to the Betty Crocker cookies, actually, so I guess now we know where Peg’s Elevator Lady got her recipe. 
not sure if it is a national brand, but Archway brand molassas cookies are sort of the texture I am talking about, or as close as I can think of in a commercial product=)