Chewy Pistachio Gingerbread Bites

Inspired by Snixy Kitchen Blog and Martha Stewart I decided to make this recipe instead of my traditional gingerbread recipe that I make every winter.

Now the recipe looks so simple, I figured I'd whip it up in between commercials while watching my favourite show on sunday nights.. little did I know it was a disaster (not the recipe, more like the experience) so I spent my evening making it twice.  The first time I used old molasses, the stuff I had laying around from last year. I knew the texture was off but I ignored my gut (as usual) and went ahead and made it.  Also I baked it in a 9 X 13 instead of the 9X9 in the recipe (there is a huge distance between my living room (computer) and kitchen, I often make this mistake of writing down or remembering the recipe wrong  (I know I know, really should be looking up the recipes on my phone or PRINTING them out, yikes)

Think I learned my lesson.   My only regret was the half cup of pistachios that went into the recipe, they're pretty expensive :( 

Good thing I had just enough pistachios to make another batch, this time I used my glass 8X8 square and baked it at 325 (usually with glass you take 25 degrees off because it heats up more than a typical pan) 

This time I used the good new carton of molasses (just fancy molasses, not even sure what unsulphured molasses is which the recipe asked for)  also 1 tsp - tbsp of oil went into the second batch because I had to coat the measuring cup with it to get the molasses to slip out easily.  

My review on the recipe is that it's still not quite there, I would like to try to experiment and see what I can come up with because it's still a bit dry, and not as chewy as I expected.  

I baked it at the 45 mins and the middle was still runny but I had to turn off the oven because the sides were drying out. I thought I'd saved it in time but the sides ended up having to be sliced off. 

At the end I served them coated in powder sugar (confectioners sugar) and some in cocoa powder (if the bite was a bit sweeter this chocolate combo would really work!)

I'm definitely going to experiment and see what I can come up with to improve this recipe and get it to what I'm looking for.