Chewy Molasses Cookies

Homemade Chewy Molasses Cookies are made with ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and molasses. They’re an old fashioned molasses cookie recipe perfect for the holiday season (my favorite Christmas cookie!).

Molasses Cookies 

While there’s a lot more to the season than decorating (and eating) Christmas cookies, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a lot of homemade, festive, ’tis-the-season-type of cookies.

From super soft and chewy sugar cookies to pumpkin cookies to even buttery maple sugar cookies, it’s a full on cookie bakery around here during the holiday season. 

And you know what? I don’t hate it. 

All too soon January will arrive and so will those let’s-eat-healthier resolutions, which always end before February in a pile of guilt and chocolate brownies.

(Or, at least they do for me 😉)

So for now, I’m enjoying all things Christmas beginning with my favorite recipe: Chewy Molasses Cookies (aka Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies). 

Why Is This The Best Molasses Cookie Recipe? 

Honestly, it’s not just the fact these molasses ginger cookies are soft and chewy with rich flavors of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves (although that in and of itself makes these cookies top notch), it’s that this is a recipe my mom has been making since we were kids. They’re a soft molasses cookie with a nice chew in the center. They’re a little buttery, warmly spiced, and taste like the holidays. 

Sweet and chewy and rolled in sugar, they’re the love child of a ginger molasses cookie and a sugar cookie, making a perfectly spiced molasses sugar cookie.

Ginger Molasses Cookies Recipe

The recipe for old fashioned molasses cookies comes from a cookbook my elementary school put on as a school fundraiser. 

Parents submitted their favorite tried & true recipes while the students got to participate in a photo shoot at a local restaurant. We were able to tour the restaurant kitchen, and each of us received a chef’s hat and apron. As a first grader, this field trip was something I’d remember forever, and I felt incredibly important knowing I would be photographed in a real cookbook. 

Of course, the only people buying the cookbooks were other parents of children in the school, but I still felt like we were celebrities on the red carpet. 

Apart from having my cute missing-tooth-smile-and-all face in the cookbook, the best part might just be the recipe for these molasses spice cookies.

In keeping with the Christmas theme, as stated in Love Actually, to me, these are perfect.

Chewy Molasses Cookies Ingredients:

Wondering what is in molasses cookies?

• molasses
• unsalted butter
• flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger
• brown sugar and granulated sugar
• egg

How To Make a Chewy, Soft Molasses Cookie:

Making spiced cookies from scratch is very simple–it only requires a few ingredients and time to chill in the fridge.

• Cream: Cream the butter and sugar mixture together, until light and fluffy.
• Wet Ingredients: Then, add in the egg and molasses. Cream until well combined.
• Dry Ingredients: Add in flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Mix until combined.
• Chill: Allow the dough to chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Bake: Roll into small balls and roll in sugar. Bake until they are puffed and begin to crack.
• Cool: Allow the cookies to cool on the pan. They will flatten a bit (think snickerdoodle). 

Storage Tips:

• Store these molasses sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. (I actually think these cookies get even richer in flavor the next day!)
• Molasses cookies are good for 3-4 days when stored properly, however in my house, they last closer to 2 days because they’re so irresistible. 

Pro Tip: 

If your cookies are slightly over baked, a trick to softening them (or keeping cookies soft in general) is to add a few marshmallows in your airtight container. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the marshmallows and stay soft. 

Try These Other Christmas Cookies Next:

• Maple Snickerdoodles
• Chocolate Cutout Sugar Cookies
• Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
• White Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookies
• Pumpkin Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies Tips & Tricks

• Chill: Make sure you chill the dough for at least an hour, otherwise the cookies will spread. 
• Size: When your roll the cookies into balls, make sure you don’t make them too big. I suggest making them about the size of walnut (or about 1 Tbsp of dough).
• Sugar: Roll the cookies in granulated sugar before baking. I also like to sprinkle a bit more on top after baking.
• Quick: These cookies bake quickly, so keep an eye on them. 
• Similar to snickerdoodles, as soon as the cookies puff up, begin to crack, and are just slightly underdone, take them out of the oven. They will flatten a bit (totally normal).  

5 from 1 vote

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Chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Chill Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 30 mins

 

Homemade Chewy Molasses Cookies are made with ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and molasses. They’re an old fashioned molasses cookie recipe perfect for the holiday season.

Course: Cookies

Cuisine: American

Keyword: molasses cookies

Servings: 2 Dozen

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 cup sugar, for rolling

Instructions

1. With a standing mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Add in the molasses and the egg, and beat the dough until well combined.

3. Add in flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Mix until combined well combined.

4. Chill dough for at least 1 hour.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

6. Roll dough into about 1 1/2" balls (about the size of a walnut), and roll in granulated sugar. Place each cookie about 2" apart on the baking sheet.

7. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies begin to puff up and crack. Let the cookies cool on the baking trays until they set (the cookies will flatten a bit--this is totally normal).

8. Sprinkle with extra sugar, if desired. Let the cookies finish cooling a wire rack.

Here are some other favorite Christmas cookie recipes:

Maple Snickerdoodles

Chewy Maple Sugar Cookies

Cream Cheese Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Updated in 2021.