These Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies are easy to make, super-soft and chewy, and irresistibly delicious.
It seems a bold move to declare an all-time favorite cookie. But after having been on Team Molasses for going on over three decades now, and already whipped up my third batch of molasses dough in a month, I’ve gotta say that I don’t foresee any allegiance shifts happening soon. So with that said, allow me to introduce you to my all-time favorite cookies…
…the most delicious, soft, chewy, gingery, life-changing molasses cookies. ♡♡♡
My love for these molasses cookies is entirely thanks to my mom, who baked fresh batches of cookies for our family pretty much every week when we were growing up. Granted, she was always a bit mystified that her oldest daughter (hi, Mom) never inherited her obsession with all kinds of chocolate cookies, which will forever and always be her all-time faves. But molasses cookies were always a compromise we could both agree on. We both love these cookies.
This time of year, they are still the first recipe to which I always turn for holiday cookie baking. And this year in particular, they’ve been extra fun to share with all of our European friends who — as it turns out — maybe love them even more than we do! Ha, every time that we have served them to our friends, and our Spanish class, our neighbors, everyone goes crazy for them. Which means that we never come home with leftovers. Which just means that we have to keep baking more, naturally. Which requires exactly zero twisting of my arm. More molasses cookies for all!
Anyway, these cookies are clearly a hit. So as part of our week of cookies here on the blog, I thought I would bump this recipe back up to the top of the pile today for some non-chocolate cookie inspiration. I initially shared this recipe on the blog nine years ago. But that said, a number of you have reported over the years that your cookies have spread a bit more than you like. So I’ve been tinkering around with our family recipe this fall, and have made a few small adjustments to the recipe below that should help them to stay nice and thick and chewy, without compromising the flavor of the cookies at all. (Although if your cookies do ever flatten out, I promise they’ll still be delicious.)
So I hope that you enjoy them as much as we do, and if you decide to bake up a batch, I’d love to hear how they go! Enjoy, everyone!
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies Ingredients:
To make this chewy ginger molasses cookies recipe, you will need:
- Butter: Completely softened to room temperature (not melted, or else it will not cream properly with the sugars)
- Sugars: I use half granulated (white) sugar, half packed brown sugar, plus extra sugar for rolling the dough balls.
- Molasses: I typically opt for “original” (versus dark) unsulphured molasses.
- Eggs and baking soda: Two soft and chewy cookie staples.
- Flour: I typically use all-purpose flour for this classic recipe, but white whole wheat flour can work too.
- Spices: We will use a mixture of ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Feel free to tinker around with the spice proportions to taste.
- Salt: To bring out all of those delicious flavors.
How To Make Molasses Cookies:
To make these homemade molasses cookies, simply:
- Whisk together dry ingredients. Flour, soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
- Cream together butter and sugars. Using a separate mixing bowl, either with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugars on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides occasionally as needed.
- Mix in the remaining wet and dry ingredients. Mix in the eggs (one at a time) and molasses, and beat on medium-low speed until each is combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat until it is evenly incorporated.
- Chill the dough. Transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until the dough is completely chilled. I know — the extra chilling time is substantial, and very tempting to skip. But this particular dough, with all of its butter and molasses, really does need a thorough chilling to prevent the cookies from spreading. Worth the wait, I promise. :)
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and set aside.
- Roll the dough balls. Once the dough is chilled and firm, roll the dough into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter. Fill a separate small bowl with sugar, and roll each ball in the sugar until it is completely coated. Place dough balls on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. (They will crack more while cooling.) Remove from the oven and let cool for 4-5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
- Serve. Serve warm and enjoy, or store in a sealed container for up to 4 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
Possible Variations:
Want to mix things up with your ginger cookies? Feel free to:
- Add in extra ginger: I also really love adding some chopped crystallized ginger to these cookies for added ginger flavor and crunch.
- Frost your cookies: A really light glaze is delicious atop these cookies. Or if you really want to go for it, cream cheese frosting is divine.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes:
Looking for more delicious cookie inspiration? Feel free to check out our full collection of cookie recipes, or any of these other favorite classic cookies:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- No-Bake Cookies
- Brown Sugar Cookies
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (340g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated white sugar
- 1 cup (213g) packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (170g) unsulphured molasses
- 2 large eggs
- 4 1/2 cups (639 grams*) all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Set aside.
- Using a separate mixing bowl, either with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugars on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides occasionally as needed. Mix in the eggs (one at a time) and molasses, and beat on medium-low speed until each is combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat until it is evenly incorporated.
- Transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until the dough is completely chilled.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper; set aside.
- Roll the dough into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter. Fill a separate small bowl with sugar, and roll each ball in the sugar until it is completely coated. Place dough balls on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. (They will crack more while cooling.) Remove from the oven and let cool for 4-5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
- Serve warm and enjoy, or store in a sealed container for up to 4 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
This recipe contains affiliate links.
Hi,
I’ve tried this recipe a couple of times and the cookies drastically, dramatically spread out, like across-the-cookie-sheet-down-into-the-oven spread out. The butter was room temperature; the dough was ice cold; the eggs sat out on the kitchen table for hours. I even reduced the amount of butter crazily for the second round. Something isn’t right in the state of Denmark. Is this blog real? Are these positive commenters real? Are you a robot? Are you Fancy/Cozy Bear? WTF? How do you get top-google-hit-billing for such disastrous cookies? I’m an American human and this recipe didn’t work.
-Disappointed in Des Moines
It could be your butter’s fat content…I’ve never had these NOT turn out well, but I’m in Utah where the elevation is quite high?
If you’re willing to try again, maybe add a bit more flour?
I’ve had mine spread too much, and even my good batches aren’t just like the photos here (they’re thinner but soft and chewy) BUT they are a hit with everyone. Friends and relatives always ask me to bring them for holidays now.
I’ve made them enough that I tend to know when the dough is too thin, and then I just add a bit more flour and they turn out. Making them in two batches also ensures my second batch is perfect. They’re worth the trial and error!
Can I use gluten-free flour for these cookies? Hope you respond quickly, I want to make these Wednesday. ?
Hi Jill — we haven’t experimented with a gluten-free version of these, but it’s worth a shot. If you try it, let us know how they turn out!
HELP!!! I put 2 tsp of ginger, should have been 1. What are my options?
Hi Kala! You might want to just go ahead and double the whole recipe then, otherwise these will be super gingery (but if you reeeeally love ginger, that might be okay)!
I’ve been looking for a good recipe for Ginger Molasses Cookies, and this looks great! I’ve already made the dough and it’s cooling now. Tastes great, so far. There’s a lot of comments about cookies turning out flat, and one thing not mentioned so far is making sure the eggs are room temp before adding them. I’ve seen untrained bakers cream butter and sugar beautifully until it’s fluffy for several minutes, then turn it into a sorry mess with cold eggs straight from the fridge. Sugar crystals help beat air into the butter- keep it fluffy.
Thanks for pointing that out Tom, you’re exactly right — it’s crucial for the eggs to be room temp as well!
I absolutely love ginger Molasses cookies and was thrilled when i found this recipe. The first time i made it, it came out perfectly!! This is also my neighbor’s fav cookie and he absolutely loved them! The recipe seems to be the perfect ratio of ingredients. The recipe is a crowd pleaser with our friends and family! Thank you so much for sharing it!!
Thank you for sharing with us, Rachel — we’re so happy these were a hit with folks! :)
Just made these, bought the baking soda new, they would be perfect in the oven but when I took them out of oven they slowly flattened. Is it possible to beat the dough too much?
Hi Donna! We’re sorry to hear this happened. :( Was your butter definitely at room temp? You can’t really cream the butter and sugar too long, but you don’t want to overmix the dough after you’ve added your eggs and dry ingredients. Either one of those two things could have contributed to them flattening. We hope they still tasted good!
These are wonderful! Just wanted to add that cutting this down to a yield of one dozen requires the following measurements:
1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1/6 cup molasses
2/3 eggs
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2/3 teaspoons ground ginger
1/3 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 teaspoon salt
And they come out just fine. :)
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Chelsea, and thanks for sharing this! :)
Can i possibly roll it in powdered sugar and out turn out just as good?
Hi Cassandra! We’ve never tried that, but you’re welcome to!
When baking mine, I take them out of the oven right at 8 minutes even when they still look wet. This makes them soft and chewy. Unless you want them harder, then bake for the full 10 minutes.
So glad to see you changed it to a higher amount of cookies. I printed it months ago and my recipe says 28-32. I easily got 64. These were moderate one inch balls. They make beautiful cookies. Delicious as well!! Followed the recipe exactly. Used my kitchen aid and just kept mixing. Thanks for the recipe. Will use again!
Yes, we definitely made an error there! :) We’re so happy you love the cookies!