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.
Thank you for sharing, these look delicious!
There cookies are DELICIOUS! We made it tonight and have already eaten a dozen between the two of us! Thanks for sharing such a tasty recipe.
I’ve been making these every Christmas for the last few years now and they’re always a hit with my whole family! They’re absolutely delicious, but over time I’ve adjusted the recipe slightly to make them a little spicier and more presentable. These tend to spread a lot no matter how long I chill them so I’ve started adding extra flour a tablespoon at a time until I get a better consistency (about 2 tablespoons extra seems to be the magic number). I also add an extra teaspoon of baking soda and make sure to chill the dough several hours. This gives me more uniform cookies that rise perfectly and maintain their shape. I also like to add an extra teaspoon or two of cinnamon and about half a teaspoon extra of ground cloves. I also mix in a little cinnamon with the sugar I roll the dough balls in. PS the recipe makes a TON of cookies but if your family is like mine they’ll disappear quickly!
These cookies are delicious! I made them for a get together and they were a hit. The recipe made so many that I took a bunch to my volunteer gig and shared them there as well. Every single comment I got was overwhelmingly positive! One person said they were her favorite cookie from this holiday season. The only thing I didn’t like was that they spread out and were very thin. No one else seemed worried about it. I will definitely be making them again!
I made these for Christmas and EVERYONE loved them, they were the first dessert to go. I decreased both of the sugars by 25% as I find most cookies too sweet for my tastes and doubled the spices, including adding 1 tsp of cardamon. The cooking time was a tad too short for my oven – had to go to 12 minutes and they were still perfectly chewy in the center with crisp outsides, perhaps this increase in time was necessary from decreasing the sugar.
Ginger molasses cookies are my husband’s favorite and I’ve never made him any for fear of screwing them up. I made these for our anniversary yesterday and they are amazing! I chopped up a little candied ginger and threw it in there for extra zing, so good. So easy. I even let the dough sit in the fridge overnight and they turned out great.
Sure enough, mine flattened out too! Well, the first batch I guess I put the dough balls too closely together, so they all ran into each other and when I separated them, they’re not circular but rather like five sided shapes. The second round I obviously spaced them much better and they came out PERFECT. I recommend giving more space than you think you need for each dough ball- they did not spread too wide, they came out perfectly shaped into crystallized circles, the tops crinkled just right. Now I know for next time- and I think I’ll double up on the spices as well. Thanks for a great recipe!
Great recipe Ali! I bake and cook a ton and this is the only recipe that I’ve made that I don’t want to tweak. I followed the new updated recipe but I used the old cooking temperature of 375. Baked for 10 minutes exactly and they come out perfect every time!
I’m excited to test this out! Have you ever used fresh ginger instead of the dry.
Soo good! Halved the sugar and added fresh ginger. Yum! Glad I found the recipe. Mine cracked, but didn’t spread like in your picture. How do I get them to spread? They were in a ball, cracked and just turned into thick Disc like shapes instead Of the flat spread out shape above. I let it sit in the fridge uncovered for about 2.5 hours. Any ideas? Thanks!