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.
Thanks for the fab recipe! These cookies are exactly as delicious as I wanted them to be! They fulfilled my cookie fantasy! Chewy, but still a bit crispy on the edges, not too sweet, perfectly spiced. No need for glaze or frosting. My son and I had them with a small glass of milk. I had to put them away so I’d stop eating them :-)
Excellent cookie! Followed recipe exactly and they were delicious and chewy. They didn’t crinkle like others noted and were very thin and flat, but that is just a visual appearance…..the cookie itself is perfectly spiced and sweet, not too sweet and not overly spicy. Per my family…it’s a keeper!
I have now made this recipe 4x in the past week – it’s seriously that good. It’s not only fantastic as is, but I also used gluten-free 1:1 flour AND an egg substitute the first time and my friend who received the cookies still raves about them. (I used the Cup4Cup GF flour and Bob’s Red Mill egg substitute, FYI). The 2nd and 4th time I also used GF flour, and the 3rd time was totally normally. Every single batch turned out fantastically. I have given these to so many people and they say it’s the best molasses cookie they’ve had.
I also live at altitude (5,300 ft) so I always add 5 degrees to the temp. I baked for 10 mins at 355, flattened the cookies with a spatula, and cooked for 1-3 more minutes depending on whether it was on the top or bottom shelf of my oven.
Hi! I first made this recipe in 2015 and have been using it ever since because it is amazing! Since it was so long ago, I use your original recipe. I wanted to send the link to a friend and that’s when I saw you had updated the recipe. Do you have any link to the old recipe? I know it’s a winner and it’s always a hit when I make it for people, so I want to stick with that recipe. Thanks! :)
so great!! i ran out of APF so i had to use a 1/2 c whole wheat flour & honestly i think it helped with the crunch. i also rolled them into balls & sugar and then put them outside in the 32° cold for 30 minutes instead of putting the whole dough ball in the fridge for 2 hours (being impatient & taking advantage of the cold lol) and they cracked and rose beautifully!!
These are beyond outstanding!! I have never liked this type of cookie (made these for my husband and his family) and even I loooooved them! Question for next time: was I supposed to use light or dark brown sugar? I used light, as it was what I had open. Thank you!
Followed your recipe exactly and the flavours are wonderful! I noticed mine don’t flatten out and spread out as far though! Should I flatten the cookies first? Any ideas why these aren’t spreading as far? (Ive tried room temperature and chilled)
Delicious, but bake at 375, not 350. They crackle better. In the recipe itself, it says 350, but in the video and elsewhere it says 375. Also the video shows only white sugar, but I used half brown sugar, as the recipe says. My first batch, I hadn’t placed the balls far enough apart, and they baked into each other. I spaced further next time, and they baked up very nicely. Thank you for a tasty cookie.
I went by the recipe but my cookies are not flat as pictured. Do I have to flatten them or what??
The taste and texture on these cookies are amazing!! I didn’t have cloves, so I substituted allspice. I did 1tsp of allspice and reduced the cinnamon to 1.5tsp. The cookies were super simple to make and turned out incredible. This did make a ton of cookies, so after baking some, I rolled the rest and put it in the freezer.