Learn how to make this delicious, old-fashioned ginger molasses cookies recipe! These are so soft and tasty – you’ve never had a cookie like this before.
To go directly to the recipe, scroll down to the bottom. Otherwise I’ve got some information about this recipe as well as tips and tricks. Enjoy!
‘Tis the season to eat cookies! Tra la la la la, la la la la.
*ahem*
Now that we’re all finished digesting our turkeys and pumpkin pies, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas.
Time for baking cookies, singing carols, and baking more cookies. It’s certainly no time to cut back on butter or sugar, that’s for sure.
Well, at least not if you want to eat these totally delicious ginger molasses cookies. This recipe is large enough for a Christmas cookie exchange – you’ll get 48 cookies total!
These old fashioned cookies are so good. Seriously, so so good. They’re perfect little pillows of soft and chewy, fudgy, spicy, buttery, ginger cinnamon goodness.
A good molasses cookie is soft, mild, sugar-y, and kinda fudge-y. That’s my humble opinion.
How do you make these cookies soft?
The recipe is designed so that the cookies retain moisture. Binding the water in all of the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients slows the evaporation. It’s important that you follow the recipe exactly so that you get soft, old-fashioned style cookies.
How long do these cookies last?
Make sure to place these cookies in a loosely covered container at room temperature. These will last about a week to two weeks . . . the more they are exposed to air, the more moisture they lose. That means over time, they aren’t as soft. But they are still delicious!
Now that we’re done with all that, let’s dive into the recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup molasses
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
Additional Thoughts for This Recipe:
- Don’t skip chilling the dough. In addition to making the dough easier to roll, it keeps the cookies from spreading and enhances the flavor. It should be a minimum of 30 minutes but ideally an hour or more.
- Cold ingredients should be at room temperature (egg, butter) but don’t leave them out too long. You don’t want the butter melted at all. It should be soft.
- Let your pan cool between batches of cookies (it helps to have two pans in rotation). This keeps the cookies from spreading a lot.
- I swear by USA Pans. They are my absolutely favorite and cook baked items so evenly.
- Check the cookies regularly through the baking process and go by how they look versus the time on the recipe. Just because everyone’s ovens are different!
Once your baked goodies are out of the oven and moved to the cooling rack, it’s time to dig in. Serve, eat, enjoy with cold milk.
Let me know if you try this molasses ginger cookie recipe in the comments! I’d also love for you to try our gingerbread cupcakes, muffins, or bundt cake for additional ginger desserts you’ll love.
Ginger Molasses Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Mixer
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 egg(s) room temperature
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs and molasses, and beat on medium-low speed until combined.
- While wet batter is mixing, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredient mixture into the creamed butter and molasses mixture with the mixer on medium-low. Mix dough until ingredients are just combined.
- Cover and refrigerate cookie dough for at one hour or until thoroughly chilled.
- Preheat oven to 375°F and cover a pan with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into balls around 1 – 1.5 inches in diameter. Fill a bowl with the sugar, and roll each ball in sugar until it is completely coated.
- Place on cookie sheet at least 1.5 inches apart, then bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. Cookies will firm up as they cool, so don’t worry if they appear undercooked.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for five minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Video
Nutrition
If you love cookie recipes like this one, let me know in the comments! Also try these other cookie recipes I love:
Apricot Dark Chocolate • Bacon Chocolate Chip • Brownie Chocolate Chip • Buckeye • Butterscotch Popcorn • Chocolate Chip Pudding • Chocolate Chip Sandwich • Chocolate Crinkles • Chocolate Marshmallow • Chocolate Mint Sandwich • Chocolate Thumbprint • Christmas Butter • Christmas Linzer • Heath Bar • Nutella Stuffed • Oatmeal Cream Pies • Peanut Butter Blossoms • Peppermint Frosted • Red Velvet Thumbprint • Reindeer • Jam Thumbprints (Classic) • Vanilla • White Chocolate Cranberry
Nicole
Sunday 19th of November 2023
This is the chewy and crinkly ginger cookie recipe that I have been searching for, for years! My friend’s grandma used to make these when we were teenagers but sadly she passed away and the recipe was never known. I have been searching for a recipe that bakes up similar to hers for 20+ years and this is it!! Chewy, flat and cracked on top. So good!