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Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

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Can I interest you in a chewy ginger molasses cookie straight from the oven? With a melt-in-your-mouth texture and holiday spice, these are exactly what you want to enjoy with hot cocoa or cold milk!

It’s the type of dough you scoop and bake, which perfectly suits our level of busyness since all you have to do is mix it in a bowl, bake, and enjoy.

plate of chewy gingerbread molasses cookies

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Molasses

Every bite of these gingerbread cookies offers the perfect blend of spice with richness and soft texture from molasses. You can dust them with sugar before baking or leave them plain; the incredible flavor is all the same!

If you’re in a cookie contest or want a sweet treat to celebrate the holidays, this is THE recipe to make!

What’s the Difference Between Molasses Cookies and Ginger Cookies

While these two cookies contain the same ingredients, molasses cookies are chewier and contain less ginger than your standard gingersnap. After making a batch, you can decide which one is superior.

gingerbread molasses cookies on a cooling rack

Ingredients

Let’s look at what we need to make the best holiday cookies! 

  • Butter: creates a chewy cookie. 
  • Brown sugar: has a higher moisture content than regular sugar, and makes the cookies softer. 
  • Egg: binds the dough. 
  • Molasses: needs to be unsulphured like Grandma’s Original.  
  • All-purpose flour: make sure you measure the flour correctly! 
  • Baking soda: helps the dough rise. 
  • Spices: ground cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. 
  • Salt: enhances the flavor of every other ingredient. 

Grab the ingredient measurements from the recipe card at the very end of this post! 

side by side of wet and dry ingredients for gingerbread cookies

How to Make Gingerbread Molasses Cookies

This is the part where we turn up the holiday music and make the kitchen the coziest place in the house! 

  1. Cream the butter and sugar
    In a stand mixer or large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and molasses and mix until smooth. 
  2. Mix the dry ingredients
    In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir into a dough. 
  3. Chill out
    Refrigerate the dough until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
  4. Roll it out
    Scoop a tablespoon of the dough into the palm of your hand and roll it into a ball. Transfer the cookie to a baking sheet and flatten it with the back of a spoon. 
  5. Bake and enjoy
    Place the cookies in the oven and bake for 8 minutes or until just set. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before taking a bite! 
six cookies lined on a cooling rack

Baking Tips

Before you head to the kitchen, read over these simple tips, so your batch turns out superb! 

Refrigerate the dough
This step makes shaping the cookies easy and prevents them from spreading on the baking sheet. 

Make them uniform in size
So all the cookies bake at the same rate. 

Dust with sugar
Optional, but rolling the cookie dough balls in regular white sugar before baking gives them a decorative look. 

Don’t overcook
Remove them from the oven when they look a little doughy- as they sit on the baking sheet they will finish cooking to perfection. 

gingerbread cookie with a mug of hot cocoa

Can You Freeze Gingerbread Molasses Cookies

Good for us- these cookies freeze beautifully! You can either freeze the baked cookies or unbaked dough. Just follow the step below: 

If you want to freeze cookie dough
Once the dough is prepared, roll it into balls and freeze it on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 30 minutes. Transfer the solid cookies to a freezer bag and store them for up to 3 months. When ready, bake as directed, adding 2 minutes to the initial time.   

If you want to freeze baked cookies
Let the cookies cool completely, then place them in the freezer bag. Freeze them for up to 3 months. To enjoy, remove the desired amount of cookies and allow them to defrost at room temperature. 

More Holiday Dessert Favorites 

There’s no shortage of holiday treats to enjoy, and here are a few more recipes to try after you’ve made these molasses cookies! 

  • Gingerbread Cake
  • Fudgy Red Velvet Brownies
  • Frozen Pumpkin Pie
  • Peppermint Ice Cream Brownies
  • Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Print

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

★★★★★

4.5 from 21 reviews

  • Author: Laura Fuentes
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 24
  • Category: Cookies
  • Method: Oven Baked

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ¼ cup unsulphured molasses
  • 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and mix until smooth. 
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with the baking soda, spices, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to combine into a soft dough. 
  3. Refrigerate for half an hour.
  4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
  5. Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop the dough and roll it into a ball. Place the cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet and flatten them slightly with the back of a spoon. 
  6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies are just set. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. 

Equipment

Clean Treats Cookbook

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Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 cookie
  • Calories: 139
  • Sugar: 10.8 g
  • Sodium: 136.9 mg
  • Fat: 6.1 g
  • Saturated Fat: 3.7 g
  • Trans Fat: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 19.9 g
  • Fiber: 0.4 g
  • Protein: 1.6 g
  • Cholesterol: 23 mg

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @MOMables on Instagram and hashtag it #momables

More Cookies

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  • Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Healthy Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
  • Fudgy Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Reader Interactions

Comments

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    Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

  1. Angel

    November 20, 2017 at 2:38 am

    Withh havin so much content do you ever run into anny problems of plagorusm
    or colpyright violation? My site has a lot of exclusivfe content I’ve either wrtten myself or outsourced but it
    appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without myy permission.
    Do you know any techniques to help prevent content from being ripped off?
    I’d certainly aappreciate it.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  2. Stacy Fellows

    December 09, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    My kids and husband like my chocolate chip peppermint sugar cookies. Your cookies look yummy! Can’t wait to try them, And they are soft and chewy, that is a bonus!

    Reply
  3. Stacy Fellows

    December 09, 2016 at 12:47 pm

    Looks so yummy! Can’t wait to try them.

    Reply
  4. Kristy

    December 08, 2016 at 12:42 pm

    Our favorite cookie is easily just plain old chocolate chips! But for Christmas, we pull out more sweetness and make Kiss Cookies with Hershey kisses, Jam thumbprint cookies, or Caramel Hide-Away cookies. So yummy!

    Reply
  5. Patricia

    December 07, 2016 at 10:56 pm

    My favorite cookie is oatmeal chocolate chip. Oatmeal cookies are good by themselves, but adding dark chocolate in place of the raisins is soo yummy. Can’t wait to try out your recipe here!

    Reply
    • Laura Fuentes

      December 08, 2016 at 7:56 am

      They are so much better when you add chocolate chips…

      Reply
  6. Stephanie

    December 07, 2016 at 9:15 pm

    I have always loved gingerbread boy cut-out cookies. I love frosting them with homemade frosting, sprinkles, and of course, red hots.

    Reply
  7. eve

    December 07, 2016 at 7:44 pm

    I have always loved pfeffernuese, I will have to work on a gluten-free proccessed sugar-free version 🙂 Thanks for sharing these, can’t wait to try them, since my kids love chai these should go over well!

    Reply
  8. Denise

    December 07, 2016 at 7:29 pm

    Snicker doodles are definitely my favorite holiday, any day cookie 🙂

    Reply
  9. Tracie M

    December 07, 2016 at 7:14 pm

    Looks yummy! We usually make gingerbread cookies using whole wheat flour.

    Reply
  10. Tay Johnson

    December 07, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I cannot wait to purchase the ingredients to make these for my family. My husband’s favorite cookie is ginger.

    Happy Holidays

    Reply
    • Laura Fuentes

      December 08, 2016 at 7:56 am

      I hope your entire family enjoys them!

      Reply
      • Tay Johnson

        December 08, 2016 at 3:58 pm

        I will keep you posted 🙂

        Thank you again for sharing your recipe.

        Happy Holidays

        Reply
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