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.

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.

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!

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!
- 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. - 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. - Chill out
Refrigerate the dough until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. - 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. - 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!

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.

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!
Ginger Molasses Cookies
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Refrigerate for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- 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.
- 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

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
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Stacy Fellows
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!
Stacy Fellows
Looks so yummy! Can’t wait to try them.
Kristy
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!
Patricia
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!
Laura Fuentes
They are so much better when you add chocolate chips…
Stephanie
I have always loved gingerbread boy cut-out cookies. I love frosting them with homemade frosting, sprinkles, and of course, red hots.
eve
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!
Denise
Snicker doodles are definitely my favorite holiday, any day cookie 🙂
Tracie M
Looks yummy! We usually make gingerbread cookies using whole wheat flour.
Tay Johnson
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
Laura Fuentes
I hope your entire family enjoys them!
Tay Johnson
I will keep you posted 🙂
Thank you again for sharing your recipe.
Happy Holidays