Recipe

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With the perfect amount of holiday spice, these chewy gingerbread cookies are exactly what you want to enjoy with hot cocoa or cold milk!

These chewy gingerbread cookies melt in your mouth and have the perfect blend of spice with richness and soft texture from molasses.

plate of chewy gingerbread molasses cookies

Easy Chewy Ginger Cookies with Molasses

It’s the holidays and baking sugar cookies is a classic. But when my family craves something sweet that takes less time and effort to assemble, I bake these chewy gingerbread cookies!

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.

Ingredients

To create these delicious cookies, you’ll need butter, brown sugar (it has a higher moisture content than regular sugar, making the cookies softer), eggs, molasses (it must be unsulphured like Grandma's Original), all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and spices: ground cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

How to Make Gingerbread Molasses Cookies

Turn up the holiday music and let’s make these chewy gingerbread cookies:

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer or large bowl. Add the egg and molasses and mix until smooth.
Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir into a dough.
Refrigerate the dough until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven and line a baking sheet.
Scoop the dough and roll it into balls. Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet and flatten them with the back of a spoon.
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!

A four-image collage showing steps for making gingerbread cookies. Top left: Dry and wet ingredients combined in a mixing bowl. Top right: The gingerbread dough mixed into a thick, brown batter. Bottom left: Scoops of dough placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bottom right: Baked gingerbread cookies cooling on a wire rack.

Baking Tips

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

Refrigerate the dough. It prevents the cookies from spreading on the baking sheet.

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

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

Don’t overcook. Remove the chewy gingerbread cookies 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

These cookies freeze beautifully! Just follow the steps 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

Other epic recipes to try after you’ve made these chewy gingerbread cookies are gingerbread cake, fudgy red velvet brownies, frozen pumpkin pie, peppermint ice cream brownies, and pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.

Chewy Gingerbread Molasses Cookies

Servings: 24

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 20

With the perfect amount of holiday spice, these chewy gingerbread cookies are exactly what you want to enjoy with hot cocoa or cold milk!

4.95 from 70 votes

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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

Make the cookie dough:

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:

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

Form the cookies:

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:

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.