These old-fashioned molasses cookies are rich and buttery, with just the right amount of warming ginger spice. Perfectly paired with a tall glass of cold milk or some fresh apple cider.
I’ve loved big, chewy, soft molasses cookies since I was a little girl. It was always a special day when Mom let me help make our special molasses cookie recipe.
I use Einkorn flour for this molasses cookie recipe since that’s my favorite flour of choice, but sprouted flour is also great. If you don’t have either of those, organic unbleached all purpose flour will also work.
The Key to Soft Molasses Cookies
It may be tempting to add more molasses to these cookies – but just because molasses is in the name doesn’t mean more is better. Too much liquid and your soft molasses cookies will turn flat and dense, more crispy than chewy.
Same goes for adding more butter or coconut oil to the mix: what’s in the recipe is the Goldilocks amount – not too much and not too little. It’s juuuuust right.
Cooking time is the next key for perfectly chewy and soft cookies. The cooking time below is what worked best for me. But as we all know, oven times and temperatures can vary for so many reasons.
The size of your cookie is a big factor (pun totally intended). I made extra big cookies which required a wee bit more cooking time than regular size ones.
To bake this molasses cookies recipe to perfection, you might want to let the first batch cool enough to see what the results are – then you can adjust cooking time as needed. A little more time for a little more crisp, a little less time for the soft & chewy texture.
Old-fashioned Molasses Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup organic molasses
- 3/4 cup butter (melted)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
Instructions
- Stir dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Mix the egg, molasses, melted butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
- Stir flour mixture into the wet ingredients a little at a time. Mix until well blended. (A good stand mixer will really help with this!)
- Refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Using a spoon or large dough scoop, place balls of cookie dough on a lightly greased stainless steel baking sheet. (Each ball of dough should be roughly 2-3 tablespoons.)
- Bake for about 12 minutes per batch (extra big cookies might need a couple more minutes in the oven).
- Allow cookies to cool (at least a little!) before eating.
Notes
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Jeannie says
Oh Yum!! I love Molasses Spice Cookies!! Big & chewy will be even better!! Thanks for the recipe!
Heather @ The Soulful Spoon says
Gosh, these are GORGEOUS! I think I might make these Christmas Eve, as I haven’t made cookies for Santa since I was a kid. I don’t even have kids, but it would still be fun to do at 29 years old:) Do you think I could use coconut flour? Maybe 1 cup and 3 eggs?
Elizabeth Walling says
I can’t guarantee results with coconut flour since I haven’t tried it, but that sounds like a good idea! If you find a way to make it work, be sure to let us know. 😀
Lori @ Our Heritage of Health says
I just made these cookies for a holiday party, and they were a HUGE hit! Everybody loved them!
Elizabeth Walling says
Awesome–so glad you all liked them, Lori! 😀
Kristy says
Don’t make these with coconut oil. It ends up in a big clumpy mess when the molasses will not absorb into the oil. It was a huge disappointment for our dairy free family.
Elizabeth Walling says
Really? Darn, I’m sorry. I haven’t had that issue.
Sharon says
I just made these with coconut oil, and here is how I mixed it: first mixed the sugar, egg and molasses well. Then drizzled in the melted coconut oil with the mixer running. This was so the coconut oil didn’t stiffen up in clumps. Stirred in the dry ingredients. It worked fine! I did use 9oz whole wheat pastry flour (which I use in most cookies), did not chill the dough, and baked 10-11 minutes. Delicious!
B says
I made these cookies exactly as directed, they looked beautiful, and the texture was so soft and chewy. But I will not be making them again. I thought they tasted awful. I can’t quite put my finger on what was off, they weren’t very sweet, they just tasted weirdly flat and maybe a little alkaline and salty. Anyway, I gave them to my parents and they thought they tasted just fine and gobbled them up. They just weren’t for me. Also, a suggestion about the the cooking instructions. I preheated the oven to 350 as directed, then half way through the instructions it says to refrigerate the cookie dough for up to an hour. So I had to turn off the oven, wait an 45 minutes or so, then heat it up again after the dough had chilled. Instructions should read “wait to preheat oven until you put dough in the fridge”.
Elizabeth W. says
So sorry you didn’t enjoy the recipe! But thank you for the heads up about the instructions. I’ll fix that.
EL Mehdi says
I love cookies, can’t wait to try this tonight