Soft molasses cookies are lightly spiced and chewy drop-style cookies rolled in sugar. Popular for the holidays, these soft cookies are filled with seasonal flavors like cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
If you love the warm, seasonal flavors of fall, you are sure to enjoy soft molasses cookies. The addition of molasses makes these cookies incredibly chewy (and helps keep them moist for days!).
They're filled with flavorful spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves, and rolled in turbinado sugar for a crunchy sugar crust.
If you're intimidated by holiday baking, no worries. These molasses cookies are a simple drop cookie. This means no cookie cutters, no rolling dough, and no fancy, hard to find ingredients.
Serve soft molasses cookies on your next holiday cookie tray for Thanksgiving or Christmas. They're a classic holiday cookie!
Ingredients and substitutions
Since baking is an exact science, I do not offer many substitutions for my baking recipes. Each ingredient serves a purpose in the recipe, so I do not recommend omitting anything.
- Unsalted butter and salt can be substituted with salted butter.
- Brown sugar - I recommend using light brown sugar in this recipe. Dark brown sugar adds more molasses flavor and a darker color to your cookies, which will technically work in this recipe (if needed), but seems unnecessary since we're already adding molasses separately.
- Egg - One large egg adds stability and moisture to your cookies. To bring an egg to room temperature quickly, place the egg (in the shell) in a cup and cover in hot tap water. Your egg will come to room temperature in minutes.
- Molasses - I recommend Grandma's Original Molasses (a common brand found in grocery stores). It is often found near the maple syrup and honey, or in the baking aisle. Light or dark molasses will work in this recipe - dark molasses gives your cookies a stronger flavor.
- All-purpose flour - I do not recommend substituting with any other types of flour you may have on hand. AP flour has the perfect amount of structure needed for these cookies.
- Spices - Salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger all work together to add a well rounded flavor to your cookies.
- Turbinado sugar (not shown) - Adds a crunchy texture to the outside of your cookies. Can be substituted with granulated sugar.
Tips and tricks
Room temperature ingredients - Room temperature butter and egg help your cookies have a consistent, creamy, and even dough. When beaten until light and fluffy, the sugar and butter form an emulsion, which traps air in the dough. This dough bakes up into a soft and fluffy cookie.
Properly measured flour - Improperly measured flour is the most common issue I see in baking. If you have issues with your cookies not spreading, turning out extra thick or crumbly, with a bland flavor, you're probably adding too much flour to your dough.
Spoon and level method - If you don't have a kitchen scale to measure flour by weight (the most accurate method, I recommend the spoon and level method. Use a spoon to gently stir and fluff your flour, then spoon flour into a measuring cup. Level off the top with a knife. By scooping flour directly from a container with your measuring cup, you’re compacting the dough into the cup. This can add up to 25% more flour to your dough.
Parchment paper - This helps prevent your cookies from spreading too much while baking. A greased baking pan will guarantee your cookies spread more than they should, so I always suggest parchment paper (or a reusable baking mat) instead.
Storage
Homemade cookies will keep for 3 to 5 days in a sealed container at room temperature. Add a slice of fresh bread to your storage container - it will help keep your cookies moist for longer.
Cookie dough and baked cookies can be frozen in a tightly sealed container or freezer safe bag for 3 months or longer.
Frequently asked questions
They all contain very similar ingredients, like molasses, cinnamon, and ginger, but in differing quantities.
- Ginger snaps are the crunchiest cookie - hence the name. They ‘snap’ when you break them in half. Ginger snaps also contain more ginger than a molasses cookie, and sometimes bits of candied ginger.
- Gingerbread cookies also contain more ginger than a molasses cookie. Gingerbread cookies, however, are softer and usually rolled out and cut into shapes, like gingerbread men.
- Molasses cookies, however, contain less ginger than the other two cookies. They’re also made with all brown sugar, which makes them softer and chewier than a regular cookie.
If your cookies aren't spreading in the oven, it sounds like too much flour was added to the dough or the dough is too cold.
It is extremely important that the flour is measured properly for this (and any) baking recipe. Either weight your flour with a kitchen scale (gram measurements can be found in the recipe card in parentheses), or use the spoon and level method.
Using a spoon, fill your measuring cup with flour, then level off with a knife.
Using your measuring cup to scoop your flour directly from a bin compacts the flour into the cup, adding up to 25% extra flour to your dough. This makes your cookies cakey and thick. They'll spread less when baking and may turn out dry.
This can happen when your dough is too warm or the baking sheet was greased instead of lined with parchment.
- Don't skip the step of refrigerating your dough. Refrigerating not only helps the flavors meld, but also makes the dough easier to roll into balls and reduces spreading.
- If your dough is still spreading in the oven, try refrigerating the dough balls for 10 minutes, then transfer directly into the oven.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I do not recommend using a greased cookie sheet. A layer of grease/cooking spray makes cookies of any kind spread more in the oven.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Soft Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup (165 g) brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup (85 g) molasses
- 2 ½ cups (330 g) all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ cup (100 g) turbinado sugar, or granulated sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add butter and brown sugar. Using a hand (or stand) mixer, cream together until fluffy, about a minute. Add eggs and molasses, mixing briefly to incorporate.
- In a separate bowl, whisk (or sift) together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground ginger.
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.
- Cover bowl or wrap dough in wax paper. Chill for at least 1 hour (up to 24 hours) in the refrigerator. Refrigerating will help the flavors meld and also create a firmer dough to roll into balls.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and scoop dough using a medium cookie scoop or shape by hand into 1.5 inch balls.
- Add turbinado sugar to a small bowl. Gently roll balls in sugar to coat. Place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until tops begin to crack, then allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Cookies will keep for 5-7 days in a sealed container. To help keep cookies fresh, place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. Replace the bread slice as needed.
- Raw cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days.
- Cookie dough balls (and baked cookies) freeze well, up to 3 months in a sealed plastic container or freezer bag. Allow frozen balls to thaw for up to 10 minutes on the baking sheet before baking, or add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
- Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking cookies, based on reader comments and questions!
So I added too much molasses. Oops. basically i got flat molasses florentine cookies. But omg they taste amazing. My measuring cups were put in the wrong spot so I couldn't find them and had to go for the couple I have stashed away in my spare tool drawer... and so needless to say the batter was too wet, I added 1/3 of a cup of molasses instead of the 1/4 of a cup. But hey the flavor is on point... I just wish I'd have known to add a little more flour. Anyways, I'm sure I'll be trying again real soon because this recipe is so yummy!
Fantastic cookies - so moist! I rolled mine in granulated sugar and they turned out great.