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These Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies are easy to make, super-soft and chewy, and irresistibly delicious.
It seems a bold move to declare an all-time favorite cookie. But after having been on Team Molasses for going on over three decades now, and already whipped up my third batch of molasses dough in a month, I’ve gotta say that I don’t foresee any allegiance shifts happening soon. So with that said, allow me to introduce you to my all-time favorite cookies…
…the most delicious, soft, chewy, gingery, life-changing molasses cookies. ♡♡♡
My love for these molasses cookies is entirely thanks to my mom, who baked fresh batches of cookies for our family pretty much every week when we were growing up. Granted, she was always a bit mystified that her oldest daughter (hi, Mom) never inherited her obsession with all kinds of chocolate cookies, which will forever and always be her all-time faves. But molasses cookies were always a compromise we could both agree on. We both lovethese cookies.
This time of year, they are still the first recipe to which I always turn for holiday cookie baking. And this year in particular, they’ve been extra fun to share with all of our European friends who — as it turns out — maybe love them even more than we do! Ha, every time that we have served them to our friends, and our Spanish class, our neighbors, everyone goes crazy for them. Which means that we never come home with leftovers. Which just means that we have to keep baking more, naturally. Which requires exactly zero twisting of my arm. More molasses cookies for all!
Anyway, these cookies are clearly a hit. So as part of our week of cookies here on the blog, I thought I would bump this recipe back up to the top of the pile today for some non-chocolate cookie inspiration. I initially shared this recipe on the blog nine years ago. But that said, a number of you have reported over the years that your cookies have spread a bit more than you like. So I’ve been tinkering around with our family recipe this fall, and have made a few small adjustments to the recipe below that should help them to stay nice and thick and chewy, without compromising the flavor of the cookies at all. (Although if your cookies do ever flatten out, I promise they’ll still be delicious.)
So I hope that you enjoy them as much as we do, and if you decide to bake up a batch, I’d love to hear how they go! Enjoy, everyone!
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies Ingredients:
To make this chewy ginger molasses cookies recipe, you will need:
Butter: Completely softened to room temperature (not melted, or else it will not cream properly with the sugars)
Sugars: I use half granulated (white) sugar, half packed brown sugar, plus extra sugar for rolling the dough balls.
Eggs and baking soda: Two soft and chewy cookie staples.
Flour: I typically use all-purpose flour for this classic recipe, but white whole wheat flour can work too.
Spices: We will use a mixture of ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Feel free to tinker around with the spice proportions to taste.
Salt: To bring out all of those delicious flavors.
How To Make Molasses Cookies:
To make these homemade molasses cookies, simply:
Whisk together dry ingredients. Flour, soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
Cream together butter and sugars. Using a separate mixing bowl, either with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugars on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides occasionally as needed.
Mix in the remaining wet and dry ingredients. Mix in the eggs (one at a time) and molasses, and beat on medium-low speed until each is combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat until it is evenly incorporated.
Chill the dough. Transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until the dough is completely chilled. I know — the extra chilling time is substantial, and very tempting to skip. But this particular dough, with all of its butter and molasses, really does need a thorough chilling to prevent the cookies from spreading. Worth the wait, I promise. :)
Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and set aside.
Roll the dough balls. Once the dough is chilled and firm, roll the dough into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter. Fill a separate small bowl with sugar, and roll each ball in the sugar until it is completely coated. Place dough balls on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. (They will crack more while cooling.) Remove from the oven and let cool for 4-5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
Serve. Serve warm and enjoy, or store in a sealed container for up to 4 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
Possible Variations:
Want to mix things up with your ginger cookies? Feel free to:
Add in extra ginger: I also really love adding some chopped crystallized ginger to these cookies for added ginger flavor and crunch.
Frost your cookies: A really light glaze is delicious atop these cookies. Or if you really want to go for it, cream cheese frosting is divine.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes:
Looking for more delicious cookie inspiration? Feel free to check out our full collection of cookie recipes, or any of these other favorite classic cookies:
These Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies are easy to make, super-soft and chewy, and irresistibly delicious. Feel free to halve this recipe if you would like a smaller batch!
Ingredients
Scale
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (not melted*)
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Set aside.
Using a separate mixing bowl, either with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugars on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides occasionally as needed. Mix in the eggs (one at a time) and molasses, and beat on medium-low speed until each is combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat until it is evenly incorporated.
Transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until the dough is completely chilled.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper; set aside.
Roll the dough into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter. Fill a separate small bowl with sugar, and roll each ball in the sugar until it is completely coated. Place dough balls on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. (They will crack more while cooling.) Remove from the oven and let cool for 4-5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
Serve warm and enjoy, or store in a sealed container for up to 4 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
Baking soda amount: Because this question comes up occasionally in the comment section — yes, this amount is correct. The recipe needs 4 teaspoons of baking soda to rise properly.
Hello, has anyone made these dairy free by using margarine or Crisco before? The original recipe is great but I’m hoping to make these dairy free for a friend. Not sure if they will still turn out okay.
I make these every winter and everyone loves them. The recipe makes a large batch which is perfect for gifting. Bang them on the counter when they’re fresh out of the oven to get the cracks. I did 375 for 8 min. I had a few trays go longer than 8 min (oops) and they were darker and crisper – still great. I didn’t mind the variation in texture between the 8, 9 and 10 minute cookies. Kinda fun to have some chewy/crispy and some chewy/soft. I added some spicy chai tea powder since I was missing ground cloves.
These cookies are perfect, I used half light, half dark brown sugar and cooked them at 350°. I made a normal sized batch and had more than enough so I rolled them in balls and froze them(no sugar on the frozen ones). So far they have frozen really well. My only tip is after freezing them let them warm up a bit on your counter then roll in the sugar. These cookies look and taste great and I’m excited to continue baking them!
I doubled the amount of spices and added 1.5 tsp of cardamom, the flavor was perfect. I also didn’t bother chilling the dough (because when I want cookies, I’m not interested in waiting for them), and ended up having to increase the baking time to 16 minutes, but they came out perfectly.
I definitely recommend doubling the spices though, if you like a cookie with a little more bite.
These cookies have taken over ANY cookies baked at Christmas. It is Jan 11 today and I have orders from family for more containers of ‘those delicious ginger snaps, the soft ones!’ so I might as well quit buying chocolate chips. Your cookies are reminiscent of my Grandma Wicklander’s, and you can’t usually match Scandinavian baking. These do!
I add 2 tablespoons ghost pepper honey to this recipe for added kick! turns out delicious everything with honey or alone
*I only chill an hour if I am in a hurry
I just made 2 dozen of these (half recipe) and they are EXCELLENT! Bravo! Great recipe. They look and taste perfect! Thanks for including the weight of the flour by the way. I much prefer that to the wildly different way people measure flour! I added a bit more spice than the recipe called for, and in place of the butter (which I did not have on hand) I used 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/4 cup of whatever vegan butter we have and 1/4 cup of crisco. The additions and substitutions worked out great. 350 for 10 minutes was perfect. This is now my go-to recipe. Yum! Thanks!
Made these for my father-in-law and they are TERRIFIC! Soft and chewy, not flat. Great recipe!
Frank —
Good cookies. Very sweet. I added 1.5 extra Tbsp ground ginger. I also uses lard instead of butter because thats what i had on hand, and it worked out great. I cooked them on 325 for 8 minutes on the middle rack and they came out super soft and chewy.
The conversion from cups to grams (of flour) in this recipe is definitely not correct and my cookies turned out really big and dome shaped. I later noticed this had already been pointed out in the comments section. Would be a good idea to adjust this is the recipe so other people don’t face the same issue.
Just made these sugar free with a 1:1 replacement fir both sugars & with einkorn flour (thank you for the grams!). This is the first time I’ve changed a conventional recipe to sugar free & it actually turn out well! I made sure to rotate the pan halfway through the bake time & they turned out soft & chewy! Extremely excited to be able to eat a treat this week!
YUMMMMM! I’m obsessed!!! I tend to make cookies too big but a few extra minutes in the oven did the trick. Thanks for the recipe for my new favorite cookie!
I’m about to start making these cookies yet again! They’re our favorite! Everyone likes them, no complaints or suggestions to change this or that. Yum!
Very good cookies! We are not ‘sweet’ people so I rolled the dough balls in a combo of Kosher salt and granulated sugar. That really added something special, I think.
I converted everything into grams and then prepared half the recipe. Made bite-size cookies, 15 g each – they turned out great. Given the smaller size, I ended up baking two batches of 24 each. Second batch was darker and crispier, I am thinking b/c the dough warmed up while portioning. So next time I plan to flash-chill the dough while the first batch is baking. Also, I think I need to change the parchment in between batches.
Wonderful, flavorful cookies. Followed your recipe exactly as shown. However I needed to put a slight press to the balls of dough to get the results I wanted to see.
Sure you can. Cold dough makes it easier to work with This dough, usually is refrigerated for an hour or two before use anyways. One night wouldn’t hurt it as long as it’s covered.
I have a flash freezer so I was using that to make life easier. I had to pump a lot of these cookies so far this year. 😂
Damn good cookies! The batter, as the recipe calls for, is pretty darn thick. My hand mixer’s motor was smoking even after slowly trickling in a half cup of water. Thick enough that chilling the dough isn’t really necessary, but I do it anyway.
Please correct the amount of flour in grams! (4.5 cups should be 540g not 639g) I sadly didn’t catch it until after baking, and my cookies are not at all the right texture. Should have read the comments first because there are other comments asking for the same correction!
These cookies are delicious and the perfect texture if you don’t overcook them! I halved the recipe & also added about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper for a little heat – hubby says they’re the best cookies he’s ever had!
I love these cookies so much. Thank you. I preferred the original recipe when they were flatter and chewy. The updates to the recipe made them thicker and cake-y. So, I use less flour (540 grams), and I get the flatter cookies with crispy edges and a chewy middle like I like them.
Very disappointed that the cookies flattened too much for me. Butter was soft, refrigerated dough for two hours and three different batches look like “lace cookies “. I did sift the flour and maybe that was a mistake because the dough is very sticky. Any ideas.
These turned out perfect !! So glad I found an awesome recipe. I did add a bit more spice , just in case, cuz I love a bold spice flavour but the texture of this cookie is divine ! So chewy yet soft. I also used turbanado sugar to roll the cookies onto. It lent a very nice crunchy texture. So happy for this recipe this recipe! Ha I also made your homemade pasta today which also turned out awesome. Thx !
I halved this recipe but accidentally forgot to halve the number of eggs and put in 2 still. Surprisingly, it worked wonderfully for taller, chewy cookies. (I haven’t made the recipe as written but I might just stick with my accidental adaptation.) Maybe could use extra cloves/ginger/etc. so I added some nutmeg to my sugar for rolling to get a bit more kick and it was even better.
Great cookies all year round. Thanks!
Made these cookies with half the recipe, and totally forgot to add baking soda. Recipe still turned out great! Nice and crispy on the outside and chewy in the center! Thanks so much for a great recipe!
Can I use crystallized ginger in this recipe as an add in? How much should I use and how would I incorporate them? This looks so great for fall give aways to my friends & family! Looking forward to trying it! Thanks.
Not sure how this recipe didn’t work for some—these are 100% my new favorite fall cookie. So soft and chewy and delicious. Made them for my extended family and everyone asked for the recipe.
Your recipe for ginger molasses cookies reads to set oven at 350 degrees. But the video shows 375 degrees. Which one is better for this cookie and then you should correct them,
Thanks! Making this recipe now!
These are my new favorite cookie. They are chewy, buttery, spicy perfection! And they’re easy to prepare – less than 10 minutes prep before bedtime and popped them in the fridge overnight. It’s a good thing that I’m only baking a few at a time or I’d eat the entire batch in one sitting. Thank you so much for this extraordinary recipe.
Delicious!! I had a couple neighbors sample and they loved them. I guess I make small cookies: single recipe yielded about 92 cookies. But that’s okay because my freezer is full for winter!
No! Can you please send me the OG recipe, this new one is not it! Too cakey now! What happened? I make these every year and they are a HUGE HIT but I can’t serve these cakey cookies, they don’t hit the same. I’m trying a batch out now but severely cut back the amount of baking soda, hopefully that helps. But please send me the OG recipe 🙏🏼
Great recipe! Cookies turnout perfect. Baked them @ 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Everyone loved them. Had tried two other molasses cookie recipes and this is by far the best. Simply scrumptious!
The only thing I changed was that I added a little fresh ground ginger and left out the (ICK) cloves. The cookies were little, fat balls after baking. I pressed them down with some difficulty and sprinkled with more sugar, Flavor is okay, but they are HEAVY. IF I make them again, I’m going to cut the flour down by at least 1/4.
These are great! I half the salt as it just seemed too salty when I first made them. Other than that, these cookies are freaking addictive lol. I will be making these again for SURE.
Great cookie…especially when crystallized ginger is added… it tastes just The Ginger People “ Chewy Ginger Cookies” which has been our favorite cookie recipe for many years😊
Hello, has anyone made these dairy free by using margarine or Crisco before? The original recipe is great but I’m hoping to make these dairy free for a friend. Not sure if they will still turn out okay.
These cookies are unreal. Seriously the best. My go-to holiday cookie recipe!
I make these every winter and everyone loves them. The recipe makes a large batch which is perfect for gifting. Bang them on the counter when they’re fresh out of the oven to get the cracks. I did 375 for 8 min. I had a few trays go longer than 8 min (oops) and they were darker and crisper – still great. I didn’t mind the variation in texture between the 8, 9 and 10 minute cookies. Kinda fun to have some chewy/crispy and some chewy/soft. I added some spicy chai tea powder since I was missing ground cloves.
I got domed cake with little flavor. The amounts were all correct. But the two egg and flour ratio wasn’t good.
These cookies are perfect, I used half light, half dark brown sugar and cooked them at 350°. I made a normal sized batch and had more than enough so I rolled them in balls and froze them(no sugar on the frozen ones). So far they have frozen really well. My only tip is after freezing them let them warm up a bit on your counter then roll in the sugar. These cookies look and taste great and I’m excited to continue baking them!
I doubled the amount of spices and added 1.5 tsp of cardamom, the flavor was perfect. I also didn’t bother chilling the dough (because when I want cookies, I’m not interested in waiting for them), and ended up having to increase the baking time to 16 minutes, but they came out perfectly.
I definitely recommend doubling the spices though, if you like a cookie with a little more bite.
These cookies have taken over ANY cookies baked at Christmas. It is Jan 11 today and I have orders from family for more containers of ‘those delicious ginger snaps, the soft ones!’ so I might as well quit buying chocolate chips. Your cookies are reminiscent of my Grandma Wicklander’s, and you can’t usually match Scandinavian baking. These do!
I add 2 tablespoons ghost pepper honey to this recipe for added kick! turns out delicious everything with honey or alone
*I only chill an hour if I am in a hurry
Only one word suffices: YOWSER!
This is my favorite cookie. I crave it all winter long. Made it again yesterday and family and friends all raved. Make this cookie!
I just made 2 dozen of these (half recipe) and they are EXCELLENT! Bravo! Great recipe. They look and taste perfect! Thanks for including the weight of the flour by the way. I much prefer that to the wildly different way people measure flour! I added a bit more spice than the recipe called for, and in place of the butter (which I did not have on hand) I used 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/4 cup of whatever vegan butter we have and 1/4 cup of crisco. The additions and substitutions worked out great. 350 for 10 minutes was perfect. This is now my go-to recipe. Yum! Thanks!
Made these for my father-in-law and they are TERRIFIC! Soft and chewy, not flat. Great recipe!
Good cookies. Very sweet. I added 1.5 extra Tbsp ground ginger. I also uses lard instead of butter because thats what i had on hand, and it worked out great. I cooked them on 325 for 8 minutes on the middle rack and they came out super soft and chewy.
The conversion from cups to grams (of flour) in this recipe is definitely not correct and my cookies turned out really big and dome shaped. I later noticed this had already been pointed out in the comments section. Would be a good idea to adjust this is the recipe so other people don’t face the same issue.
Just made these sugar free with a 1:1 replacement fir both sugars & with einkorn flour (thank you for the grams!). This is the first time I’ve changed a conventional recipe to sugar free & it actually turn out well! I made sure to rotate the pan halfway through the bake time & they turned out soft & chewy! Extremely excited to be able to eat a treat this week!
YUMMMMM! I’m obsessed!!! I tend to make cookies too big but a few extra minutes in the oven did the trick. Thanks for the recipe for my new favorite cookie!
I’m about to start making these cookies yet again! They’re our favorite! Everyone likes them, no complaints or suggestions to change this or that. Yum!
I made this recipe to add to my Christmas cookie packages and EVERYONE LOVED them. I have since made them twice and shared them with my family.
Very good cookies! We are not ‘sweet’ people so I rolled the dough balls in a combo of Kosher salt and granulated sugar. That really added something special, I think.
I converted everything into grams and then prepared half the recipe. Made bite-size cookies, 15 g each – they turned out great. Given the smaller size, I ended up baking two batches of 24 each. Second batch was darker and crispier, I am thinking b/c the dough warmed up while portioning. So next time I plan to flash-chill the dough while the first batch is baking. Also, I think I need to change the parchment in between batches.
Wonderful, flavorful cookies. Followed your recipe exactly as shown. However I needed to put a slight press to the balls of dough to get the results I wanted to see.
Made these cookies exactly according to the recipe and they are absolutely fantastic.
can i chill dough overnight? thanks…..
Sure you can. Cold dough makes it easier to work with This dough, usually is refrigerated for an hour or two before use anyways. One night wouldn’t hurt it as long as it’s covered.
I have a flash freezer so I was using that to make life easier. I had to pump a lot of these cookies so far this year. 😂
Made recipe without changes – absolutely delicious
Damn good cookies! The batter, as the recipe calls for, is pretty darn thick. My hand mixer’s motor was smoking even after slowly trickling in a half cup of water. Thick enough that chilling the dough isn’t really necessary, but I do it anyway.
Please correct the amount of flour in grams! (4.5 cups should be 540g not 639g) I sadly didn’t catch it until after baking, and my cookies are not at all the right texture. Should have read the comments first because there are other comments asking for the same correction!
These cookies are delicious and the perfect texture if you don’t overcook them! I halved the recipe & also added about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper for a little heat – hubby says they’re the best cookies he’s ever had!
I love these cookies so much. Thank you. I preferred the original recipe when they were flatter and chewy. The updates to the recipe made them thicker and cake-y. So, I use less flour (540 grams), and I get the flatter cookies with crispy edges and a chewy middle like I like them.
Very disappointed that the cookies flattened too much for me. Butter was soft, refrigerated dough for two hours and three different batches look like “lace cookies “. I did sift the flour and maybe that was a mistake because the dough is very sticky. Any ideas.
The best all around cookie you will ever eat. Just follow the directions…….so easy to make….
Awesome cookies! Shared with friends; they loved them, too!
These turned out perfect !! So glad I found an awesome recipe. I did add a bit more spice , just in case, cuz I love a bold spice flavour but the texture of this cookie is divine ! So chewy yet soft. I also used turbanado sugar to roll the cookies onto. It lent a very nice crunchy texture. So happy for this recipe this recipe! Ha I also made your homemade pasta today which also turned out awesome. Thx !
I halved this recipe but accidentally forgot to halve the number of eggs and put in 2 still. Surprisingly, it worked wonderfully for taller, chewy cookies. (I haven’t made the recipe as written but I might just stick with my accidental adaptation.) Maybe could use extra cloves/ginger/etc. so I added some nutmeg to my sugar for rolling to get a bit more kick and it was even better.
Great cookies all year round. Thanks!
I’m not sure why I wait for the holidays to make them. They are good any time of the year. Delicious!
Made these cookies with half the recipe, and totally forgot to add baking soda. Recipe still turned out great! Nice and crispy on the outside and chewy in the center! Thanks so much for a great recipe!
Can I use crystallized ginger in this recipe as an add in? How much should I use and how would I incorporate them? This looks so great for fall give aways to my friends & family! Looking forward to trying it! Thanks.
Not sure how this recipe didn’t work for some—these are 100% my new favorite fall cookie. So soft and chewy and delicious. Made them for my extended family and everyone asked for the recipe.
Is there a calorie count?
Your recipe for ginger molasses cookies reads to set oven at 350 degrees. But the video shows 375 degrees. Which one is better for this cookie and then you should correct them,
Thanks! Making this recipe now!
These are my new favorite cookie. They are chewy, buttery, spicy perfection! And they’re easy to prepare – less than 10 minutes prep before bedtime and popped them in the fridge overnight. It’s a good thing that I’m only baking a few at a time or I’d eat the entire batch in one sitting. Thank you so much for this extraordinary recipe.
Delicious!! I had a couple neighbors sample and they loved them. I guess I make small cookies: single recipe yielded about 92 cookies. But that’s okay because my freezer is full for winter!
No! Can you please send me the OG recipe, this new one is not it! Too cakey now! What happened? I make these every year and they are a HUGE HIT but I can’t serve these cakey cookies, they don’t hit the same. I’m trying a batch out now but severely cut back the amount of baking soda, hopefully that helps. But please send me the OG recipe 🙏🏼
Great recipe! Cookies turnout perfect. Baked them @ 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Everyone loved them. Had tried two other molasses cookie recipes and this is by far the best. Simply scrumptious!
The only thing I changed was that I added a little fresh ground ginger and left out the (ICK) cloves. The cookies were little, fat balls after baking. I pressed them down with some difficulty and sprinkled with more sugar, Flavor is okay, but they are HEAVY. IF I make them again, I’m going to cut the flour down by at least 1/4.
These cookies were exactly what I was looking for.. crispy and chewy at the same time… excellent!
I absolutely LOVE these cookies! They’re the best holiday cookie! I’ve been making them for years and every time they turn our perfect. Thank you!!
These are great! I half the salt as it just seemed too salty when I first made them. Other than that, these cookies are freaking addictive lol. I will be making these again for SURE.
The very best ginger cookie recipe I am now going to make often.💕
Great cookie…especially when crystallized ginger is added… it tastes just The Ginger People “ Chewy Ginger Cookies” which has been our favorite cookie recipe for many years😊
Would it be okay to add a few raisins. I love’m in cookies.
These cookies were a huge hit! I added about 1/4 cup of minced stem ginger, because one can never have too much ginger. Amazing!