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 love these 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.
- Molasses: I typically opt for “original” (versus dark) unsulphured molasses.
- 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:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- No-Bake Cookies
- Brown Sugar Cookies
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 0 About 42-46 cookies 1x
Description
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
- 1 1/2 cups (340g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated white sugar
- 1 cup (213g) packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (170g) unsulphured molasses
- 2 large eggs
- 4 1/2 cups (639 grams*) all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
Flour amount: Please note that different sites across the internet use a wide range of weights for 1 cup of flour. I use 142g for this recipe, so 4.5 cups = 639g.
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. (This recipe yields a very large batch of cookies.)
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I just made these, and they are very yummy. I do wish you had specified unsalted butter in the recipe. I used salted, and the cookies turned out just on the edge of way too salty. Not inedible by any means, but it stinks having four dozen cookies that I feel like I have to warn people about.
Hi Jennifer! We always use unsalted butter for baking, (unless specified otherwise), which is why there is salt included in the recipe. We’re sorry for the confusion and we hope you are still able to enjoy these!
I made these and they turned out perfectly, cracks and all, but it made 5 dozen ( so 60 cookies) and I used a 1 inch cookie scoop and it was so exact I had no dough left at the 60th cookie and they were the perfect size. You must be making some fairly big cookies to only get about 40 out of the batch.
Oh well I’ll just send 30 of them to work with my fiancé to share with his development team.
(It’s not always a bad thing that it makes so many, just more to share I guess )
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Mary! We definitely get around 42-46 every time we’ve made them, so we’re not sure how you got 60, but we’re glad you’re able to share! :)
I made these for Christmas and they were *exactly* what I wanted! Perfectly chewy and delicious! I’m adding them into the yearly rotation! Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing, we’re so happy they were a hit!
I tried these last night and wow, I made 83 cookies with dough to spare (ran out of pans, probably enough for at least a dozen more).
Definitely didn’t follow it exactly (butter was de-thawed, but not melted, in the microwave…because I forgot to put it out….and I didn’t chill the dough very long because it got too late in the evening, also I don’t own an electric or stand mixer, so I just did it by hand)….so they did turn out pretty flat and all ran together so I had to cut them apart, but still fairly tasty.
Will probably try again next holiday season.
We’re glad you enjoyed these, Sarah — and WOW, that’s a lot of cookies! Did you just make them really small? We definitely get 42-46 out of a batch. And we’re sorry they came out kind of flat. Using room temp butter really does help prevent this, so does refrigerating the dough, and also making sure your baking soda isn’t old. We hope this helps for next time!
I’m not one to test out recipes before an event, so I put a lot of trust into this! I’m currently baking these for a work luncheon tomorrow, and the first batch turned out amazing! Just enough spice and wonderfully chewy. I will admit that I just used a lot of elbow grease with the creaming, and used about 1/4 cup less of sugar, but they turned out great. They look like real ginger snaps! :)
Thanks for sharing, Christina — we’re so glad they turned out well for you!
Has anyone tried skipping the step of rolling them in sugar? Most baked goods are to sweet for us, since we have cut back on our sugar intake,
Thanks,
Gina
Hi Gina! These cookies would still be awesome even if you skipped that step (they’re still sweet enough without the extra sugar). :) We hope you enjoy!
I made these (half batch – halved perfectly) for my Christmas cookie platter and they were AWESOME! Everyone loved them! They are my new favorite cookie, and not just for Christmas. They freeze beautifully too. I pulled more out of the freezer as needed. Just finished the last coveted one from the freezer and had to leave a comment. Thank you so much for this recipe, it’s perfect! Happy New Year!
Thanks for sharing with us, Stacy — we’re so happy they were a hit! :)
I made these cookies exactly as the recipe is written, and the cookies tasted great but were super flat. I took some of the other comments and tried half vegetable shortening and half butter, added a 1/4 cup of flour and the cookies were nice and puffy! I didn’t even need to refrigerate the dough using the alterations described. I’m not sure if it’s my altitude (or lack thereof) or what, but my cookies were not as beautiful and puffy as the photos on this page until I edited the recipe. I’m in California near SF, so basically at sea level. My baking soda was fresh, and I used brand new flour. The recipe does not specifically state salted or unsalted butter so I tried it both ways, no luck. If you are having trouble with flat cookies, maybe my feedback will help you.
Ah, yes the shortening would definitely help them stay a little bit fluffier. Not quite sure why the initial ones were so flat though. We’ve had multiple people report this, but I just made them multiple times again this December and they turned out great. Maybe cream the butter and sugars together a bit longer?
I made these the other day and they were AWESOME! I sprinkled the top with a little “sugar in the raw” and it was lovely. My friend who typically hates ginger cookies loved them and ate 6!
We’re sorry to hear that, Charlotte! :( Was your butter definitely at room temp? That’s crucial for this recipe. Also, was your baking soda pretty fresh?