This old-fashioned molasses cookie recipe is the perfect holiday cookie, especially if you’re after down-home simple recipes that Great-Grandma used to bake. They’re chewy and soft, perfectly dunk-able, and will stay fresh for days (if they last that long!). You can almost hear the jingle bells jingling as you pull these from the oven.
Why I Love This Recipe
If you’ve ever worked retail around Christmas, you know it can be both brutal and beautiful. In one of my first years in the pharmacy, a patient brought in a plate of cookies as a thank you (greatly appreciated).
We were so busy that I couldn’t try them until later in the day after she left. They were like Christmas in your mouth: soft, delicious, and with a hint of spice.
The next time she came in I immediately bee-lined it over to ask for her recipe. She graciously shared, and now I’m sharing it with you.
What Makes This the Best Molasses Cookie Recipe?
I feel like it’s perfectly fine to toot someone else’s horn. Since this recipe isn’t my own creation, I’m doing just that!
- Chewy & Soft – That’s right, this recipe is both chewy and soft. Not pillowy soft, like a light and fluffy sugar cookie, but soft as in they don’t snap like gingerbread. They’re the perfect combination in my book!
- Spicy & Sweet – This molasses cookie recipe has just the right amount of spice paired perfectly with the blackstrap molasses (more on which molasses to choose below) and sugar. Don’t skip rolling the dough in sugar. It gives it that perfect little crunchy texture as you take each bite!
- No Shortening – If you’re looking for a molasses cookie recipe without shortening, you’ve found it! As I said, these are an old-fashioned cookie and I hate to break it to you, but shortening is NOT an old-fashioned ingredient.
- Butter – Need I say more? Cookies taste better when made with butter. Trust me when I say throw away the shortening for good; you don’t need it. I only use butter in my baking, from my homemade buttermilk biscuits, my sour cream biscuits, or this super flaky pie crust.
- Chill Time – Following my recipe tips for creaming the butter and sugar, and making sure to chill the dough before baking will give your cookies the perfect shape and consistency. If you skip these steps, you may end up with cookies that are too flat and too crispy. So, if that’s not what you’re looking for, follow the recipe to a T.
But back to the cookies.
Which Molasses to Use?
From light to dark molasses, I’ve used them all in this molasses cookie recipe. The cookies in the picture above on the left are made with regular molasses. The cookies on the right are made with blackstrap molasses. (You can see the darker color and how the cookies are a bit less “fluffy.”)
There’s a wide range when it comes to molasses. The darker the color, the more intense the flavor; the lighter the color, the less pronounced the molasses taste will be.
Keep in mind that while blackstrap molasses will give your cookies a stronger flavor, it will also make them a bit crispier rather than soft and chewy, so if that’s your goal, reach for the blackstrap.
Rest assured, no matter which molasses you choose, they’ll be delicious!
How to Make Molasses Cookies
Supplies Needed
- Mixing Bowls – A large mixing bowl will be needed for this recipe. If you have a stand mixer, that will work great. Grab an extra bowl for your dry ingredients and a small bowl to roll the balls of dough in sugar.
- Whisk/Spatula – A regular whisk or spatula will work best for creaming together the butter and sugar (this step is much faster with a stand mixer and the whisk attachment).
- Dough Whisk – A Danish dough whisk is one of my favorite sturdy tools for mixing heavier dough. If you’re using a stand mixer, use the spatula attachment.
- Parchment Paper – If you don’t have a silicone mat, some parchment paper will really help keep the cookies from sticking to the pan.
- Cookie Scoop – Everyone needs a cookie scoop! The best tool for making uniform cookies that all bake evenly.
- Cookie Sheet – Last but not least, you’ll need a cookie sheet.
- Wire Rack – As a bonus, if you have a wire rack to allow the cookies to cool completely, grab it.
Ingredients Needed
- Butter – Softened butter is key to get the butter and sugar to cream together. You don’t want it cold and you don’t want it melted. So plan ahead and take that butter out at least an hour before baking.
- Suger – Regular granulated sugar is all we need here. There’s enough molasses in the recipe that we don’t need to add brown sugar! Be sure you divide your sugar; ¼ cup of it is for rolling the dough.
- Molasses – My recipe calls for dark molasses, but use what you have (or what you can find). See my tips on choosing molasses above.
- Eggs – Try to remember to take your eggs out when you take your butter out prior to making this recipe. Room-temperature eggs mix more easily with the softened butter and create a smooth, even batter.
- Flour – I have made this recipe with all combinations of flour. From half Spelt, half all-purpose to all all-purpose flour. Learn more about baking with freshly milled flour here and choosing the best flour for baking here.
- Baking Soda – You’ll notice we’re only using baking soda in this recipe. That’s because we want our cookies to spread out more before they set. A cookie that’s spread out is chewier (and less “fluffy”) while still maintaining its softness.
- Salt – Salt just brings out all the other flavors in this recipe. Have you ever baked a loaf of bread and forgotten the salt? It tastes horrible! It’s the flavor enhancer. I always use Redmond’s Real Salt. If you use that link and add code “Pioneering” at checkout, you’ll get 15% off your order.
- Cinnamon, Ginger & Nutmeg – The classic trio! Ground nutmeg, ground ginger and ground cinnamon. I’m not a fan of clove, so you won’t find it in my recipe. If you love it, you can add ¼ teaspoon of ground clove as well. Honestly, to me it’s these three spices that make the cookies taste like Christmas.
Step-by-Step Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and one cup sugar until creamy (reserve the ¼ cup sugar for rolling the cookie dough).
- Add molasses and the egg and beat until well blended.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add to molasses mixture and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix; just blend until no more dry flour is visible.
- Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. An hour is best.
- Using a cookie scoop, form dough into one-inch balls. Drop each tablespoon of dough into the white sugar until coated on all sides and place two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until cookies have just set. Allow them to cool for one minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They should be perfectly chewy and soft.
FAQs
Can you freeze molasses cookies?
Yes! To freeze the cookies, bake them and allow them to cool completely. Then, place them on a parchment or butcher paper-lined cookie sheet and flash freeze for an hour. Transfer the frozen cookies to a sealed freezer container or a plastic bag. To thaw, transfer the frozen cookies to a different container (to avoid condensation as they thaw), thaw and serve!
Why are my cookies flat?
If your cookies are flat, it may be because your dough was too warm or you didn’t chill your dough long enough.
To fix this, you can place the dough back in the refrigerator before baking more, or increase the dough to two-inch size balls and increase the baking time by one to two minutes.
If you haven’t baked all the dough, you can add more flour to the dough to help. To fix, add two to four tablespoons of flour (if you’ve only baked one dozen cookies, add four Tablespoons of flour. If you’ve baked close to the 1/2 dough, then just add two Tablespoons of flour), mix until just incorporated and chill dough for another 15 minutes.
Can you make the blackstrap molasses cookie recipe dough ahead of time?
Yes, you can make this dough ahead of time and store it in the fridge for up to five days. Make sure it’s wrapped tight so it doesn’t dry out. I like to wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap so no air is getting to the dough.
Or, you can roll the dough into balls and roll in sugar, then set them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen, place the frozen dough balls into a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Remove from freezer, place on a baking sheet and add one to two minutes to the baking time.
Want all my baking recipes and tips? Get your copy of my book Hand Made: the Modern Guide to Made-from-Scratch Living.
Other Old-Fashioned Christmas Recipes
Old-fashioned Molasses Cookie Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls or stand mixer
- Whisk or Spatula or stand mixer whisk and spatula attachments
- Dough Whisk
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Scoop or Tablespoon
- Cookie Sheet
- Wire Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter softened
- 1 1/4 cups sugar divided
- 1/4 cup molasses I like blackstrap
- 1 whole egg
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and one cup sugar until creamy (reserve the ¼ cup sugar for rolling the cookie dough).
- Add molasses and the egg and beat until well blended.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add to molasses mixture and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix; just blend until no more dry flour is visible.
- Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. An hour is best.
- Form dough into one-inch balls. Roll each ball in sugar and place two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until cookies have just set. Allow them to cool for one minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Don’t skip the chill time, otherwise your cookies will be flat and crispy, not chewy and soft.
- If your cookies are spreading out too much, chill the dough longer, or add extra flour (see notes in the blog post above).
- To make Gingerbread, just reduce the butter to 1/2 cup and increase the molasses to 1/2 cup. Then, roll the dough out to 1/4-1/2 inch thick, cut out shapes (or score the dough if making a gingerbread house) and bake.
Delicious. Be sure the dough is thoroughly chilled. If it gets warm filling the cookie sheet, chill it again. So soft and chewy. Yum.
My aunt always brought her famous molasses cookies to Christmas. This is the closest recipe I have found! I cook them on stoneware which was one of the secrets to my aunts recipe!
Made this recipe. This is my favorite all-time Christmas cookie. The only thing that I changed is I added another 3/4 cup of flour. Im not sure why I needed more, because my Betty Crocker recipe is vary simular and I have never needed to add more flour. How ever, Im baking at our Log hOme this year. So that may have impacted it. Im super excited to use ginger that is totally new. I Loved them and the family too. Thank You once again Melissa for an amazing recipe,
These molasses cookies taste great but found that they were quite hard to bite into. what would make them so hard. They were not burnt. Is there any way to make a soft version of the cookie. Thx for your recipes and a suggestion for a softer cookie
Thank you for sharing your recipe! My daughter and I made these for Christmas 2021 and even packaged some up for gifts as well. They were very chewy, which I prefer in a cookie, and the flavor was so delicious!
Seeing as we’re from the East Tennessee Appalachian region, we have Sorghum Syrup, so I used that instead of Molasses in this recipe. We have a neighbor who makes Sorghum every year on his farm the old fashioned way, with a horse! It is yummy stuff and I love using local ingredients.
These were great! Thanks for an easy Christmas recipe. I’m going to be making lots more.
This is almost my grandmother’s recipe – my favorite! She used 1/2 tsp of clove instead of nutmeg. She also put 2 or 3 drops of water on each cookie to make them chewy. I eat these any time of the year.
Hi Melissa! We’re going to make these this afternoon…do you think we could freeze some of the uncooked dough to bake later? Would it be pretty much the same as freezing choc chip cookie dough? Thanks!
Absolutely, I freeze it often.
Would you believe I made this recipe and substituted almost everything but the molasses? Much to my joyful amazement, they came out absolutely yummy. Even though milk is an allergy for me, I used 1/4 cup butter +1/2 olive oil, rice::buckwheat (1::1) for the flour, 1/2 c honey for the sugar, and 1/4 flaxseed +1/4 water for the egg. I’ve tried many other recipes and they all came out only so-so, this one came out 100% wonderful! Thanks for sharing with us!
I made a batch this morning and had a few very warm cookies with my coffee and I must say, it was very nice! So delicious. It reminded me of my Memere. Thank you for the recipe Melissa. Have a Merry Christmas!
Awesome taste but 6-8 minutes cook time isn’t enough. Raw in middle. I used a gas stove and 15. Inutes was perfect!
I use a gas oven and my experience was the same. It depends on the temperature setting.
Hello Melissa, I made these cookies today and the taste was superb! So buttery and spicy and not too sweet…however, my cookies spread out SUPER flat, like they totally just melted when I cooked them…and it took longer to cook them too, they didn’t want to set at all. I guess the dough was too soft, but I made the recipe exactly as written. I used freshly ground whole wheat flour, do you think that might have something to do with it? Or maybe did I accidentally use too much butter?
Yes, fresh ground flour is why, which type of wheat did you use? To do these with fresh ground flour I have to know the wheat type in order to give adjustments
Thank you for the response! Actually, I don’t know what kind of wheat it is. I didn’t purchase it, it was given to me. But I think next time I’ll just try adding more flour until the dough seems a proper consistency. 🙂
Melissa – I made these over the weekend, no changes at all, and these are the BEST molasses cookies I have ever had! They have just a little crunch on the outside but stay soft and chewy on the inside. I must have made the balls larger than I should have though because I certainly did not get 5 dozen. Next time I will double the batch.
You stated to make gingerbread, cut 1/4 cup butter and increase molasses. How much molasses do you increase by. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thank you.
That was on the notes from the lady I originally got the recipe from, my understanding is cut 1/4 cup butter and increase molasses by a 1/4 cup.
Hi Melissa. You said you used spelt and all purpose flour. What was the ratio? Also, is there an all purpose flour you recommend?
I usually do 1/2 and 1/2 for cookies so they don’t spread too flat (spelt like to spread out rather than up)
Do you use blackstrap molasses?
Melissa, I tho’t you were now gluten and dairy free (or am I thinking of someone else)? I’d love to try these as we really miss molasses cookies, but we have to be not only gluten free and dairy free, but soy free and gum free (most 1 to 1 gf flour mixes put xanthan gum in them) due to some of my youngest daughter’s allergies. Do you think ghee would work in place of butter (I can make my own gf flour blend or maybe try cassava flour)? Ginger is a migraine trigger for me, but I figure I may try turmeric as a sub to give it that “bite” that would be missing if I left out the ginger. The thing about butter and ghee is when you take out the milk solids it changes the character of how the fat reacts with the other ingredients (tho’ I know coconut oil would normally be a good sub for butter with the texture not sure it would taste the same w/o the butter flavor). Just tho’t I’d ask. May try it anyway if no one with experience with such substitutions replies. If I do, I’ll try to update my post. 😉 Thanks. ~ K
Didn’t see this the first time I tried to post; trying again after having sent you a copy by e-mail.
A couple questions! I’m comparing this recipe to the one in your handmade book for soft molasses sugar cookies. Which one do you like better? Also, with either of the dough could you freeze in a log and do slices when it’s time to bake, or would you recommend the scoop?
They’re the same recipe except in the book I have 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar and here I just did 1 cup sugar. When using blackstrap molasses there’s a strong enough molasses flavor that I found I didn’t really need the brown sugar. Either way is fine. I’ve always rolled them in a ball and then rolled in sugar before baking so not sure about the log and slice with these ones.
Thank you for the reply! I followed the recipe in the book and they turned out great.
Melissa, I tho’t you were now gluten and dairy free (or am I thinking of someone else)? I’d love to try these as we really miss molasses cookies, but we have to be not only gluten free and dairy free, but soy free and gum free (most 1 to 1 gf flour mixes put xanthan gum in them) due to some of my youngest daughter’s allergies. Do you think ghee would work in place of butter (I can make my own gf flour blend or maybe try cassava flour)? Ginger is a migraine trigger for me, but I figure I may try turmeric as a sub to give it that “bite” that would be missing if I left out the ginger. The thing about butter and ghee is when you take out the milk solids it changes the character of how the fat reacts with the other ingredients (tho’ I know coconut oil would normally be a good sub for butter with the texture not sure it would taste the same w/o the butter flavor). Just tho’t I’d ask. May try it anyway if no one with experience with such substitutions replies. If I do, I’ll try to update my post. 😉 Thanks. ~ K
No, I’m not gluten or dairy free. I’m sorry I haven’t tried testing these as gluten and dairy free so not sure how they’ll turn out. If you tried it with those substitutions please do let me know how they turn out.
I have to try this, but with gluten free flour. Can I assume it will turn out well by using an all purpose gluten free flour such as Krusteez or King Arthur?
I don’t know if they’ll turn out as well as I haven’t tested them with gluten-free flour.
Do you think these would work with Einkorn flour? Thanks so much!
Yes, they should work well with Einkorn flour. Let me know how you like them if you try it!
Gave these a try today. My kids and I made them together and they did not disappoint! Absolutely delicious. I’ll be making these every year. We shared with the neighbors as a little Christmas gift. 5 stars!
Woo, hoo so glad you guys enjoyed them!