Old-fashioned Super Soft Molasses Cookies are a homemade classic treat packed with bold flavors of molasses, ginger, and cinnamon in each bite. They’re soft and chewy on the inside, with a crackly top rolled in sugar. They’re a fall and holiday favorite recipe that’s the perfect addition to any cookie swap!
Why you’ll love this recipe
One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes are these molasses cookies! They are seriously soft and chewy, perfectly flavored with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, and lightly rolled in granulated sugar for a sweet crunch!
They’re an easy-to-make holiday favorite that stays soft for days and tastes fantastic! Add them to your must-make holiday baking list and don’t forget to include them in your next cookie swap!
If you love this recipe, check out my Chocolate Shortbread, Holiday Slice and Bake Cookies, and Classic Spritz Cookies, which would also be great for holiday cookie tins!
Table of Contents
Where Does Molasses Come From?
Molasses is commonly used as a sweetener in baking, cooking, coffee, or oatmeal and comes from either sugar cane or sugar beets, where it’s boiled down to syrup. After removing the sugar crystals, what’s left is the dark molasses!
Molasses comes in a variety of flavors, including light/mild, full/dark, and blackstrap. Light/mild is the lightest and sweetest of the three, followed by full/dark, which is thicker and has a stronger flavor (great for recipes like this!). Blackstrap is the thickest of the three and has no sweetness. You’ll typically see blackstrap molasses used in savory dishes.
Ingredients Needed
The ingredients shown in the image below are used to make these chewy ginger molasses cookies. Items noted in the bulleted list are key ingredients that need more explanation.
- Ground Spices. Using ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground ginger helps round out the flavors in these molasses cookies. I love using ground Vietnamese cinnamon from King Arthur, but honestly any brand will work fine.
- Full Flavor Molasses. The molasses brand I like is Brer Rabbit. If you don’t have full-flavor molasses, you can use light or dark flavor, but I don’t recommend blackstrap, as it has no sweetness.
- Vegetable Oil. You can also use coconut oil. I recommend using Carrington Farms coconut cooking oil (unflavored). While I didn’t test the recipe with this substitute, you can also use melted, cooled butter (1:1 ratio) in place of vegetable oil.
- Granulated Sugar. Used in the molasses cookie recipe and also for rolling the cookie.
For quantities and instructions, please see the recipe card below.
How to Make Soft and Chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies
Here is a brief overview of how to make this soft molasses cookie recipe!
- Whisk the dry ingredients together. This includes all-purpose flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients together. Start with vegetable oil and granulated sugar. Next, add the full-flavored molasses and egg.
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Unless the recipe specifies otherwise, always add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix the cookie dough together until just combined. The cookie dough will be a thin to medium consistency.
- Chill the dough. Chill for at least 2 hours, or until you can form the dough into balls. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap.
- Roll and Coat. Roll the molasses cookie dough into 1-inch balls, then roll in a small bowl of granulated sugar. You only need about 1/2 cup to coat all 36 cookies this recipe yields.
- Bake, then Cool. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. Mine seem to bake perfectly right at the 8-minute mark. Your cookies should have a nice, sparkling crinkle top with golden-brown edges. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to the wire cooling rack.
Helpful Tips
- Measuring sticky molasses. Measuring sticky ingredients can be tricky, so I suggest lightly spraying the inside of a measuring cup with baking spray. This will help the molasses slide out more easily when you’re pouring it into the mixer.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough. I recommend at least 2 hours of dough chilling or until you can easily form the dough into 1-inch balls. If they haven’t properly chilled, things can get pretty messy.
- Use a cookie scoop. For more consistently sized cookies, use a 1-tablespoon-sized cookie scoop. A regular spoon will work fine, too.
- Shape the cookies. This is totally optional, but if your cookies come out a little flatter than you like or you’d like them to be about the same size, you can shape them! Check out my Salted Brownie Cookies recipe to learn how to shape them!
Recipe FAQs
If you don’t typically keep ground cloves on hand, you can use ground nutmeg.
Yes! Follow the recipe instructions up to the point where you chill the molasses cookie dough. Roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls, but skip rolling them in the granulated sugar. Place them onto a parchment paper- or wax paper-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm. Remove from the freezer and place the frozen cookie dough balls into a well-sealed freezer bag. Molasses cookie dough balls will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer. When ready to bake, add 1-2 minutes to your baking time.
If you tried this Super Soft Molasses Cookies recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know what you thought in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Super Soft Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar, plus extra for rolling cookie dough balls in
- 1/4 cup Full Flavor Molasses, I used the Brer Rabbit brand
- 1 Large Egg, room temperature
Instructions
- Whisk together the all-purpose flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt. Set to the side.2 cups All-Purpose Flour, 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves, 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger, 2 tsp Baking Soda, 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp Salt
- Using your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the vegetable oil and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until well blended. Add in the full flavor molasses and egg.3/4 cup Vegetable Oil, 1 cup Granulated Sugar, 1/4 cup Full Flavor Molasses, 1 Large Egg
- Switching the mixer speed to low, gradually add in the whisked dry ingredients until just combined.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the molasses cookie dough for a minimum of 2 hours (or until it's easy to shape).
- Once the cookie dough has chilled, adjust the oven rack to the 2nd level position (just above center) and preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Using a spoon or a 1 tablespoon size cookie scoop, form 1 inch size cookie dough balls. Roll each one in a small bowl of granulated sugar and place on the lined baking sheet roughly 2 inches apart.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will be puffy at first, but will flatten as they cool.
- Molasses cookies can be kept stored in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. They'll stay soft too!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided above is an estimate only and will vary based on specific ingredients used. See Nutritional Disclaimer for more info.
More Holiday Cookie Recipes!
If I could give 10 stars I would. I made these cookies on Thursday and by Friday my two kids had eaten them all…I may have had a few as well. I’m making them again today (Saturday) because their cousins need to try them. They are soft and chewing and taste like fall. I also love and appreciate the way the recipe was written out. Step 1 mix dry ingredients and then the list and quantity of the ingredients right there instead of having to scroll back up. Thank you for this recipe!!
I’m so glad you and your kids enjoyed them so much! Thank you so much for making them and for the feedback on the instructions!
Mine did not puff up or flatten while baking them… the temp was correct.. what did I do wrong?
Did the cookies spread out at all?
Excellant I added candied ginger delicious!
These cookies are soft, chewy, and absolutely delicious!! Just sent a batch to relatives in another state (after hiding some from my husband) and making another batch this weekend. 8 minutes was perfect cooking time-do not overbake! I rolled the cookies in orange sanding sugar before cooking, and sprinkled on extra sugar after baking. YUM!! Thanks!
I love the idea of rolling the molasses cookies in orange sanding sugar, Carol! Thank you so much for making them!
Can I substitute real butter for the vegetable oil? If so, would I do one to one ratio? Thanks!
I’ve never tried them using butter before, but I think you could use that in place of the oil. The cookies may give you a slightly different taste and texture. If you try them with the butter, I would love to know how they turn out!
is pumpkin pie spice and ok alternative to the cloves and cinnamon
I didn’t test it with pumpkin pie spice, but you can certainly try it in place of the cinnamon, cloves, and ginger that’s called for in the recipe. The only difference is you’ll be adding nutmeg to the flavoring (the 4th spice in pumpkin pie spice), so they may taste a little different, but should still taste really good. Let me know how they turn out if you use it as a sub!
These are delicious and so soft.
Thank you, Meg. I am so glad you enjoyed them!
These turned out just right. I only left in frig for 1 1/2 hour. Next time will do longer making it a little easier to handls. Freezing them now and hoping for the best.
Awesome! I am so glad to hear that they did! Thank you so much for making the recipe!
Can these cookies be frozen?
Yes, absolutely! I include a section on the best way to do this in the blog post above.
Could unsweetened applesauce be subbed for the liquid shortening?
I didn’t test the recipe this way, but you could certainly try it and see how it goes!
These are amazing! 8 minutes is PERFECT!
Thank you so much for making them!