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 soft and 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. My molasses brand of choice 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.
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItHow to Make the Recipe
Below is a brief overview of how to make these incredibly soft molasses cookies. For the full printable recipe, which can be made using US customary or metric measurements using the toggle switch, visit the recipe card below.
Step 1. Whisk the all-purpose flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and salt.
Step 2. Whisk the vegetable oil and sugar together. Add in the molasses and egg, mixing until well blended.
Step 3. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. The cookie dough will be very soft and mushy.
Step 4. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 2 hours.
Step 5. Form the cookie dough into balls using a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop.
Step 6. Roll the molasses cookie dough balls in a small bowl of sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Step 7. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. Your cookies should have a nice, sparkling crinkle top with golden-brown edges.
Step 8. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Storage and Freezing Instructions
Molasses cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
To freeze molasses cookie dough, chill the dough, then 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 solid. 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, roll in sugar, and add 1-2 minutes to your baking time.
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 chilling the dough for at least 2 hours, or until you can easily form it 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 the full-flavor molasses and egg.3/4 cup Vegetable Oil, 1 cup Granulated Sugar, 1/4 cup Full Flavor Molasses, 1 Large Egg
- Switch the mixer to low speed, and gradually add the whisked dry ingredients until just combined.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the molasses cookie dough for at least 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 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.
- You can store molasses cookies in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature.
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.
I only have olive oil, can I use that in place of the oil?
I never tried it with olive oil, but I believe that should be fine!
This recipe is so good, it’s the best molasses cookie recipe you’ll find! I made so many of these cookies for the holidays and they were all gone in one day. I will definitely use this recipe again soon!
these are sooooo delicious ive got to make another batch asap these aren’t gonna last will make again!
Use this recipe every Christmas season. I do add 1/4 tsp. each Nutmeg and Cardamom to my dry ingredients for an extra kick. Everyone raves.
Thank you so much for this kind review, Eleanor! I appreciate the tip on adding a little extra nutmeg and cardamom too!
Love this recipe! Has anyone tried freezing these? If so? How did they hold up?
These turned out great!!! Just as recipe read! I ended up at a full 10 minutes in the oven. Very happy and loved how the recipe itself was written out with the repeat of the ingredients! Thank you!
So happy you enjoyed them and loved to hear that the recipe format worked well too!
Delicious cookies. Texture as advertised. my oven took 10 minutes. I used Eggbeaters instead of a whole egg and didn’t effect the cookies at all.
My cookies did not come out soft. They really spread and are very crunchy. I did put in a plastic container with a piece of bread hopping this will soften them. I’m not sure what happened, I followed the recipe. Thoughts?
I’m so sorry they came out like this! Because every kitchen is different, it’s tough to pinpoint exactly what may have been the issue. Things like oven temp being off, over mixing cookie dough, mistakenly adding or not adding enough of an ingredient could contribute. I hope the piece of bread will soften them some (one of my favorite tips btw)!
These are just what I was looking for. They came out perfectly with exactly 8 min cooking time. Will be serving them with apple cider at a reception at church during the holidays. 😊
What a lovely treat to share with everyone! Thank you so much for making them!
This recipe is great. Family loves them and to kick them up a notch I put in 1/2 teaspoon Cardamom.
So glad you and your family enjoyed them!