Perfectly Soft, Chewy, and Crinkly Ginger Molasses Cookies
These ginger molasses cookies are perfectly soft, chewy, and loaded with spices like ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. They also have that perfect crinkle on top!
Ginger molasses cookies have been around since the 1800’s – and with good reason. They are easy to make, so festive, and don’t require rolling out dough or using any special tools like cookie press recipes do. I can’t even begin to fathom the number of these cookies that have been made over the past 100 years!
Ingredients
These cookies are made using pantry staples and gingerbread spices (ginger, cinnamon, and cloves).
The molasses that you use will have a huge impact on the flavor of the cookies. Use a light molasses like Grandma’s Original Molasses [paid link]. Don’t use blackstrap molasses, which is less sweet and can leave the cookies tasting bitter.
How It’s Made
Start by mixing sugar, brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.
Next, add the molasses and the eggs and mix until completely combined.
Add flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt to another small bowl, whisk together and gradually mix into the wet ingredients on low speed until just combined.
Cover dough bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for thirty minutes to an hour. This will make it easier to roll and, as I mentioned above, it dries out the batter to make perfect crinkles!
Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of cookie dough, roll each ball in sugar, and bake at 350F on a cookie sheet until barely set. Remove them onto a cooling rack using a metal spatula.
Expert Tips and FAQs
Perfect ginger cookies have a beautiful crinkle on the top. The key to getting this crinkled appearance is to chill the dough before baking it and to roll the dough balls in sugar. Rolling in the sugar helps to dry the batter out more, which promotes crinkling.
Lastly, to be sure that you end up with soft cookies, pull the cookies from the oven when they are just barely set! If they over-bake, you will end up with crispy cookies instead of soft and chewy ones.
Variations
Chocolate Chip Ginger Molasses Cookies
Chocolate goes so well with the other flavors in these cookies and, as you can imagine, chocolate chip ginger cookies are irresistible when they are still hot!
To make them, I add semi-sweet chocolate chips to my recipe. You can experiment with dark, white, or milk chocolate chips and decide which you like best.
Chocolate-Dipped Ginger Molasses Cookies
These are arguably the prettiest way to make ginger molasses cookies.
When dipping in chocolate, you can use either the chocolate chip version or the plain version – whichever you prefer. Make sure that you temper your chocolate (it’s really easy) before dipping cookies in it so they end up with a nice shine!
I always add some pretty sprinkles after dipping because sprinkles make people happy! You could also decorate with lots of little candies like you would when you use a gingerbread house kit.
Ginger Molasses Sandwich Cookies
My son declared the sandwich cookie version to be the best cookies I have ever made. To make them, spread frosting on top of a cookie and press another cookie down on top of the frosting.
You can use any frosting that you like. I love using my vanilla frosting and cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
FAQs
To keep the cookies moist, store them in an airtight container with a piece of fresh bread. The moisture from the bread will help keep the cookies from getting stale.
While they were a little past their prime, I’ve eaten mine stored that way up to week after making them.
Related Recipes
- Gingerbread cupcakes
- Peppernuts
- White chocolate gingerbread blondies from Bless This Mess
- Syllabub cocktail
Ginger Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar plus extra for dipping cookie dough in
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup molasses not blackstrap
- 2 large eggs
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix sugar, brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.
- Mix in molasses and eggs until fully combined.
- Add flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt to another small bowl, whisk together and gradually mix into the wet ingredients on low speed until just combined.
- Cover dough bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for thirty minutes to an hour. This will make it easier to roll and dry it out more so that it crinkles.
- Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of cookie dough and roll each ball in sugar.
- Place dough balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until barely set. If you over-bake the cookies, they will be crispy instead of chewy. When you pull them from the oven, they won't seem like they are done; the tops won't be totally set, but the bottoms will be. They will continue cooking for a few minutes after they are out of the oven.
- Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
- Create a chocolate chip version by gently mixing in 1 1/2 cups (300 g) of chocolate chips to the dough just after combining wet and dry ingredients.
- Create chocolate-dipped cookies by dipping cooled cookies into 3/4 cup (150 g) of dark chocolate, melted. Don’t forget to add sprinkles!
- Make sandwich cookies by spreading frosting between two cookies; I like to use my favorite vanilla frosting.
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