These soft ginger molasses cookies are truly “the best”: featuring ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, a touch of molasses, and a delightfully chewy texture.
Typically Alex and I love to make desserts that are on the lighter side, even if it involves adding non-traditional items like black beans. So this holiday season, we set out to find some light / healthy cookie recipes. Somewhere along the line, we learned a crucial lesson: sometimes, cookies aren’t meant to be healthy. We had lots of failed cookie experiments over the past few weeks. Turns out, ripe bananas or apple sauce don’t exactly equal butter and sugar. And there’s something about the texture of a cookie that’s very hard to replicate without the magic of butter.
How to make ginger molasses cookies
So while we found one healthier cookie we liked (and one tasty healthyish dessert), we now bring to you — our perfect soft ginger molasses cookies! And these ginger molasses cookies have the traditional white flour, butter, and sugar. If you enjoy a reasonably whole foods diet most of the time, it’s always good to have a splurge or two, especially around the holidays.
The perfect splurge for us is a ginger molasses cookie. We were terribly excited to create this recipe, because it’s everything we’re looking for in a cookie — amped up with aromatic spices like ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, with a tinge of dark molasses, a delightfully chewy texture, and a crunch of turbinado sugar. We did use natural turbinado cane sugar, a slightly less processed version of sugar than white sugar, which brings a nice sweetness without being overpowering. Overall, these ginger molasses cookies are it: our perfect cookie.
This ginger molasses cookies recipe is…
Vegetarian.
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*Best* Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Description
These soft ginger molasses cookies are truly “the best”: featuring ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, a touch of molasses, and a delightfully chewy texture.
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup turbinado raw cane sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup molasses
- Extra sugar for rolling
Instructions
- In a bowl, add 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon allspice, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Mix well to combine.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer (or with a hand-mixer), beat together ¾ cup butter and ¾ cup turbinado sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add 1 egg and ½ cup molasses and mix to combine. Then stir in the dry ingredients. Refrigerate the batter 1 hour.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375°F.
- Roll the dough into 1 ½” balls, then roll the balls in turbinado sugar to coat the outsides. Arrange on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake in oven until set and crinkled on top, about 10 to 12 minutes (around 10 minutes for smaller cookies and 12 for larger). Remove from the oven and cool slightly.
Notes
Adapted from Food 52
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Ginger Molasses Cookies, Cookies, Ginger Cookies, Spices, Cinnamon, Cloves, Holiday, Baking, Baked, Ginger
Gluten free or vegan desserts
Looking for gluten free desserts or vegan desserts instead of these cookies? Try some of these options:
- Peppermint Ice Cream and Hot Cocoa Affogato
- Gingerbread Dough Truffles
- Raw Brownies
- Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
- Dark Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream
- Easy Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
- Natural Chocolate Mint Pudding
- All gluten free desserts!
- All vegan dessert recipes!
Looking for Christmas cookie recipes?
Aside from this soft ginger molasses cookies recipe, here are a few of our favorite Christmas cookie recipes:
- Soft Gingerbread Cookies
- Peppermint Meringues
- Chai Spiced Snowball Cookies
- Ginger Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle
- Cherry Quinoa Chocolate Bark
- Healthy Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls
- Narwhal Gingerbread Cutout Cookies
- Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies
- Cranberry Pistachio Chocolate Clusters
- Easy Peppermint Bark
Hehe, for a second there in the picture it looked there was quinoa in them ;).
Haha! I wouldn’t put it past us, but no. :)
I made these and added flax seed and hemp seed for a little extra healthier version they were outstanding
I completely agree with this philosophy – I’ve spent far too long on failed baking experiments not to appreciate that butter, flour and sugar have been used to bake sweet treats for many hundreds of years for a good reason! And if you can’t enjoy a little bit of everything at Christmas then when can you? I love the spice of these cookies, perfect for the holiday season!
I couldn’t agree with you more! Christmas is the time of white flour, white sugar, butter, &, maybe, some shortening too! These cookies look delicious!
Writing Pad Dad
These are the darkest ginger molasses cookies I’ve seen and they look divine!
Ginger molasses is definitely one of my fav’s! Love this recipe!
I want to make these into ice cream sandwiches so badly. I have some salted caramel in my freezer that would be perfect!
I agree with you. I love a “healthier” dessert once in a while, but find when it comes to dessert, I tend to go for the real stuff. I do use 60% dark chocolate or higher when baking and find that makes a difference. My kids have gotten so use to dark chocolate in their baked goods and such that they really don’t like candy or milk chocolate anymore.
I have to tell you that molasses cookies are my absolute favorite and I can’t wait to make these over the Holiday break. I tend to use blackstrap molasses when I make up ginger cookies and was curious if you think it would make a difference if I use it for this recipe?
Love the new look of the blog!
Jackie :)
Thanks, Jackie! We have never used blackstrap molasses before, but I’ve seen that it has a bit stronger taste — which I think would be a nice addition to these cookies! Let us know if you try it — I’m eager to hear how it might work out.
Hallelujah! Well said, Sister.
These are flipping delicious. I happened to stumble in here from food gawker and I’m so glad i did! My obsession with molasses is re-ignited!
Yay! Glad you found us and enjoyed the recipe!
Oh holy night… These are the best cookies I’ve ever eaten! I’m so glad I made these despite being pooped out! I substituted the sugar with a blend of 1/4 cup regular white sugar, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar/Splenda blend, and 1/5 cup Splenda and they still came out amazing! Thanks so much for posting!
Haha! So glad they they worked out for you :)