Ginger-spiked molasses spice cookies are perfect for cold weather and the holidays! With five warming spices and fancy molasses, this is a crowd favourite.
Recipe excerpted from Earth to Table Bakes by Bettina Schormann and Erin Schiestel. Photography by Sophie MacKenzie.
Ginger molasses cookies, made with fancy molasses alongside a big hit of spice from cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice. The perfect fall and winter holiday cookie.
From the book: “These ginger cookies are the perfect combination of chewy and crisp. The rolling sugar adds sweetness and a slight crunch to the spicy, chewy middles.” We agree!
Baked and crumbled, these would make a great cheesecake base, especially at Christmas time. Try them in place of graham crackers in our no-bake cheesecake.
Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.
Recommended Tools
- 2 baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Stand mixer or electric mixer
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- Spatula or wooden spoon
- Mixing bowl
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- Flour: plain all-purpose white flour.
- Vegetable Shortening: this can be any oil that’s solid at room temperature, like coconut oil.
- Fancy Molasses: try to look specifically for fancy, not regular molasses.
- Egg: one large egg, best at room temperature.
- Baking Soda and Salt
- Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice.
Keep scrolling to see clear and detailed process shots, as well as tips and notes to help you make Ginger Molasses Cookies perfectly the first time!
Method
TOP TIPS
1. Don’t skip the rolling. The sugar roll makes these cookies spectacular – don’t skip it!
2. Try adding chocolate. If you want to change things up, make these into chocolate spice cookies with a handful of chocolate chips.
3. Change up the spices. Use spices you like the most and omit those that aren’t to your taste.
Recipe Notes
- Don’t be tempted to mix the spices in with the flour and call it a day! Fat acts as a carrier for flavour, so by adding the dry spices to the shortening mixture, you’re ensuring a stronger, more well-rounded flavour in the cookies.
- The recipe header in the book states: “Be sure to cream the shortening and sugar for the suggested time. It needs to be very light and fluffy to ensure that the cookies spread the right amount and to ensure the perfect final texture.”
- Fancy molasses is the sweetest type of molasses, so using a different kind will result in cookies that are much less sweet.
- We baked these cookies for 14 minutes, rather than the suggested 15-20, turning the pan in the oven after 7 minutes.
How to Store and Freeze Molasses Cookies
- To Store: store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- To Freeze: place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Substitutions and Variations
- The recipe calls for vegetable shortening, so coconut oil should work very well here. Use refined coconut oil to avoid any light coconut flavour.
- Try rolling the cookies in vanilla sugar for a little something extra.
- The spices could be changed to suit your personal preferences. Cardamom, for example, would be a nice substitute for cloves.
- Fresh ginger might be a nice addition to the cookies in place of dry, but we haven’t tried this. An equal amount but very finely grated could work, but it would change the flavour of the cookies.
- Chopped crystallized ginger would be a great addition here. You could also roll the cookies in a coarser sugar rather than the plain sugar used in the cookie dough.
FAQ
Like any liquid sweetener, molasses will make cookies a bit softer and chewier. These cookies get a bit of crunch from rolling in sugar, but they’re mostly super soft and chewy, just right for a spice cookie.
Molasses cookies are soft, while gingerbread is meant to be a long lasting, snappy biscuit. Gingerbread should be crisp and then a tiny bit chewy in the middle, while these are more chewy all the way through.
It’s the sweetest type and often used as a topping rather than a baking ingredient. It’s lighter and sweeter than other types, and can’t be subbed 1:1 for regular molasses.
More Spiced Cookie Recipes
Sugar and Spice Cookies
Chewy Vegan Ginger Cookies
Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Eggnog Cookies
Recipe
Ginger Molasses Spice Cookies
Description
Equipment
- 2 baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Stand mixer
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- Spatula or wooden spoon
- Mixing bowl
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar, divided
- ¼ cup fancy molasses
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the shortening, 1 cup of the sugar, and the molasses on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Reduce the speed to medium. Add the egg and increase the speed to high and mix for about 3 more minutes to increase the volume. Reduce the speed to medium.
- Add the baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Mix to combine.
- Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just combined.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Stir the batter with a spatula or wooden spoon to be sure the ingredients are well combined.
- Place the remaining ½ cup of sugar in a medium bowl. Roll the cookie dough into 1- inch (2.5 cm) balls, the equivalent of about 2 tablespoons of dough. Drop each dough ball into the sugar and turn it to coat completely.
- Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.
- Bake for 15 to 20* minutes, turning the baking sheets after 10 minutes, until the edges of the cookies start to turn golden brown. Because these cookies are quite dark, determining when they are done can be tricky. In addition to the edges starting to brown, the cookies should be slightly puffed and the tops should be starting to crack.
- Let cool completely. Baked edit: the recipe doesn't specify whether to cool on the sheet, or on a rack. We suggest 5 minutes on the sheet before removing to cool fully on a rack.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
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