Old Fashioned Molasses Drop Cookie Recipe

These former fashioned molasses cookies are incredibly addictive, and they stay soft for days! Make this spiced cookie recipe for the holidays.

When fall arrives and the temperatures get colder, my desire to bake skyrockets. I dear this time of year, and I love the holidays, but I always lament the jarring reduction of daylight and warm weather. Zip soothes my soul against night skies quite like fresh-broiled cookies.

If it's autumn, I'thousand certain to be baking Peanut Butter Cookies. Once Dec rolls in, I'm all virtually Frosted Eggnog Cookies and Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies!

These fragrant, spiced ginger molasses cookies are like a ray of sunshine that's been infused with the best warming spices of the season. I (barely) adapted this recipe from the January / February 2002 consequence of Cook'southward Illustrated Magazine, because I knew they'd get it right. They did; their spiced cookie recipe is perfect. T

The soft, chewy treats were gone inside hours (thanks, neighbors!)

Ingredients for Sometime Fashioned Molasses Cookies

White granulated sugar – If you take demerara saccharide, try using that for tossing the portioned cookie dough before baking. I wouldn't run out and purchase it simply to make this recipe, but it has a nice caramel flavour that works very well with molasses cookies.
All-purpose flour– Feel free to use an all-purpose gluten free flour if you need to. I haven't tested it, but a i:i blend should work well.
Baking soda– Be sure to examination your baking soda for freshness before y'all get-go making this recipe. It's a bummer to acquire the difficult way… when your cookies don't rise!
Spices – You'll need several ground spices. I like to buy fresh bottles at the offset of every baking season. Yous'll want ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and black pepper.
Butter– I similar to utilise salted butter for baking but unsalted is fine besides. If you'll exist using unsalted, you may desire to add a pinch of salt to the cookie dough.
Nighttime brown saccharide – Do you know that brownish sugar is simply white granulated sugar with molasses added to it? Dark brownish saccharide has more than the calorie-free variety.
Egg yolk
Vanilla extract
Molasses (low-cal or dark)– Keep in mind that using a dark molasses will give a darker colour and richer flavor to the cookies.

How to Make Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies

Making the cookie dough is really simple. Information technology's but a basic creaming method.

Step 1: Cream the butter and sugar.

Whisk the dry ingredients together and set up aside. In a stand up mixer fitted with the paddle zipper, cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes until pale and fluffy.

Pace ii: Add together egg, molasses, and dry Ingredients.

Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until combined, and so add together the molasses. Scrape downwardly the bowl a couple times forth the way to make certain the ingredients nigh the lesser are evenly combined.

Add together the dry ingredients and mix until simply combined, then give a final stir to make sure no dry ingredients are hiding at the lesser of the mixer. The cookie dough will be very soft!

Step three: Toss Cookie Dough in Carbohydrate

If you've always made my snickerdoodle cookies, the next step will look a bit familiar. Using a tablespoon cookie scoop or measuring spoon, portion out the dough, a few cookies at a fourth dimension. Use your hands to gyre the cookies into balls, then drop into a bowl with sugar and swirl/toss to coal.

The dough will exist very soft, so use a light paw. Place the sugar-coated cookie dough on a parchment-lined sheet pan, effectually 2 inches autonomously.

Footstep 4: Bake the erstwhile fashioned molasses cookies!

No need to chill the dough first. Bake ane canvass at a time on the heart rack, rotating the pan halfway through. The cookies should yet look a lilliputian raw between the cracks when you remove them from the oven. This will ensure chewy, soft molasses cookies!

Footstep 5: Transfer to a Cooling Rack

Allow the cookies cool on the sail pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. You should technically allow them cool to room temperature before enjoying, but nosotros all know that won't happen.

You will see at that place's a departure betwixt the texture of the warm versus fully cooled molasses cookies. They'll be incredibly soft right out of the oven, just they'll develop more of a chewy texture once cooled.

Recipe Tips

Don't arctic the dough. I almost always arctic cookie dough before blistering, but I don't recommend doing and so here. Y'all'll go more of those signature cracks if the dough is room temperature. I think the molasses helps keep the dough from spreading too much in the oven.
Bake unmarried batches at a time. The cracks in the cookies are likewise why you want to cook ane sheet pan at a time. If you're in a hurry and don't care about crinkles, y'all tin can bake both sheets at once using the upper and lower tertiary shelves.
Use pre-cutting parchment. I purchase parchment sheets that are cut to fit my sheet pans perfectly. They're and so much better than the parchment rolls from the grocery store considering they lie flat.

Other Cookie Recipes

If you like these onetime fashioned molasses cookies, bank check out my full recipe annal for more cookies and confined to make!

Impress Pin Recipe

Soft Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies

This spiced cookie recipe is a great choice for parties and cookie exchanges! Molasses gives the cookies an incredible texture that lasts for days.

Form Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Chewy Molasses Cookies, Molasses Cookies, Soft Molasses Cookies

Prep Fourth dimension 10 minutes

Melt Time 11 minutes

Total Time 21 minutes

Servings 22 cookies (approximately)

Calories 167

▢ 11 i/4 ounces all-purpose flour (2 one/4 cups using Scoop & Sweep Method)
▢ i teaspoon baking soda
▢ two teaspoons ground cinnamon
▢ ane teaspoon ground ginger
▢ 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
▢ i/four teaspoon ground allspice
▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
▢ ane/four teaspoon kosher salt
▢ 6 ounces unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature
▢ 2 one/two ounces dark brown saccharide (most i/3 cup packed)
▢ 2 ane/2 ounces granulated sugar (about 1/3 cup), plus 1/2 cup for dipping
▢ 1 large egg yolk
▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
▢ i/2 cup molasses, low-cal or nighttime

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Place an oven rack in the heart position and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
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In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, pepper, and salt until evenly combined.
▢
In a stand up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown saccharide, and 1/three loving cup granulated carbohydrate on medium-loftier speed until pale and fluffy, around three minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low, then add together the yolk and vanilla. Increase speed to medium and mix for twenty-30 seconds until evenly combined. Scrape downwards the bottom and sides of the bowl with a safety spatula. Reduce the speed to medium-depression and add the molasses, mixing until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds. Once more, scrape the bowl with a spatula.
▢
Turn the speed down to the everyman setting, then add the flour mixture and beat until only incorporated, around 30 seconds, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl once. Give the dough a final stir to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at the bottom.
▢
Place the remaining 1/2 loving cup granulated sugar in bowl or shallow dish. Using a tablespoon-sized measuring scoop (or a measuring spoon), portion the dough and use your hands to roll into balls. Drop the dough assurance into the saccharide bowl, swirling to coat evenly. Place the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets spaced about two inches autonomously.
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Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned, puffy, keen, and the edges take begun to prepare but the centers are still soft, around 11 minutes, rotating the baking sail after five minutes. The cookies might look raw between the cracks when they're prepare. Do not overbake! Don't bake both sheets at in one case or chill the dough first; you'll get less of those signature cracks.
▢
Absurd cookies for five minutes, then utilise a spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack; cool cookies to room temperature, then serve. Molasses cookies can be stored at room temperature in closed container or attachment-lock plastic bag for up to 5 days.

If you have some, try using 1/2 cup demerara sugar in place of granulated white sugar for tossing the cookies after rolling. I wouldn't buy it simply for these cookies, simply demerara sugar has a lovely, subtle caramel season that works well here.

Barely adapted from Cook's Illustrated

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