Chewy Molasses Cookies Just Like Grandma Made
These chewy molasses cookies contain just enough ginger, cloves, and cinnamon to bring out nostalgic memories of the holidays. These are easy to make and can be spiced with cinnamon imperials for a more festive look. This is truly one of my favorite cookie recipes. It gives me chills just thinking about having these to munch on. You’ll love the flavor and the texture.
Chewy Molasses Cookies Just Like Grandma Made
Just look below at all these yummy ingredients! Life is good with fresh ingredients, a mixer, friends, and family in the kitchen.
Items Needed In The Kitchen
- Kitchen Aid Mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Cookie sheets
- Cookie Spatula
- Cookie scoop
- Parchment paper
Step One
Cream the butter with the white granulated sugar.
Step Two
Add the brown sugar to the eggs and keep mixing it.
Step Three
Add the molasses to the sugar and egg mixture. Cream together.
Step Four
Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. I like using bread flour for my flour-based recipes, but if you have all-purpose flour, that will work fine.
Step Five
Add the dry mixture to the butter, sugars, and egg mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Step Six
Mix it all. Oh, I wish you could smell the blackstrap molasses. With the smell of ginger, we could probably call these chewy ginger molasses cookies or just gingerbread cookies. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for an hour.
Step Seven
Grab a bowl and fill it with just enough granulated sugar to roll the cookie dough balls in to cover them entirely with sugar. I use a cookie scoop to pull the dough from the mixing bowl, then roll the dough with your hands to form the ball. With all that sugar, you’d think we could call these sugar cookies. lol Still, a molasses cookie recipe is more fitting.
Step Eight
Grease a cookie baking sheet, or use parchment paper to cover it. Preheat the oven to (350°F − 32) = (176°C) degrees. Roll each ball in sugar and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
After you bake them you can add some cinnamon imperials, if desired, while the cookies are still warm.
Serve with milk or hot chocolate. I like mine warm, but they still taste great at room temperature!
Tie it with a ribbon and deliver some to a neighbor.
Chewy Molasses Cookies
- 1-1/2 cups softened butter
- 1 cup white sugar (more for rolling balls of dough in)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 eggs
- 4-1/2 cups flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- cinnamon imperial pieces (optional)
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Preheat oven to (350°F − 32) = (176°C) degrees.
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Use a mixing bowl to cream butter and sugars together. Add in eggs and mix on medium speed.
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Pour in molasses and cream with butter. In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine dry ingredients.
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Combine wet and dry ingredients until well mixed. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
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With your hands, roll dough into one-inch balls. Roll each ball in sugar. Place on your cookie sheet.
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Bake for 8-10 minutes. Make sure you don’t overcook these.
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The bottoms should be lightly browned. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
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Optional idea: After removing the cookies from the oven, place a few cinnamon imperial pieces in the cookies.
Final Word
I don’t know about you, but I think about Christmas when I hear gingerbread or molasses. Do you love chewy molasses cookies as much as I do? The various spices in the recipe make it flavorful with every bite! We can’t be thinking about calories when we enjoy cookies like these. Just savor the taste and the memories.
We moved up north, but our grandkids are not so little anymore. Life isn’t the same without little ones around. Please grab a bowl, whisk, or wooden spoon when your kids or grandkids visit. Making memories with grandchildren is such a blessing; I miss those days.
One of my best memories is of making soft molasse cookies together. Please keep prepping; we must. May God bless this world, Linda
Will try making the molasses cookies gluten free.
Hi Louise, great idea! Linda
Louise, did you make the molasses cookies with gluten free flour?
I was thinking about it.
Thanks, Martha
Linda ~
As a child, I rarely got to see my paternal grandmother. BUT, when I did, what I remember the most was her cookies!! It seems that those cookies, in retrospect, were HUGE! but I was a child so they were likely just regular sized!! She made the most awesome molasses cookies. She did not roll them in sugar but what she did was use the bottom of a glass that she rubbed a bit of butter on, dipped in sugar and used to flatten the cookie dough! Your recipe is about as close to hers as I have seen.
A handy tip for measuring molasses (and any other sticky syrupy things) – first measure a bit of oil in the measuring cup and wipe the sides of the measuring cup, pour out any residual oil OR spray with a cooking spray. Molasses will slide right out. I also use this technique when measuring things like honey, some syrups, etc., anything that will stick to the sides of the measuring cup.
Hi Leanne, oh my goodness the memories we have made with our grandmothers!! Oh, how I love hearing this!! I need to try the bottom of the glass with butter on them, oh how I love hearing new tricks! I had forgotten that trick on the oil in the measuring cup before using molasses, wonderful tip! Linda
So yummy! Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Tiffany, I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Linda
This is one of my favorite recipes! My whole house smells amazing while they are cooking! Thank you sooo much for sharing! My family loves these cookies! :))❤️
Hi Camille, oh, I’m so glad you made them, they are so soft and chewy. I love hearing your family liked them! Linda
I love how soft and chewy these cookies are. They are so delicious and so easy to make!
Hi Alli, oh I love hearing this! They are my favorite cookie! Linda
Love the Recipe. I don’t have family recipes from my side of the family (except for my sour beans that my father gave me) and I can remember my husbands aunt making the cookie recipes she got from her mother. Now both of them are gone so I don’t have the recipes from anyone anymore. It’s a shame that the generations have not kept the recipes of their fore-bearers. You loose so much when the children don’t get the recipes from their elders. That is why I am making a recipe book of recipes for my daughter and daughter in Love..
Hi Jackie, thank you for the 5 stars! It’s a shame we don’t have the family recipes we wish we had!! I love that you are making a recipe book! Linda
Can this recipe be cut in half? I want to use gluten free flour and don’t want to test on large batch.
Hi Kendra, if you are used to using your GF flour with other recipes I don’t know why you couldn’t cut the recipe in half. I do not use GF flour for baking so I can’t guarantee it. Linda
I was just going through a recipe folder and found my grandmother’s recipe!! I thought I had lost it year ago!! I think I have everything to make these cookies. I think my grandchildren will love them.
Linda, thank you for posting this as a reminder!! Now to mess up my kitchen again!!!
Hi Leanne, thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend. Grandkids are the best! Let the baking begin!! Linda
Thank you for this wonderful recipe, but also for the wonderful memories of my grandmother. Her home was my safe space, and the place I go to in my mind when I need to. Her root cellar made her a prepper long before any of us.
Hi Chris, thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend! Your grandmothers root cellar was your safe place, aww, gotta love this! She was a prepper before anyone started using the word. Linda