I love making these molasses crinkle cookies as the weather starts to cool off and the leaves start to turn. Of course, you don’t have to wait for fall! They taste great any time of the year. These cookies are soft, chewy, packed with flavor, and have a lovely sugar crust. This is sure to become one of your favorite cookie recipes!
Why You'll Love These Molasses Spice Cookies.
- They’re a crowd-pleaser!
- These chewy molasses spice cookies taste incredible while still warm from the oven. Next time you go to a friend’s house for dinner or have people over, make the cookie dough ahead and bake the cookies once dinner is over. Who doesn’t love freshly baked, still-warm cookies?!?
- These chewy molasses spice cookies are delicious on their own or served alongside vanilla or pumpkin ice cream. If you can find Graeter's Pumpkin Ice Cream in your area, that's my favorite store-bought version.
- They're great holiday cookies for gifts, a cookie exchange, or a Christmas cookie plate. And they freeze well, so you can make them ahead of the holidays and thaw them when needed. You'll love Carmelitas and Oatmeal Craisin Cookies for the same reasons.
Key ingredients to make a batch of molasses cookies
- Unsalted butter is typically recommended in baking recipes because you can add as much or as little salt as needed. You have no control over how salty or not salted butter is.
- Molasses—You want to use regular molasses in this recipe. It lends a deep, rich flavor to these molasses spice cookies. Be sure to use regular molasses and not blackstrap. They're very different in flavor, sweetness, and water content.
- Dark brown sugar adds more complexity to the flavor of recipes. It will also give the cookies a deeper color.
- Ground cloves, cinnamon, and ginger - If any of your spices are more than 6 months old, consider replacing them because the flavor begins to diminish after about 6 months.
What’s wrong with sweets? Nothing!
Do you worry about offering sweets to your kids? What is it about allowing sweets that worries you? So often, the messages we hear vilify sweets. But, sweets aren’t the problem! Fear-based messaging is the problem!
We've all had someone tell us that foods like cookies don’t have any nutrients. That's FALSE! Cookies (and other sweets) do contain nutrients. These molasses spice cookies contain carbohydrates (flour and sugar), protein (egg), and fat (butter). Sweets also taste good; they're part of family traditions and fun to eat!
If you’d like practical tips on offering sweets, read Anna’s post What About Dessert? I also highly recommend the post Let’s Talk About Sugar by Le’Vena Tan, Nutrition Masters Student & Guest Post Writer.
Cooking and baking with kids
I’ve been baking versions of molasses crinkle cookies since I was a kid - so for a long time! A wonderful babysitter knew I loved to bake and gave me my very first cookbook when I was maybe 9 or 10—Betty Crocker’s Cookies. The recipe below is adapted from that cookbook.
I’ve always loved to cook and bake—one of my earliest and fondest memories was cooking lunch for our parents at preschool (open-faced toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup). Who would I be if my preschool teacher, Harriett Andrews, hadn’t had us cook lunch for our parents??
Here at Sunny Side Up Nutrition, we’re big fans of cooking with kids. Baking cookies offers lots of ways for kids of all ages to help! If you’d like more info and simple ways to cook with kids, read my posts, Simple Tips for Cooking with Kids and Homemade Soft Pretzels - Cooking with Kids Part 2.
Frequently Asked Questions about baking old fashioned molasses cookies
Sure, just know that the cookies will be lighter in color and won't have quite as much depth of flavor. Dark brown sugar contains more molasses than light brown sugar, so it has a more complex flavor and is darker in color.
Very lightly spray the inside of the measuring cup with Pam cooking spray.
No worries! You can scoop out a heaping tablespoon of dough using a tablespoon measure or a regular spoon. Then, roll the dough into a ball with your hand. If you want to purchase cookie dough scoops, click here for the ones I have. Any brand will do, though.
More cookie recipes and tips for cooking with kids
Old Fashioned Molasses Spice Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup room temperature unsalted butter
- 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ cup granulated sugar for coating
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 F.
- Gather your ingredients together.
- Measure flour, spices, salt, baking soda into a medium mixing bowl and gently whisk to combine
- Place the butter and dark brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment cream the butter and brown sugar on medium-high for approx 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the molasses to the butter-sugar mixture and mix on medium speed to combine.
- Add the egg and mix to combine.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl again.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed to combine.
- Put the ¼ cup of granulated sugar in a bowl. Scoop the cookie dough using a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie dough scoop. Place the dough balls on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Roll each ball of dough in the granulated sugar and transfer back to the sheet pan. Gently press each ball of cookie dough with the palm of your hand to flatten out the roundness just a bit.
- Bake cookies for approximately 8-10 minutes*. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Makes about 36 small cookies
Notes
Hi! We're Anna & Elizabeth!
We are two moms who are also Registered Dietitians and child-feeding experts. We are passionate about keeping diet culture out of parenting.
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