Molasses Crinkle Cookies
This Ginger Molasses Crinkle Cookies recipe is one of my favorites for the holidays. They’re spicy, crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle, and full of flavor! Only a hand mixer is needed for this simple recipe.
…it’s CHRISTMAS COOKIE TIME!!!
Today I bring you a recipe for one of my favorite EVER cookies, crinkled ginger molasses cookies.
I developed these specifically so that they’re a cross between those puffy crinkle cookies and those flat chewy molasses cookies.
They have a crisp edge and a super chewy inside, and I would liken the chewiness to a fudgy brownie kind of texture. It’s awesome.
I wrote up this recipe and filmed the following video to raise awareness for a great nonprofit organization called Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. It was founded by two parents who lost their six year old son after a four year long battle with cancer, and after they learned that over 25% of pediatric cancer deaths were because of a lack of effective therapies and a lack of funding, they decided to raise money with bake sales and cookies! As more and more people have gotten involved in the cause, they have grown tremendously.
Here’s the full video instructional on how to make these cookies:
But of course, I’ll take you through the visual step by step version as well.
These molasses crinkles are very easy!
In a large bowl, make a spiced all purpose flour with ground ginger, ground cloves, ground allspice, baking soda, and kosher salt:
Then get the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Use an electric mixer to whip together unsalted butter, granulated white sugar, egg white, and blackstrap molasses:
Blackstrap molasses is an extra dark molasses that’s about 40% sugar instead of 70%. I get mine from Whole Foods. It has a more unique flavor than traditional molasses, and gives us chewy cookies.
Mix the spiced flour mixture into the wet ingredients and you’ll get a scoopable dough.
Use a cookie scoop (I used the OXO medium scoop) to portion the dough into balls, then roll the dough balls in granulated sugar (this gives the cookies an awesome crunch):
For a more coarse texture, you may also use a turbinado sugar, if you have it.
Place the sugar rolled cookie dough balls onto a parchment lined prepared baking sheet:
Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 13-14 minutes until they are crinkly on top, with slightly crisp edges. Then let them cool completely.
I do this right on the pan, but you may also move them to a wire rack once they’ve set enough to move. Enjoy your spicy and soft molasses cookies!
These are perfect Christmas cookies, and one I often include for cookie exchanges. I also like Simple Sugar Cookies, Jam Thumbprint Cookies, Snowball Cookies, No Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Shortbread Cookies.
Recipe Tips and FAQ
Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you wrap each one individually in plastic wrap, it will keep them slightly softer and preserve the chewy texture better.
I don’t include it here because there’s already a lot of flavor with the ginger, spices, and molasses. But you may add 1 teaspoon to the wet ingredients, if you’d like.
Yes, fit the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and the instructions should more or less be the same. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
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Ginger Molasses Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 4 tbsp butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar plus extra for rolling
- 1 egg white
- 4 tbsp blackstrap molasses*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a big bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice, and cloves.
- In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until combined.
- Add the egg white and whip until smooth, then add the molasses.
- Mix in your dry ingredients until the flour just disappears.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough into 12 balls, and roll them in granulated sugar.
- Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes, then allow to cool. These cookies freeze well after being baked.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
651 Comments on “Molasses Crinkle Cookies”
Have you experimented with making this cookie rollable? I’d like a gingerbread man with a crackly top.u
I have made your blondies and caramel sauce. Awesome!!! I am now looking at all your other recipes and these look amazing! Are they similar to Starbucks ginger molasses cookies? I like how you mention you love chewy cookies. I agree the blondies are wicked chewy…I love the texture! So I trust your judgement on the true definition of chewy. So would you define these are uber chewy? And are they similar to Starbucks? I love those darn things. I hope you come out with a wicked chewy oatmeal cookie, I have yet to find one outside of cafeterias. 🙂
Thank you for this recipe! This is exactly what I was looking for. Crispy outside with the chewy molasses center. Tops crinkled nicely.
Quick substitutions if you want to change it up or don’t have all the ingredients:
cinnamon instead of the allspice and cloves
salted butter, just remove the added salt
Cinnamon sugar for rolling
I tried a metal baking sheet and a baking stone. For the metal sheet I would reduce baking time by 1 minute.
Excellent gingery spicy Christmas cookie! It will be one of our standards from now on – thanks for sharing!
Hi Martha, I made these for Christmas as well! Glad you enjoyed them.
My dough keeps turning out too “wet” and it is nearly impossible to roll because of the paste-y texture. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Sharon, I wonder if possibly the butter is too soft? What I would recommend to troubleshoot is to add another 2 tbsp of flour, until it has a texture that’s still wet, but cohesive enough to roll.
These remind me of my Molasses cookies. Good stuff. Our fav cookie is the Swedish snowball or pecan sandier. Butter, flour, salt, sugar,chopped pecans. Refrig. Make balls size of quarters of a bit bigger. Bake. Let cool. Roll in powdered sugar. These melt in your mouth. Woohoo Xmas . Thank you for your website. I am 63 and love knowing I can watch you and feel confident that even I can make Carmel’s!! Lol ty
My fav cookie is what some call Swedish , pecan snowballs. Butter, flour sugar, pecans. Refrig. Roll into balls, bake. Roll in powdered sugar while they are slightly warm. They melt in your mouth. These are our family tradition choice.
Ty for you fabulous site and videos. I at my age can still learn. By watching you I gain confidence that I really can make Carmel!!
Haha it’s funny, as you were describing the cookies I was thinking, are you those the cookies that melt in your mouth? And then you said that =) I love those cookies!!!
I am so excited that you know that cookie. I can only imagine how many homes do the same or a variation. Very fun to hear you get a giant YUM too! Ha!
I gave this recipe to a friend and she says she followed it precisely but the cookies didn’t “crinkle”, just flattened out. It was disappointing, but she says the cookies were delicious so she will try it again. Do you have any insights into what might have caused her problem?
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