Seriously Soft Molasses Cookies - Sally's Baking Addiction (2024)

Published: 12/06/2017Updated: 12/19/2023

Homemade soft molasses cookieswith crackly tops are super chewy and perfectly spiced. They stay seriously soft for days—if they last that long—and are always a holiday favorite.

Molasses cookies have always been my top choice because they bring me right back to my childhood. I grew up helping my mom bake them. After rolling the dough in the sugar and watching them bake through the little oven window, my sweet reward was biting into a warm cookie fresh from the oven. In addition to the nostalgia, the soft texture paired with cozy molasses puts them above any other cookie.

Sorry, chocolate chip cookies, you don’t even compare.

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Molasses Cookie Comparison

Since they’re a favorite, I have plenty of gingersnap/molasses cookie recipes on my website and in my cookbooks. Most stem from the same-ish recipe with the exception of the crisp variety. Let’s review what makes each one individually and undeniably delicious:

• Soft White Chocolate Chip Molasses Cookies: Studded with white chocolate chips, these cookies are lusciously soft and mega chewy. You’ll love the combination of cozy spices and white chocolate.
• Soft Gingersnap Molasses Cookies: These extra soft cookies are fat and fluffy!
• Ginger Pistachio Cookies: I add salty pistachios to my mom’s classic recipe. These ginger molasses cookies are soft, salty, sweet, and spiced. Find this recipe in Sally’s Cookie Addiction cookbook.
• Crisp Molasses Cookies: Another favorite! These are extra crisp. If you’re looking for a crunchy molasses cookie, this one’s for you—they actually snap when you break them!
• Chocolate Ginger Cookies: These are an elevated twist to our classic molasses cookies. You’ll appreciate the added cocoa flavor and how they are beautifully finished with dark chocolate and crystallized ginger.

If I had to choose, I would always reach for my mom’s recipe that lives in Sally’s Baking Addiction cookbook. Nothing compares to mom’s.

What Makes These Molasses Cookies Different?

Another molasses cookie recipe? Yes! These cookies are different from my other varieties and here’s why: they’re soft, crackly, and chewier than all the rest. I used my traditional soft gingersnap molasses cookies recipe as a starting point (the cute puffy ones!). My goal was to produce a flatter, chewier cookie with the same amount of softness. To accomplish this, I used the same ingredients but slightly altered the ratios:

• Flour: I reduced the flour considerably to yield a flatter cookie.
• Baking Soda: To avoid a super flat and overly greasy cookie, I increased the baking soda. Need that lift!
• Spices: Same amount. This careful blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves is exactly what every molasses cookie needs!
• Butter, Brown Sugar, Egg, + Vanilla: Same amounts. Brown sugar is what helps produce the softest molasses cookie ever. (In fact, it’s the first thing I changed when making my crisp molasses cookies.)
• Molasses: Make sure you’re using unsulphured or dark molasses, but do not use blackstrap because it is too intense for these cookies.

Mission accomplished. These cookies are mega chewy, mega soft, and mega crackly!

Which Molasses Do I Use?

There are varying intensities of molasses on store shelves from lighter molasses to blackstrap molasses. Go for an unsulphured or dark molasses, also sold as “robust” molasses. Blackstrap molasses can be quite intense—I don’t bake with it too often.

I’m not working with any of these companies, but I prefer Grandma’s, Brer Rabbit, or Wholesome brands. Wholesome’s organic molasses is super dark, so it will make your cookies a little darker. Look how dark it makes my spiced gingerbread loaf. As opposed to the same recipe as a cake (gingerbread cake) made with Grandma’s brand. What a difference in color!”

How to Make Soft Molasses Cookies

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together.
2. Combine the wet ingredients together.
3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
4. Chill cookie dough. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
5. Roll cookie dough into balls. Use about 1 Tablespoon of dough per cookie.
6. Generously roll each cookie dough ball in granulated sugar. For sparkle, of course!
7. Bake. The cookies will puff up as they bake then gently sink back down. This is what creates those familiar crinkles and crackles we love. If your cookies aren’t cracking, gently bang the cookie sheet on the counter 2–3x which will help those warm cookies spread and crack on top. See recipe direction #5.

This is a wonderful make-ahead recipe because the cookies stay seriously soft for days (if they last that long!).

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