Soft & Chewy Dark Brown Sugar Cookies — These cookies are sweetened entirely with dark brown sugar! Between the molasses in the sugar and the molasses in the dough, these cookies are rich, deep and caramely in flavor!
Chewy Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies
No butter, no white sugar, no complaints. Just dark and rich cookies so soft that they bend rather than break.
Growing up, I loved soft batch cookies. Although there was never a shortage of homemade cookies around, something about those uber-soft store-bought cookies, almost flexible and pliable they’re so soft, was something I’d pester my mom to buy.
These brown sugar coconut oil cookies are my ode to Soft Batch cookies, using a more robust flavor palette.
I love the dark, rich, robust flavors of dark brown sugar and molasses, and pairing them with coconut oil was the best flavor pairing decision I’ve made in ages. But pairing coconut oil with almost anything is a good call.
I’ve been craving molasses cookies and rather than being seasonally inappropriate with a straight up molasses cookie in the almost springtime, I allowed the natural molasses undertones in dark brown sugar to work for me.
Dark brown sugar is really just light brown sugar with triple the amount of molasses. Approximately 3 tablespoons molasses to 1 cup granulated sugar in dark brown sugar, versus 1 tablespoon to 1 cup granulated sugar for light brown sugar.
Plus, I supplemented the dough with 1 tablespoon molasses, enough to add that extra pop I love.
Please don’t write to tell me that brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added. I’ve been told that about 500 times. I am making a taste claim about dark brown sugar, not a health claim. You cannot get the flavor from white sugar that brown sugar lends.
The cookies are so very soft and chewy. They bend and flex before they break and crumble. They’re moist and dense without being heavy.
The coconut oil, cornstarch, molasses, and dark brown sugar keeps them so soft and and they soft for days. Brown sugar absorbs atmospheric moisture so the cookies actually get softer over time, rather than drying out.
The dark brown sugar and molasses take on caramelized flavors while baking and the depth of flavor created is sublime, especially paired with the coconut oil and abundant vanilla.
They have a rustic, earthier, bolder flavor that’s sweet enough, but not too sweet. Serve them with a tall glass of milk if you wish, but two shots of espresso or a glass of red wine are more of what I have in mind.
They’re the best possible cookie combination in the whole family of soft batch-ish and vanilla (Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies), brown sugar (Brown Sugar Maple Cookies), molasses (Molasses Triple Chocolate Cookies), and coconut oil (Coconut Oil White Chocolate Cookies) cookies I’ve been creating lately. I think I just found the holy grail of combinations.
If you like brown sugar, molasses, caramel, vanilla, browned butter, snickerdoodles, or cookies where the focus is on scrumptious cookie dough itself, not on all kinds of add-ins and chocolate chips, these are the cookies for you.
They are insanely good and I have to hide them from myself.
Unfortunately, I know all my own hiding places.
What’s in the Brown Sugar Cookies?
To make the chewy brown sugar cookies, you’ll need:
- Coconut oil
- Dark brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Molasses
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
What Type of Molasses Should I Use?
I bake cookies and bread with unsulphered molasses, not blackstrap, which is too bitter for me to enjoy. Even though it’s only a tablespoon, I caution against using it in this recipe unless you prefer a pungent and bitter bite.
How to Make Brown Sugar Cookies
Make the cookies by combining coconut oil with dark brown sugar, an egg, vanilla and cream the ingredients until they’re soft and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
I used 2 tablespoons vanilla, because I love it and this dough is bold and can stand up to it, but if you prefer less, add to taste. I used Homemade Vanilla Extract, full of vanilla bean flecks and specks.
Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and mix to just incorporate. I normally use a combination of bread and all-prose flour in cookies, but for these, I stuck with AP because cookies made with it are softer, although not quite as chewy. I was going for that extreme Soft Batch softness.
And for that reason, I also added cornstarch. Cornstarch is a workhorse and I used it in my favorite chocolate chip cookies. It does the job of both softening and tenderizing dough, and cookies made with it bake up extremely soft.
The cookie dough will be soft and it’s not sticky or tacky like traditional chocolate chip cookie dough.
It reminds me of a peanut butter-based cookie dough because it seems a little on the oily side, thanks to the coconut oil. It has that Play-Doh like consistency and you can pinch it together and it sticks to itself but not to your hands.
I used my medium 2-inch cookie scoop and made 16 mounds, about 2 heaping tablespoons of dough each. I didn’t flatten them, shape them, or touch them in any way. I let the tops stay ‘feathered’, which is the impression the wire-release mechanism on my cookie scoop makes.
Place the dough mounds on a large plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days before baking.
Bake the cookies at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, but I strongly encourage the lower end of the range. My dough was rock hard coming out of the refrigerator after two days chilling, and I allowed it to sit on baking sheets at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.
I baked for 8 minutes, rotating trays midway through. The tops should barely be set, and will be glossy and appear underdone, but they firm up as they cool. Any longer than 10 minutes and you run the risk of the bottoms browning too much and you don’t want Hard Batch Cookies.
Everyone’s coconut oil, oven, climate, and personal preferences are different, but they taste best when they’re soft and not over baked.
Can the Coconut Oil Be Substituted?
Not to my knowledge, no. I tried to convey in the Coconut Oil White Chocolate Cookies recipe that the coconut oil doesn’t make the cookies taste like tanning lotion.
In fact, the coconut flavor when baking with coconut oil is much less overt than if using shredded or flaked coconut, which can often be quite powerful and almost off-putting.
Instead, I liken coconut oil to amped up, flavored butter. Just as browned butter is an enhanced, tastier version of butter, coconut oil in many ways is the same.
Interestingly, I’ve found when baking with coconut oil that the smell is more pronounced than the actual flavor. Instead, what is pronounced is the richness and deeply satisfying density.
The lusciousness of coconut oil on your lips and tongue supercedes the coconut taste. Cookies baked with it have an immense richness that is so luxurious.
I don’t bite into them and say oh wow, this tastes like coconut, which is my way of saying if you’re on the fence about coconut in general, to give coconut oil a whirl in baking. You’ll still be able to taste it, but it’s not as powerful as you’d think.
Plus, dark brown sugar and molasses are two flavors that can stand up to it.
Do I Have to Chill Cookie Dough?
Yes, for this recipe the dough MUST be chilled prior to baking. The dough is too warm, limp, and soft and is unsuitable for baking until it has been chilled.
If you bake with warm, soft, dough your cookies will spread into a big puddle. You don’t want that.
Tips for Making Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies
It’s important to use coconut oil that’s softened to the consistency of softened butter. The same consistency you’d use for creaming butter, sugars, and eggs in traditional cookie dough.
If your coconut oil is rock hard, microwave it in a small bowl for 5 or 10 seconds, or just until it begins to soften. If it’s runny or melted, place it in the freezer momentarily until it firms up.
A tiny amount of runniness is fine; it’s an oil and that happens. But do not use melted or purely liquid coconut oil because you can’t effectively cream a liquid; it would be like trying to cream liquid butter. Doesn’t work.
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Soft & Chewy Dark Brown Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup coconut oil, softened (softened to the consistency of soft butter; not rock hard and not runny or melted, see below)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract, yes tablespoons, not teaspoons, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon unsulphered mild to medium molasses
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine coconut oil, egg, sugar and beat on medium-high speed to cream until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the vanilla, molasses, and beat to incorporate, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the flour, corn starch, baking soda, optional salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, form mounds that are 2 heaping tablespoons in size; or divide dough into approximately 15 to 16 equal-sized pieces.
- Place dough mounds on a large plate, and slightly flatten each mound. Very important to get the dough mounds in the exact shape you want to bake them in because after chilling, flattening or re-shaping them is very difficult. Cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours; up to 5 days. Do not bake these cookies with dough that has not been properly chilled because they will spread.
- Preheat oven to 350°F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat, parchment, or spray with cooking spray. Place dough on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart; I bake a maximum of 8 per sheet.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tops have just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center. They firm up as they cool and I recommend the lower end of the baking range because they taste best when softer. The cookies in the photos were baked for 8 minutes, with trays rotated once midway through baking.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before moving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Soft & Chewy Molasses Gingerdoodles— These soft molasses cookies taste like a cross between chewy gingerbread cookies and crinkly snickerdoodles. An unbeatable holiday cookie recipe!
Molasses Crinkle Cookies — The richness and depth of the dark molasses, coupled with dark brown sugar and spices, make them some of my favorite cookies ever!
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Soft and Chewy Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies – Part soft sugar cookie, part chewy snickerdoodle, with tons of rich vanilla flavor!
Chai Cookies — The chai spices give the cookies so much depth of flavor. Cozy, comfort-food cookies that warm you up inside!
I made these yesterday and they are delicious! Although, I must admit I did not wait to hours for them to chill so they were thinner than yours look in the pictures. That didn’t bother us though…as all of the cookies were gone before the day was over! They were very thin and lightweight with very soft centers that melt in your mouth. YUM.
Glad to hear they worked out for you, Robin! Yes, with coconut oil based cookies especially, if the dough isn’t well chilled, they will spread (but all cookies do that if the dough isn’t chilled) The fact that you ate them all on the SAME day you made them is a testament to how good they are, right! :) Thanks for trying them and coming back to LMK you made them!
These are beautiful! I have been trying to figure out how to make this “ice cream scoop” cookie for awhile. Thank you for showing me how!
Glad it helped!
Averie- You’ve done a great job explaining your choice of ingredients and your images make my mouth water. I can’t wait to try this out at home! Thanks a million!
Think I could make these with GF flour and a “flax egg” (or other sub for egg) ? I’m not actually vegan but trying to eat healthier and gluten, dairy, and egg free. I’m knew to this type of cooking/baking and I had an epic fail on pitas the other day so wanted to get your thoughts first. These look delicious!
There’s no flour in these two & they’re naturally GF.
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/01/peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/02/thick-and-soft-chocolate-peanut-butter-cookies.html
As for using GF flour in the soft batch – it should be fine but I love these cookies so much I personally just wouldn’t tinker with them. I would try this version instead making it GF
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2013/03/soft-and-puffy-peanut-butter-coconut-oil-cookies.html
As for using flax eggs…if you’re not an experienced baker and/or not experienced with using vegan cooking AND you want to make something GF…I would do one or the other, until you get things down pat, then start playing around with egg subs + flour subs.
After all this, please lmk what you DO make!
Thank you so much for the tips. Unfortunately, I recently found out I have a moderate peanut allergy (not life threatening) so I’m trying to avoid peanuts/peanut butter :'( But my main concern is gluten so I am starting there. Thanks again!
I made this with my go-to egg sub a big scoop of cream cheese (obviously not a good choice for dairy free.) Usually, this makes for a great egg sub, but I found my batter really dry, and the cookies turned out crumbly, not chewy. I realize my bad result could have been using the cream cheese, but usually that provides enough moisture to compensate for the egg. Perhaps flax egg would be better? (my husband has an egg allergy.)
I was disappointed with this, but perhaps the recipe just can’t take the change of egg. I’d love to hear if others have tried out other egg subs.
You can’t take out an egg in a recipe like this an expect to get the same results as I had! I hope you understand that. You said you’re disappointed but you changed the recipe.
Yes, sometimes you can remove eggs, but not always. I have done plenty of vegan baking in my life and sometimes you can remove eggs and replace with everything from (vegan) cream cheese to applesauce to (vegan) sour cream or even a banana…but not always. In this situation, sounds like it didn’t work. You also may have had to increase the amount of coconut oil. When you say dry and crumbly, that could also be an issue that the dough needs more moisture. Just thinking out loud…
Made these today. Failed miserably. :( I’m a fairly adept baker and the dough seemed to turn out just fine – nice and pliable without crumbles or tackiness. Refrigerated for 3 hours and then baked at 350 for 8 minutes. The cookies came out flat and oily. Not sure what the culprit was? My coconut oil was soft butter consistency at the start. I guess I could have under-floured, but my dough wasn’t tacky in the least. I’m letting the second half of the dough sit overnight to see if that helps. They taste yummy, the just look absolutely horrid and I won’t be able to serve them to company tomorrow.
Possible culprits – underchilled dough
underfloured dough – the consistency of coconut oil and percentage of oil varies from brand to brand and jar to jar; yours may just be a little oiler and need more flour.
Baking soda not fresh
Not baking on a Silpat (in an unrelated experiment last night, I baked two cookies on a non-Silpat lined baking sheet…they failed miserably and the other 15 I made on other baking sheets with Silpats are perfect – in a recipe like this, I don’t know if it matters but I was reminded once again, for me, it does in general terms)
Others have had success with the recipe but from you saying flat and oily, that leads me to believe you need more flour. LMK how it goes!
Thanks, Avrie! I did bake on a Silpat so I’m pretty sure you’re right about the under-flouring. Next time I’ll add more than the 1 1/4 cups to see if it makes a difference. Like I said, they still had great taste, just looked flat and funky! Off to try your chocolate peanut butter cookies next!
Just recently discovered your blog and LOVE it! It has quickly become my favorite recipe site; it’s fun to read and there are so many interesting food ideas here. I made these cookies and your chocolate chip and chunk cookies today for a potluck. Talk about interesting food ideas–I would never have thought to combine brown sugar and coconut but these cookies are sooooo good! The flavors manage to be simple and complex at the same time, and the texture? As soft and puffy as if they were made with shortening (which I refuse to buy), only without shortening’s lack of flavor. I may have to eat them all and make something else for the party!
Laura, thank you so much for this kind comment! I am glad you enjoy my site, my style, my flavor pairings and that you’re getting some fun ideas and having great results. Brown sugar + coconut + molasses is such a win for me. These cookies are just the best thing I personally have made (for myself) in ages…like you, I wouldn’t want to give these away for a potluck either…haha!
simple and complex at the same time = that’s the goal, minus the shortening. Not a fan of it either, at all! The texture, lack of flavor, etc. I have 2 recipes out of over 500+ that use it. And I’ll probably never use it again :)
these are the best cookies that have ever happened to me. thank you!
Ohmigosh–well thanks for saying that! I’m so glad! :)
Aarrrggghhh, OMG these are so good I think it’s a crime. I ran out of vanilla extract so I used 1TBL of Almond extract and 1TBL pure maple syrup. RIDICULOUS!!!! Thank you thank you thank you for this great keeper of a recipe!!!
I am so glad that you tried these. They are probably my favorite cookie I’ve ever made, tied with a PB one; and I dunno, maybe a couple others can compete. But really, in a league of their own and I love that you love them as much as I do! I bet the almond extract and pure/real maple syrup is heavenly in them! You make me want to make more :) Thanks for LMK you tried them!
Ok I just made these and I must say they are the best cookies I’ve ever tasted! They are sinfully delicious. They are super moist and so flavorful! Thank you for another great recipe :)
Thanks for coming back and LMK that you tried these AND they are the best cookies you’ve ever tasted!!! I happen to agree and glad you are such a fan. I have a new coconut oil cookie recipe…tomorrow! :)
These are delicious! I love soft and chewy cookies :) I rolled the dough into a log in saran wrap to chill before baking, so all I had to do was slice them (instead of forming the cookies before chilling). Baking time was the same. Next time I’m loading the recipe up with ginger (chewy ginger molasses cookies are a quest for me)!
I wanted to add crystalized ginger to these but wasn’t sure how they were going to turn out (I got lucky and the first batch was the batch I tested, photographed and rolled with!) and so didn’t want to ‘waste’ my ginger if they didn’t turn out but next time, I am so adding it! I cannot get these cookies out of my mind! Glad you loved them and thanks for coming back to LMK!
The addition of crystallized ginger in these sounds awesome! So trying that next time!
i just have a doubt i baked my cookies r rite time but my cookies were soft why please help me
I finally found some time to make these and they were delicious! Love them! Different than any cookie I’ve had before. I made them without the molasses, and they obviously were still great, but I probably will get some for next time to try it out. I also made these with whole wheat pastry flour which I do all my baking with. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Thanks for LMK you tried them and loved them! I do think the molasses adds a special touch you’ll really like and good to know that w.w.pastry flour works like a charm!