Soft Molasses Crinkle Cookies — In a word, these are the BEST molasses cookies you’ll ever make! Ultra chewy, easy to make, and you can really taste the spices. Make these for Christmas, or just because!
Easy Molasses Christmas Cookies
These chewy molasses cookies are my idea of heaven. They’re the best ‘traditional’ molasses crinkle cookies I’ve ever made.
But I made them with coconut oil. How’s that for traditional? And no, you can’t taste it.
I have a recipe for Soft Batch Dark Brown Sugar Cookies and a recipe for Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies and I love them both.
The former continues to be one of my most popular recipes on Pinterest, and it’s one of my favorite cookie recipes on my entire site. The latter is a seasonal reader favorite and I get tons of positive feedback on them.
You’d think I’d just be happy and leave well enough alone. No, that would be too easy. I took my favorite elements from both of those recipes and rolled them into these cookies.
I wanted to use ‘The Best’ or ‘My Favorite’ in the title, but the minute I’d do that, something else would immediately come along that I would deem better. But for now, they’re my definition of the best molasses cookies.
They’re supremely soft on the inside, in a tender, almost falling-apart way.
The tenderness is encased by a chewy exterior with a chewiness and texture boost from the cinnamon-sugar coating. The texture from the sugar granules is exquisite and the fine grittiness just melts away.
I have a Pinterest board dedicated to all things molasses and ginger, but I’m a very tough connoisseur when it comes to cookies. However, when done right, I’d opt for a molasses cookie over a chocolate chip cookie.
I don’t want them crunchy like a gingersnap. No snappiness. Only softness.
And I’ve got to really be able to taste the molasses and they must be well-spiced. These cookies are truly the perfect balance of soft, chewy, and the richness and depth of the dark molasses, coupled with dark brown sugar and spices, make them some of my favorite cookies I’ve ever made.
It’s hard to believe there’s not a drop of butter in them!
Lots of molasses cookie recipes use vegetable or canola oil, margarine, or shortening instead of butter. Rather than using butter or another oil, I used coconut oil. If you’ve never baked cookies with coconut oil, I have many in the Related Recipes section below.
Of all the baking I’ve done with coconut oil, these molasses crinkle cookies taste the least like coconut, and I can’t even taste it, and I was looking for it because I know some of you are not coconut fans.
You have nothing to worry about because the flavor isn’t detectable, being masked by the boldness of the molasses and spices.
In previous cooking baking with coconut oil, I’ve always creamed solid-state coconut oil with sugars and an egg. This time, however, I used liquid-state coconut oil.
It was sort of a happy accident because I thought my coconut oil was solid, but it wasn’t. My kitchen was warmer than 76F, the temp at which coconut oil solidifies. Rather than popping the jar in the freezer for an hour, I just used it in liquid form.
I used 1/3 cup molasses, for only 17 medium cookies. Many recipes use 1/4 cup for 2 dozen, so these are very molasses-intense cookies.
The cookies are boldly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, plus they’re rolled in a cinnamon-sugar coating before baking.
I cannot wait to make them again. They’re my perfect molasses cookies!
What’s in Molasses Crinkle Cookies?
To make traditional molasses Christmas cookies, you’ll need:
- Egg
- Dark brown sugar
- Coconut oil
- Unsulphered molasses
- Vanilla extract
- Spices
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Granulated sugar
What Kind of Molasses Should I Use?
I used a robust molasses because I wanted bold flavor. Use your favorite, with a caveat that blackstrap is likely going to be too pungent and bitter, but suit yourself.
How to Make Molasses Crinkle Cookies
I made the molasses spice cookies using my stand mixer, but in retrospect, there’s no reason you can’t just whisk the batter together. A nice time-saver not to do mixer dishes.
To make the chewy molasses cookies, simply stir together the wet ingredients, then add the spices and the dry ingredients.
Scoop the dough into balls and chill for at LEAST 3 hours before baking them. Just before baking the dough balls, roll them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Do I Have to Chill the Dough?
Yes! Because there’s 1/2 cup liquid coconut oil, 1/3 cup molasses, 2 tablespoons vanilla, and an egg, the dough is super soft and must be chilled before baking. The coconut oil must re-solidify or your cookies will spread into oily, molasses puddles.
Tips for the Best Molasses Cookies
I used dark brown sugar, which has twice the molasses content that light brown sugar has. Usually about 2 to 3 tablespoons of molasses to 1 cup granulated sugar versus 1 tablespoon to 1 cup granulated sugar in light brown sugar.
A tip if you ever run out of brown sugar is that you can stir molasses into white sugar until you get it as brown as you like.
With the robustness of the molasses and the intensity of the dark brown sugar, the only way for me to go with the spices was to use a heavy hand. If you prefer milder spiced cookies, dial the spices back, possibly even halving them.
Enjoy!
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Soft Molasses Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed (light brown sugar may be substitued)
- ½ cup coconut oil
- ⅓ cup unsulphered molasses (I used robust molasses
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract, yes tablespoons, not teaspoons
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Cinnamon-Sugar Coating
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use large mixing bowl and hand mixer; or simply whisk together in a large bowl), combine the egg, brown sugar, coconut oil, molasses, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-mixed, smooth, and glossy about 4 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, optional salt, and beat on medium-high speed until combined and smooth, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, baking soda, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping two tablespoon mounds (I made 17). Place mounds on a large plate, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Dough will be very soft, mushy, limp, and is not suitable for baking; it must be chilled so the coconut oil re-solidfies. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line baking sheets with Silpats, or spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Cinnamon-Sugar Coating: Add granulated sugar and cinnamon to a small bowl and stir to combine.
- Roll each ball of dough through the coating, liberally coating all sides. After all cookies have been coated, I like to go back and double-dip each mound, to get an extra-thick coating.
- Place coated mounds on baking sheets, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
- Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if undercooked and soft center. Do not bake longer than 9 minutes for soft cookies because they firm up as they cool; bake for 9-10 minutes if you like firmer cookies (The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled overnight, allowed to come to room temp for 10 minutes while rolling them through the coating mixture, and were baked for 8 1/2 minutes).
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
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More Easy Christmas Cookies:
Soft & Chewy Molasses Gingerdoodles — These soft molasses cookies taste like a cross between chewy gingerbread cookies and crinkly snickerdoodles. An unbeatable holiday cookie recipe!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies — Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract that I used, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall!
Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies— These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are bursting with chocolate chips in every bite! They’re thick, hearty, perfectly chewy, and not at all cakey.
Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, loads of white chocolate, and so much pumpkin flavor!! A pinch of salt balances the sweet white chocolate for a salty-and-sweet treat!!
Chai Cookies — The chai spices give the cookies so much depth of flavor. Cozy, comfort-food cookies that warm you up inside!
Soft Butter Pecan Cookies — Buttery soft dough with big chunky pecans in every bite! Salty-and-sweet and so hard to resist!!
Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies – Chocolate is used three times for a fun twist on the traditional. No mixer required!
Soft Batch Dark Brown Sugar Cookies — One of my favorite cookie recipes of all-time and partly inspired these molasses spice cookies.
Thank you for posting this recipe! I just made these and they turned out perfectly with the right flavor and texture! The only ingredient change I made was reducing the ginger to 1/2 tsp (just to be on the safe side because my husband doesn’t like spicy foods). Instead of refrigerating for 3 hours, I put the mounds on a plate in the freezer for about 10 minutes. I baked them for about 9 minutes and they turned out with a slightly crispy top and soft center.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
These were delicious!!! Due to what I have on hand, I had to sub agave syrup for sugar and thanks to your tip about the black strap molasses, I only used 2tbsp of it. These were a huge hit with hubby and I couldn’t stop eating them. Thanks for the amazing recipe Averie.
I love that you tried this recipe and made it work with what you had on hand. They are seriously some of my FAVE cookies on my entire website in 7 years of blogging and 2 cookbooks. I LOVE THESE :) And so glad you do too!
They turned out amazing!!! I used blackstrap because I love that flavor and it’s super good for you. So soft, so full of spice and flavor. This will be my new go-to molasses cookie recipe. I brought half of them to a Thanksgiving then proceeded to eat the other half the night after. Shameful but worth it :)
I seriously LOVE these cookies so much that I can polish off 6 at a time if I let myself. I have a THING for molasses cookies and sounds like you can relate :) So glad this is your new go-to recipe!!
I just made the dough and popped them in the fridge and let me just say the dough tasted amazing, I tried really hard not to eat a lot of it…I followed the recipe exactly except I used blackstrap molasses because I love that flavor and it was what I had. I’ll report back with the results!
So glad that you love the dough so far (funny, I just made some molasses cookies a few days ago and it took everything in me not to just eat all the dough!). Keep me posted how they turn out!
Hi Averie. These are delicious. My only problem is that the cookies stayed in mounds and the bottoms became a little burnt. So, when they come out of the fridge and sit room temp should I have pushed them down flat to avoid this problem? Thanks for any help. kelly
You probably could have flattened them down a bit more before baking. All doughs, ovens, baking sheets, etc are a little different so a bit of trial and error is just the way it is sometimes but just make them a little flatter and you’re good to go!
curious if anyone has tried this receipt with gluten free flour? either a general all purposeGF mix like brown rice, tapioca, potato starch or used coconut flour/almond flour.
Thanks!
I haven’t personally tried. GF flour worries me a bit in this recipe since there’s already molasses (a liquid) and the batter is on the sticky/loose side & not having that gluten to real bond everything together, hmmm…it’s a little worrisome but you never know til you try and if you need GF molasses cookies, then experimenting is the only way to get there!
Have you ever tried these with a flax “egg”? I’m thinking that the real egg lends to the softness but really curious to try these with an egg alternative for a vegan friend. Any experience with making these vegan?
Of course it’s possible that I’m missing some other non-vegan ingredient here too, but when I scrolled through I only noticed egg. ;)
That’s the only non-vegan ingredient, that one egg. So as long as you can remove that, they’re vegan. I would say go for it with the flax egg. The worst that can happen is they spread or don’t puff as much, at which point you can make them into bars or use as ice cream crumble topping, etc.
Hi Averie,
I made these cookies yesterday and baked them today. I did exchange half the flour with equal amounts of whole wheat flour and coconut flour. I love the crispy outside and soft inside. Love all the spices too. Thank you for a great recipe. Oh, I did make mine with the little cookie scoop. That way, I didn’t have to feel too guilty after having 4 or maybe 5 of these yummy delights.
So glad to hear they worked out well for you with some flour swaps and that’s fun that you used the little scoop so that you can have more that way :)
I was going to make these this morning for a friend’s dad. He had a stroke a few years ago and she said, “not much makes him smile these days, but molasses cookies…”
I’m curious if you use a non-pressed (less processed and therefore more “coconutty”) coconut oil or a more processed oil? I would prefer the first, but wonder if it will change the flavor.
I think either would be fine but I tend to use non-pressed coconut oil (many of my jugs are from Tropical Traditions and there’s is what they call unrefined). Even the more coconutty stuff doesn’t make them too coconutty. So go ahead!
I made there over the holidays and they were a smash hit with my family. I wanted to use this dough for cut out cookies. Should I cut them into shape and then refrigerate or refrigerate the dough and roll and cut when i take it out?
Girl, you weren’t kidding. These cookies are ah-mazing!!! I don’t usually leave comments but I had to tell you how good these are. I love baking with coconut oil! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes :)
I’m thrilled to hear you as excited about them as I was and bravo to you for making molasses cookies AFTER xmas. A girl after my own heart!
Hey there Averie,
Thank you for your recipe, I would love to make it for relatives coming over next weekend.
I have a question, how can I store these cookies to last for more days? I was thinking of making additional cookie bags to gift to people for new years.Can you help me out?
Thanks
Rosh
Re-read the recipe section, the last step, I discuss storage options and keeping dough chilled in fridge for up to 5 days and just baking it when you’re ready to.
THEY ARE FANTASTIC!! I waited to eat them.. mmm.. amazing recipe. Thank you!!
I’m so glad you love them! :)
Hi Averie,
These cookies are amazing. I made them today and they turned out perfectly. Normally I have to double the spices in recipes but you’ve got this SPOT ON!!! Just my style. Thanks for the lovely recipe. You have a wonderful blog..keep up the great work, talented lady!
When you just said that about doubling the spices, that is SO ME and yes, I made sure these are well-spiced.
If you like things that are cinnamoney, these are great
https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/10/white-chocolate-topped-cinnamon-chip-cinnamon-bars.html
And these are amazing and more molasses/chocolate-molasses fudgelike. One of my fave recipes I made all year
Hi Averie! Haha. YES.. the intense spices/flavours are what make it. I love your recipes. The gingerbread chocolate chip bars area currently in the oven. Chocolate and gingerbread are two of my top faves and this is one of your recipes, so I already know it’s going to be fantastic. Thanks for the reply. Cheers!
Oh I am so happy you made the GB choc chip bars! It’s going to be hard but if you can let them cool and settle overnight, do it. If not, I don’t blame you :) LMK what you think!
Made the cookies today! Awesome tasting but not so great looking :( The cinnamon sugar nearly disappeared in the baking process (and I double dipped as suggested). Also my tops didn’t crackle at all. I’m wondering if it has something to do with my oven – maybe not hot enough? Have you had this problem before?
Not crackling – no haven’t had it but you can create it by simply smooshing down warm cookies with the back of a spoon (tap tap a couple times) and as they cool, they’ll be prone to crackling. Could also be your oven.
The cinn-sugar, when I say double-dip, I mean dredge those suckers through cinnamon sugar. Like, well-coated to the max, quadruple dip if you need to. That should take care of that.
Glad you love the taste!
Best cookies ever! Seriously! I love these. Tastes like a chewy gingersnap. Better than any bakery or store bought. Will be making these all season long.
Wonderful to hear you love them and prefer them to bakery cookies or storebought!