These chewy molasses sugar cookies are one of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes! They are rich, chewy, and have just a hint of spice to make them perfect for the holidays! Homemade molasses cookies are the best Christmas dessert or edible Christmas gift!
These chewy molasses sugar cookies are perfectly sweet, perfectly chewy, and 100% all things Christmas in a cookie.
Molasses cookies meet chewy sugar cookies to make one perfect dessert.
While there’s a lot more to the season than decorating (and eating) Christmas cookies, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a lot of homemade, festive, ’tis-the-season-type of cookies.
Ya feel me??
From super soft and chewy sugar cookies to pumpkin cookies to even buttery maple sugar cookies, it’s a full on cookie bakery around here during the holiday season.
And you know what? I don’t hate it.
There are worse things…
All too soon January will arrive and so will those let’s-eat-healthier resolutions, which always end before February in a pile of guilt and chocolate brownies.
So for now, I’m enjoying all of my guiltless cookie eating, beginning with, in my humble opinion, the Christmas cookie of all cookies: Chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies. 😜
These molasses cookies are by far one of my favorite Christmas cookies (as if you couldn’t already tell.) My mom used to make these all of the time when we were younger, and between the molasses and subtle notes of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, these absolutely taste like Christmas.
Sweet and chewy, these molasses sugar cookies are a Christmas must!
The recipe for these old fashioned molasses cookies comes from a cookbook my elementary school put on as a school fundraiser.
All of the parents submitted their best recipes, and we students got to participate in a photo shoot for the book down at a local restaurant. Not only was this a fun activity to participate in, it’s kind of a great way to get tried and true recipes.
As a first grader, there was seriously nothing cooler (except maybe my lime green vest and jellies #trendsetter) than getting out of school for something like this.
Chewy Molasses Cookies ingredients:
- molasses
- butter
- flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger
- brown sugar and granulated sugar
- egg
As you can see, this is an incredibly easy molasses cookie recipe. It calls for fairly basic ingredients, but when all combined together, they truly taste like sugar, spice and everything Christmas nice.
Molasses Cookies Tips & Tricks
- This dough has to be chilled at least 1 hour.
- The cookies are rolled in sugar before baking. I also like to sprinkle a bit more sugar on top right after baking.
- These bake quickly, so keep an eye on them.
- Similar to snickerdoodles, as soon as the cookies puff up, begin to crack, and are just slightly underdone, take them out of the oven. They will flatten a bit (totally normal).
I’ll take a dozen.
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 cup sugar, for rolling
With a standing mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together, until light and fluffy.
Add in the molasses and the egg, and beat it until well combined.
Add in flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Mix until combined.
- Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll dough into about 1 1/2" balls, and roll in sugar. Place 2" apart on the baking sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until tops have cracked and the cookies are set.
Here are some other favorite Christmas cookie recipes:
Cream Cheese Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Updated in 2019.
Heather | All Roads Lead to the Kitchen says
Oh my gosh, these cookies look absolutely perfect! I want a whole batch for myself. Or to share. 😉
Des @ Life's Ambrosia says
I am not usually a sugar cookie fan but I can definitely get behind molasses sugar cookies!
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious says
These cookies make me think of Christmas at my mom’s! I bet they are as delicious as they look.
carrie @ frugal foodie mama says
I have such a weakness for a soft & chewy molasses cookie! 🙂 The crackled tops on these look perfect.
Erin @ The Speckled Palate says
Here’s to guiltless cookie eating and these molasses cookies! I’m all about chewy cookies, and these look and sound divine!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
One of my favorite cookies, these look perfect!
Cathy | Lemon Tree Dwelling says
These look like the perfect cookies!
[email protected] says
Molasses cookies are an absolute favoriteee of mine! These look and sound sooo good!
stacey emery says
Recipe is top notch! I have made 3 different batches and they come out perfect every time. My husband said they are his new favorite!! I even doubled the recipe (less 1 tsp baking soda) for Christmas cookie delivery and they came out the same as tge other batches.
Laurie says
Excellent!! Just finished. Easy and delicious.
Jeanne says
These cookies are delicious. Mine seemed to spread more than I expected, maybe I didn’t chill the dough long enough.