Favorite Molasses Cookies

Old-fashioned rolled molasses cookies with warm ginger, cinnamon, and cloves baked until just set with a sugar sparkle on top. These are the kind of cookie your grandmother kept in a tin, and they taste like it too.

The dough is soft and sticky when you first mix it. That’s normal. The overnight chill firms everything up so you can roll and cut clean rounds without fighting the dough. Don’t skip this step or you’ll be scraping dough off your counter instead of your cookie sheet.

Warm water with baking soda dissolved in it gives these cookies their signature soft, cakey interior while the edges hold their shape. Pull them at 8 minutes when they still look slightly underdone. They firm up as they cool, and overbaking turns chewy into crunchy fast.

Pro Tips

• Use full-flavor (dark) molasses for the richest, most robust taste. Blackstrap will work but tastes more bitter
• Flour your rolling pin and surface generously since this dough likes to stick
• Bake one sheet at a time in the center rack for even browning
• These freeze beautifully. Stack between parchment paper in a freezer bag for up to 3 months

Variations

• Add a cream cheese frosting for iced molasses cookies that feel like the holidays
• Roll dough balls in granulated sugar before baking instead of rolling and cutting for a crinkle-top drop cookie
• Stir in crystallized ginger pieces for a double-ginger version with a candied bite