As soon as the mercury begins to fall, my thoughts always turn to steaming mugs of tea and baking with deep flavored ingredients like molasses. This recipe is a particular autumn favorite. Filled with plenty of rich molasses flavor and laced with heaps of warming spices, these molasses crinkle cookies are easy, comforting, and classic.
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Ingredients for Molasses Crinkle Cookies
- unsalted butter
- baker's sugar
- egg
- molasses
- all purpose flour
- baking soda
- ground cinnamon
- ground ginger
- kosher salt
- powdered sugar (optional)
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Heat oven to 350℉. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Then beat in the egg and molasses.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
Carefully stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
Form the dough into walnut-size balls, roll in the powdered sugar until generously coated, and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
Then bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
Allow the cookies to rest for a couple minutes before removing them to cooling racks.
Hint: If you prefer your cookies to have soft centers, remove them from the oven when they are puffed, very light golden brown, and cracked across the top. For crisp cookies, bake 2 to 3 minutes more and remove them from the oven after they have puffed and then fallen.
Variations
- The spices - You can easily adjust the proportions of cinnamon and ginger to suit your taste...or perhaps try experimenting with the substitution or addition of other cozy spices like allspice, cardamom, or cloves.
- The powdered sugar finish - Prefer your cookies with a more polished final appearance? For a sparkling surface and a sweet delicate crunch, skip the powdered sugar rolling step and instead dip just one side of the dough balls into a bowl of granulated sugar before placing them on the baking sheet (sugar side up).
Equipment
Theoretically, you could mix up these cookies entirely by hand using a good wooden spoon, but it is much easier to use a handheld electric mixer or a stand mixer for the task of creaming the butter and sugar.
Storage
Molasses crinkle cookies keep really well....in fact, they even seem to get better with a little storage time. Store them for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
Top tip
I recommend using regular (light or dark) unsulphured molasses here...not the blackstrap variety. Regular molasses comes from the first boiling of the sugar syrup, and it is far more delicate in flavor than blackstrap, which can be overpowering in dessert applications due to its rather bitter finish. (Save the blackstrap molasses for your meat recipes and BBQ.) Since some brands do not clearly indicate on the front of their labels what specific kind of molasses is actually in the bottle, it is always a good idea to check the ingredient list on the back.
Related
Looking for other cookie or bar recipes? Try these:
📖 Recipe
Molasses Crinkle Cookies
Equipment
- handheld electric mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1½ cups baker's sugar
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup molasses
- 2¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Beat in the egg and molasses.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
- Carefully stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
- Form the dough into walnut-size balls, roll in the powdered sugar until generously coated, and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to rest for a couple minutes before removing them to cooling racks.
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