So, I bought a big bottle of molasses at the store, and LordHelpMe if I don't use it all up by Springtime.
I'm the laziest of bakers. I don't wipe away the excess molasses that drips after pouring. So, after a few recipes, the jar is sticky and leaving a black ring on any surface it touches. (I'm so making my Mom cringe right now. She just may drive up from Texas and clean my pantry for me). I really shouldn't mention that my maple syrup jug is so crusty from drips that the lid doesn't close anymore. We could talk about my honey pot, but I won't go there. My Mom is sweating enough already. Have you ever seen that Friends episode where Monica wants to clean the house of a messy girl that Ross is dating? That's basically the way my Mom feels every time she enters my house.
So now that you basically think I'm a slob (I'm totally not, I swear), let's talk about molasses cookies. They're chewy, spicy, and crinkly and crispy all at once.
I really wanted to call these cookies 'The Best Christmas Cookie.' Or, 'It's not the holidays without this cookie.' But, chewy molasses cookies is what I settled on. Just so you can find it if you're googling later.
These cookies are picture-perfect. The dough comes together like a dream, and after a quick chill and rolling, what comes out of your oven is 12 perfectly puffy, crackled cookies. They look like a bakery mass-produced them in perfect little spheres. And the sparkles? It looks like a holiday fairy came down and shimmied her little butt on top.
For maximum sparkle, I used raw sugar crystals. You probably know it by the brand name 'Sugar in the Raw.' It's the stuff in the brown box and little brown paper sachets. And while this isn't a paid endorsement, I can say that this is my new favorite way to make cookies sparkle. I used to buy sanding sugar in the cookie decorating aisle, but I discovered that Sugar in The Raw has larger crystals, which equals more shine. And I'm all about the shine.
They taste like Christmas spice and everything nice.
Just don't use blackstrap molasses. That stuff will ruin your day, I tell ya.
Since these cookies only use an egg yolk, check out my ways to use leftover egg whites.
These chewy molasses cookies are a family favorite.Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12
Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 129Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 41mgSodium: 159mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 0gSugar: 12gProtein: 2g
Sandra says
While I was knee-deep in brittle, fudge, and sugar cookies, my son requested molasses cookies..."bah humbug!" He is the only molasses cookie lover in the house and although I envy the metabolism of a teenaged boy, I wasn't about to hand him 36 cookies to devour by himself! As I was making a mental list of who else I could gift them to, your recipe came up. Talk about perfect timing! My batch made 10 beautiful molasses cookies...which he enjoyed very much. Thank you.
Christina Lane says
THANKS so much for writing me :)
Evelyn Marrero says
They look delish . Will try soon.
Love you recipes for two.thats just what i needed.
Jo Hope says
These cookies are one of my husband's new favourites.
I made a second batch using honey instead of the molasses and made them tiny, perfect with a cup of coffee.
Both versions were a hit in my house. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Martha says
These cookies look great! I noticed that the 15 minutes for chill time was not included in the total prep time at the beginning of the recipe. I'll be making these cookies today!
Marcia says
Mine went flat! What did I do?
Christina Lane says
Hmmm..not sure. Did you follow the recipe exactly? Is your leavener fresh? How about your oven...is it calibrated? What do you mean by 'flat?'
Sherri says
I was so excited when I found this small recipe! I love molasses cookies. Now I can make a very small batch. I was wondering, why just the yolk? Could I use the whole egg and still get the same results?
Christina Lane says
Hi Sherri,
No, please follow the recipe exactly as written. The reason it only uses an egg yolk is because it's a small batch recipe. If you add the entire egg, it will be too wet and the cookie will spread and not be the right consistency. When scaling down recipes (as I've done for 7 years now), sometimes you have to halve eggs, and I test my recipes to decide if the egg yolk or the egg white is the way to go.
With any type of cooking, you should follow the recipe exactly as written, or your results will not be the same.
Thanks!
Christina
Brenda Holderfield says
Can you freeze these after baking ? 😊 Is there any cookie you would not recommend freezing ?
Karen Kitts says
I use the blackstrap molasses every time and have no problems with my cookies.I use my Grandma's recipe,and everyone loves them!
Kristina Brisco says
Christmas in July 2017 anyone?
K’s variated Molasses Cookies For Two INGREDIENTS
2 cups Gold Medal Bread Flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
8 tablespoons salted butter, melted
½ cup C & H Light Brown Sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 whole egg
6 tablespoons Grandma’s Old Fashioned Molasses
½ cup C & H Pure Cane Sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
Hi Dessert For Two!
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipe for Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies!
We have more than two in our household and a few allergies too, but wanted to try baking your recipe.
To accommodate our family’s needs, I doubled your recipe and omitted the clove and ginger for clove-allergy reasons and because my pantry is currently bereft of ginger. Instead of ginger and clove, I increased the cinnamon a bit and added a small amount of ground cayenne pepper to replace the zing of ginger.
It seems the dish and the spoon are not the only two to elope, because when it came time to frost our batch of molasses cookies I discovered that I did not have any large granuled sugar in my pantry. So much for sugar and spice behaving, eh? Instead of your suggested raw sugar frost, I heated a ½ cup of C & H Pure Cane Sugar to a roiling boil in a sauce pan by adding the milk in small amounts until the sugar/milk mixture began to thicken -- stirring constantly of course. I did not want the glaze to brown or caramelize and so I opted to omit any butter, salt, or vanilla flavoring. Too, the butter I used in this variated recipe was salted and butter frostings can over power spice and molasses. Beside which, a quick taste-test fresh from the oven confirmed that your suggestion to use unsalted butter for this recipe is a good one. A glaze without sugar and butter can help cut salt.
I also considered the coloring of the glaze icing. Thinking that a non-buttery, non-salted glaze would turn out opaque, which is what I was hoping for since a favorite molasses cookie of mine has a white glaze crinkled over the top, I was somewhat surprised that my milk/sugar glaze turned out clear. Probably because I did not let it cook long enough.
Despite my runaway ingredients, sadly lacking pantry, and impatience with icings, I think this effort at your molasses cookie recipe a good one, especially as taste goes. My variated Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies Recipe for Two is quite good even if my ingredients are not the same as yours.
If you ever encounter another with a clove allergy? And/or you’re out of ginger too? Feel free to borrow my replacement spice idea. Ground cayenne plays well quite nicely with molasses. Hachoo!
Thanks again for sharing your recipe.
-Kristi B.
Sandra says
These are our new favourite cookie! Only problem is they do not last more than an hour.. Next time I will double the recipe and maybe they will last two hours? Thanks again for sharing your recipe, so happy I found it.
Sylvia says
How many cookies does this make? I want to make a large amount and I don't know how many ingredients I need!