Best Soft Molasses Cookies Recipe
Homemade Molasses Cookie Rolled in Sugar with Ginger Cloves & Spices
These are the best homemade soft molasses cookies you'll ever eat! Cinnamon, cloves and ginger, brown sugar and butter all rolled in sugar. Better than Grandma's cookies!
Cookies and memories go hand-in-hand. Everyone remembers their Grandma's cookies cooling on the rack in front of an open window. The tempting and fragrant aromas of cinnamon and spices bring back childhood memories of Grandma's big ceramic cookie jar that was always full of oatmeal raisin and molasses cookies. Pour yourself a glass of milk and dig in!
Types of Molasses
A sweetener similar to maple syrup, molasses comes in different types or grades of sweetness and sugar content. Each has its own unique taste and applications. Along with organic molasses, Brer Rabbit and Grandma's Molasses are the most popular on the shelves.
First Molasses ~ Wikipedia says, "The results of this first boiling and removal of sugar crystal is first molasses, which has the highest sugar content because comparatively little sugar has been extracted from the juice. Second Molasses is created from a second boiling and sugar extraction, and has a slight bitter tinge to its taste."
"Blackstrap molasses", according to World's Healthiest Foods, "is just one type of molasses, the dark liquid byproduct of the process of refining sugar cane into table sugar. It is made from the third boiling of the sugar syrup and is therefore the concentrated byproduct left over after the sugar's sucrose has been crystallized."
The Best Soft Molasses Cookie Recipe
- 1/2 - 1 cup sugar for rolling cookies
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 cups (one pound) butter, softened
- 3 cups brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup molasses, your choice
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup raisins, optional
- 1 cup chopped nuts, optional
Directions:
- This is a large batch of 48 cookies. If you don't have at least a 5 quart mixer, divide the recipe in half.
- Prepare baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper or give it a good spritz with vegetable spray shortening.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. An oven thermometer is a handy item to have to insure your temperature is where it should be. Adjust if neccessary.
- Measure 1/2 - 1 cup sugar in a large bowl for rolling cookies and set aside.
- Blend flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with a beater attachment, beat butter until creamy.
- Add brown sugar and molasses and beat until fluffy. Scrape bowl.
- Add eggs, one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl again.
- Add flour mixture a few cups at a time and mix only until well blended and scrape once more.
- Add optional raisins and/or nuts.
- Cover dough and chill for 30 minutes.
- With a cookie scoop or Tablespoon, scoop and roll into balls. Roll cookies in sugar.
- Place cookies on prepared baking sheets leaving some spreading room between them.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes or until slightly firm.
- Remove to cooling racks and cool completely before storing in airtight containers.
- Makes 48 warm, soft molasses cookies.
Variations:
- Soft Molasses Raisin Cookies: Add 1 cup plump raisins to the dough before baking.
- Soft Molasses Walnut Cookies: Add 1 cup chopped walnuts to the cookie dough before baking.
If you loved The Best Soft Molasses Cookies, try these:
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- The Best Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies
- The Best Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sources: whfoods.com; wikipedia.org
