My Grandma’s Molasses Cookies
This recipe for my grandma’s molasses cookies makes the perfect classic, spicy cookie. As she used to say, take one cookie for each hand!
This recipe for molasses cookies is one of my favorite cookie recipes ever, for a few different reasons.
First of all, they are just great cookies, rich with the flavors of molasses and ginger and cinnamon and sugar.
Second, they are a snap to make, and they turn out perfectly every time.
But most importantly, I make them from a recipe card handwritten by my grandmother, one of the most amazing people I have ever known. Warm, wonderful and just the right amount of spicy, they are cookie perfection. Let’s make them!
My grandmother didn’t do a lot of cooking, but what she made, she made well. I have a crystal-clear memory of being sent outside to play in the mornings on her beautiful Vermont farm with two slices of hot buttered cinnamon toast – one for each hand — and I have never been able to replicate the particular taste of that toast.
She made fantastic pancakes (with Vermont maple syrup of course), and always said she would make as many as we could eat, even if it was HUNDREDS, which my brother and I thought was one of the best things we had ever heard of.
She also made these perfect molasses cookies, and luckily for me at some point she wrote out the recipe for me, in her handwriting that I remember so well right to this day, and every once in a while something reminds me of them and I just have to have them.
For example, every time I am in Sissy’s Kitchen, which is fittingly in my grandmother’s Vermont town of Middletown Springs, I am reminded.
Sissy has a jar of something labeled “Gingersnaps.” 25 cents each. The first time I saw this jar I bought — well, never mind how many.
There they are in that jar on the left. And while Sissy may think they are gingersnaps, they tasted very much like my grandma’s molasses cookies, and to be eating them right in the middle of Middletown Springs…well, let’s just say it took me back a little.
And so here I am back in New Jersey, and after that first time with Sissy’s gingersnaps one of the first things I wanted to do was find that recipe and make those molasses cookies.
My Grandma’s Molasses Cookies
This recipe for my grandma’s molasses cookies makes the perfect classic, spicy cookie. As she used to say, take one cookie for each hand!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 16 minutes
- Total Time: 36 minutes
- Yield: about 36 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup melted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cloves, ginger and salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Extra sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Line cookie sheets with parchment or silicone baking sheets.
- Combine butter, sugar, molasses and egg in large mixing bowl
- Combine flour, baking soda and spices in medium bowl
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until well combined
- Put in refrigerator until dough has hardened at least one hour.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350.
- Scoop out dough (I find an ice cream scoop works well for this) and roll into 1 inch balls
- Roll balls in sugar and place on cookie sheet, well-spaced apart
- Press down slightly on cookie dough with the bottom of a glass or jar
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for about five minutes and then continue cooling on rack.
Updated from an earlier Framed Cooks post
I just wanted to let you know… I just made these cookies (literally, they're still on the cooling racks) and I think I just discovered the true meaning of Christmas :) Thank you!
Oh! And I'm going to feature these in my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies over at maryweise.com, if that's ok! I'll definitely be crediting you and linking back :)
You know, these are the only cookies that I ever make now, because I've become famous for them. They are seriously the best. Thanks!
How many cookies does this recipe make?
I just salivate over every recipe you post and look forward in anticipation
To your next blog to see what recipe we will get. I also just think those
Cookie jars are so elegant, do you know were to purchase them ?
The jars are actually at a store that I visited, so I'm not sure where she got them – but I have similar ones that I found at the Container Store. They have a great website, so give them a try!
Hello. I love the recipe and the jars in your picture. Can you tell me where you got them?
Thank you so much for a great recipe!
I would use unsalted butter if you have it, although there is so little salt in the salted kind that it really won't make that much of a difference. Happy cooking!
I have been looking for a molasses cookie recipe like the kind I remember from my childhood. I remember them as being really dark. Would you use salted or unsalted butter in this? Have seen other recipes calling for oil. Your website is very attractive.
I'm in love with Framed! I've never baked molasses cookies before, a friend requested them. After baking the Believe Cake 5 times now (requested constintly)I came here for a molasses cookie recipe. My husband who thinks the cookies are chocolate chip cookies. . . until he had Grandma's Molasses Cookies. He now requests these too. Thanks for all your great pictures, stories and recipes!
Ok, so your backstory on the handwritten recipe card got me! I made these cookies and stuck to the recipe to the letter out of respect to you and your grandmother! I took the cookies to a pool part at a friend's house. A seventy year old man told me he hadn't had cookies that delicious since his mother died. I made him his own batch the next day. Thank you, and thanks to your grandmother!
Greg Smith
This is not the cookie my grandmother made. They were smooth on top and very chewey. Think she used blackstrap molasses. Put in refrigerator over night until cold. Used crisco. Have tried many different recipes all have cracks on the top. Hers were shiney and smooth. can you make any suggestions
PPS we also don't flatten them, they do it themselves, and they are a LITTLE bit chewier rather than crispier. MMMMMMM I want to make some NOW!
PS we always add more spices..
I LOVE THIS! This is the exact recipe that my mother-in-law gave my husb, hand written. It is ALSO the very same recipe on the molasses bottle (not the bunny one). Nonetheless, EVERYONE raves about these cookies!!! They are just perfect!
I made the Grandma's Molasses cookies and they are so delicious! There are so many wonderful recipes on this site and the photography is very nice also.Thank you for sharing.:-) Angela