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
Oh, my, I can't wait to make these. My tastebuds believe that molasses cookies are some of the most underrated cookie ever and would enjoy finding them in more glass jars around town. I love how you liken these cookies to your grandmother with the last sentence. :)
Today is my grandma Millie's 91st birthday, so this post resonants with me greatly. I can envision the recipe card I have in her handwriting for Petits Choux (straight outta Betty Crocker, btw), something we make together every Christmas.
LOVE the "sausage" idea – I'm definitely trying that next time!
One good trick from my mom's molasses recipes that can be applied here too:
Instead of putting the mixture in the fridge in a bowl, split the mix in two and wrap them in foil, forming them like a sausage…this way, when it hardens, you can cut them with a butter knife and have a perfect shape. You can keep the second "sausage" for another day…these cookies are soooo good warm out of the oven I like to always eat fresh batches. Thanks so much for sharing…
These are the best molasses cookies ever! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Ella and Yolanda: I'm so glad – and I know my grandma would be too!
Anon: Oh dear…the only thing I can think of is that maybe the dough didn't get hard enough? I hope you'll try them again!
i had a HUGE craving for molasses cookies last night and wanted to make them for my Bible study– so I googled "molasses cookies" and read several different recipes but liked your sweet grandma's the best—– I was NOT disappointed! THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!! and i'm SO GLAD i had leftovers!!!!! THANKS for sharing such a treasure of a recipe. :)
awesome cookies. I added some crystalized ginger as well as the other spices. Result was very soft and buttery. yum.
So, I made these cookies before, and they turned out awesome. Everyone raved! But the second time I made them, they got seriously flat and basically like a crisp. I did the same thing both time, triple checked my measurements.. what went wrong!
I'm so glad that everyone is continuing to love these cookies! I might have to make another batch this weekend…it will be my millionth one, but who's counting?? :)
I wanted to thank you for sharing this delicious recipe! My husband always talks about the molasses cookies that his grandma used to make, so I wanted to find a grandma's recipe! He loved them! Thank you!
Love the pics and cookies!
I'm about to make these cookies, or some variation of them, for my hubby who out of the blue requested molasses cookies. Not sure where that came from, as he's never asked for them before, but yours look devine. If I get a minute I'll be sure to blog about it at sweettooththerapy.blogspot.com Thanks for sharing such a great blog post.
I wanted to make molasses cookies because I had molasses and I don't like molasses cookies, so Christmas was the perfect excuse to bake a bunch and give them away. Unfortunately, I found these cookies to be way too yummy to give them ALL away. Your Grandma did good. Thanks for passing along! -Martha
Sorry, but my batch of cookies turned out like pralines. Too much butter, not enough flour. Like my cookies a little thicker.
@Anonymous: they make about 24 cookies, depending on how big or small you make the dough balls
@Mary: I think they smell like Christmas too! Happy to have you feature them.
@Alex: This is a great cookie to be famous for, and love the hat!
@ Everyone who asks about the cookie jars: The Container Store.