These Chewy Iced Molasses Cookies have a fabulous soft and chewy texture and are filled with the classic holiday flavors of molasses, cinnamon, and ginger. Easy, festive, and delicious!
Love the flavor of molasses? Check out my Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies and vintage Gingerbread Cake recipe.
These cookies are filled with nostalgia for me. The flavor reminds me so much of the gingerbread boys my mom baked each and every Christmas season. I loved those boys! I have vivid memories of walking home from school on a cold December day to my very warm and cozy house, all lit up with Christmas lights (Mom loved those lights!), and the smell of molasses and cinnamon greeting me as soon as I opened the door.
The fabulous thing about this recipe is that you get all that nostalgic flavor with far less work. Unlike Mom’s gingerbread boys, there is no rolling or cutting of the dough involved for these chewy molasses cookies. No intense decorating either. After they cool, they’re topped with a simple but perfectly delicious powdered sugar icing and you’ve got one incredibly delicious batch of cookies on your hands.
I can pretty much guarantee they will disappear in nothing flat.
If you are a fan of the flavors of gingerbread and warm spices, you are going to love these cookies! I hope you’ll give them a try and that they warm your heart as much as they warm mine.
Table of contents
Ingredient Notes
- Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Spices: Ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves.
- Wet ingredients: Softened butter, light brown sugar, and a large egg.
- Molasses: Unsulphured mild-flavor molasses like Grandma’s Original.
- Icing: Powdered sugar, pure vanilla extract, and milk. I use whatever type of milk I have on hand, usually 2% or whole milk.
How to Make Chewy Iced Molasses Cookies
- Dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Wet ingredients: In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in the molasses, then the egg.
- Combine: Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, just until combined.
- Chill: Cover and refrigerate the dough about 1 hour or until it’s easy to handle.
- Shape the dough: Roll the cookie dough into small 1-inch balls and place them about 2-inches inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Flatten slightly: Flatten the balls slightly with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a clean glass.
- Bake: Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges of cookies are set. Cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before icing.
- Make the icing: Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk to a small bowl and stir until combined. Stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the icing reaches spreading consistency.
- Ice the cookies: Spoon some of the icing on top of each cookie and spread out with the back of a spoon. Allow the icing to set before storing the cookies.
Tips for the Best Chewy Iced Molasses Cookies
Chill the dough: Refrigerating the dough for an hour or so makes it much easier to handle. Otherwise, it will be quite sticky and difficult to work with and the cookies may spread more than you’d like when you bake them.
Control the size and thickness: Use a small cookie scoop to ensure even size cookies. These cookies will spread a bit but flattening the balls of dough before baking will ensure they are not too thick. You can flatten them as much as you’d like for the desired thickness.
Don’t overbake: The key to soft and chewy molasses cookies is to be sure you do not overbake them. Be vigilant and watch them closely towards the end of the baking time.
Icing consistency: Only add as much milk as needed for the icing to pour off the tip of a spoon and be easy to swirl around the top of the cookie. You don’t want it so thin that it loses it’s circular shape and rolls off the edges of the cookie.
Storage Tips
It’s important to allow iced cookies to rest at room temperature for at least an hour or more for the icing to set up before storing them. Then, store them in an airtight container with a piece of parchment paper or wax paper separating the layers. Store at room temperature for 4 days or refrigerate for up to a week.
For longer storage, the baked cookies can be frozen before they are iced. Flash freeze them on a baking sheet for about an hour, or until frozen solid. Then, transfer them to a freezer-safe plastic storage bag, press out as much air as possible, and freeze for up to 2 to 3 months. Thaw the cookies completely before icing as directed in the recipe.
More Classic Christmas Cookies
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Chewy Iced Molasses Cookies
Video
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup unsulphured mild-flavor molasses
- 1 egg
For the Icing
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ½ to 3 tablespoons milk, as needed
Instructions
For the Cookies
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed for about 1 minute, or until thoroughly combined and creamy. Add the molasses. Beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg.
- Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, a little at a time, just until combined. Cover and chill the dough for about 1 hour or until easy to handle.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough, then roll into 1-inch balls and place them about 2-inches inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Flatten the balls slightly with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a clean glass.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges of the cookies are set, being careful not to overbake. Cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely before icing.
For the Icing
- Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk to a small bowl and stir until combined. Stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the icing reaches spreading consistency. Only add as much milk as needed for the icing to pour off the tip of a spoon and be easy to swirl around the top of the cookie. You don't want it so thin that it loses it's circular shape and rolls off the edges of the cookie.
- Once cooled, spoon some of the icing on top of each cookie and spread out with the back of a spoon. Allow the icing to set for at least an hour before storing.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens
This post was originally published on December 16, 2016. It has been updated with new text and images.
This is a great molasses cookie. My only reason for 4 stars is it didn’t have quite the molasses flavor I wanted. I wanted more. So, instead of the icing in the recipe, which I didn’t like that much, I used molasses and powdered sugar to make a paste then added just enough milk to make it spreadable. That added the flavor kick I needed and made the perfect molasses cookie that I was looking for. So, the base cookie with my icing change made the perfect cookie to me. My dough made 36 from my cookie baller plus 1 oversized cookie.
Not what I expected based on description and photo. Flat soft gingersnap, not thick & chewy. Flavor ok. Dough was chilled per recipe. Made 48 not 24.
Hi Maryann. So sorry these didn’t turn out like you expected. I make these cookies every holiday season and have never had an issue with the texture. I’m assuming you must have made them quite small if you got 48 cookies so the issue could be that they were overbaked. If you were to try them again, I’d suggest making them larger and watching them closely at the end of the cooking time.
I’ve brought them to gatherings twice now and they’re a hit Thank you for sharing. Because the baking soda contains sodium and I have to watch my intake, I left the salt out and they were still delicious
I have a question before making these, is there any difference in the recipe for High Altitude?
Valerie the first time I made these they were like archway cookies and today they are a little firmer but not a lot. What do you think that I might have done to make them a little different. But they are so good anyways just didn’t come out the same.
If they are too firm, try taking them out of the oven a minute earlier.They will continue to firm up a bit as the cool so you want to be sure they aren’t overbaked. Hope they turn out a little chewier for you next time!
Valerie, I made these again and they were flat because I used my palm to slighten flat them . If I skipped this step would they still turn out. Can nuts be added also? These are my favorite cookies . Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.
Hi Mary. You can skip the step of pressing them down a bit but they will be much thicker. I’ve never tried them with nuts so I can’t say for sure but I think it would be fine. Hope this helps!
This is the same as my grandmothers’s recipe that nobody thought of to ask for before it was too late. 😪 Delicious! Thank you!
I’m so glad the recipe reminds you of your grandmother’s! Thanks, Kathy. 🙂
They turned out perfect. Not too sweet, great consistency. I ran out of milk and had to use coffee creamer for my frosting, ha ha. But it was tasty.
I wanted to love this recipe – I have to say the dough is YUMMY. I found the baked cookies to be wafer-thin and didn’t look at all like the pictures. I followed the recipe precisely so not sure what happened. Also, I checked “4 dozen” when I went to print the recipe and it made about twice that amount of cookies rolling them into 1 inch balls.
I’d want to be sure that you chilled the dough? If that wasn’t the issue then I’d suggest not flattening the balls of dough at all before baking. As you can see from the video and images in the post, the cookies will flatten but should not be wafer thin.
Really delicious, chewy molasses cookies. I used full flavor molasses because that’s what I had on hand, and loved the flavor. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Just made these and they taste lovely but the texture isn’t as cake-like as I wanted in an old fashioned iced molasses cookie. I will have to adjust the recipe for a more cake-like texture but they are yummy
Thank you! This will be a new year round favorite!
Can I freeze and thaw to serve at a later date? I have two Christmas events but don’t want to bake two separate times.
Sure! Just freeze them before icing for the best result.