Chewy Gingerbread Cookies! (Molasses Cookies)

These soft and chewy gingerbread cookies are packed full of warm spices and flavors like cinnamon, ginger and molasses. They make a simple cookie that is extra delicious. We’ve even decorated these cookies extra cute for the holidays!

 

Why We Love Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

• Warm Cozy Spices– Molasses cookies are bursting with warm flavors that just feel cozy and make your taste buds sing. The molasses, ginger and cinnamon fit right in for Christmas, but is also a great recipe for fall.
• Chewy Cookies– While some traditional gingerbread cookies are hard cookies, these big soft molasses cookies are a chewy yummy cookie. They have just the right texture! These may be a simple cookie to make, but it is one of my favorite Christmas cookies and is such a delicious gingerbread recipe to eat!
• Great For Christmas Cookie Trays– We’ve decorated these ginger cookies for Christmas, giving them an extra special feel for holiday parties and cookie exchanges. While this isn’t the best dough for cookie cutters, gingerbread boys or gingerbread houses with, they are still a lot of fun to decorate with the kids. I find a chewy decorated cookie is a crowd pleaser.
• Easy Gingerbread Cookies– This is such an easy gingerbread cookie recipe. If decorating isn’t your favorite part you can even leave the decorations off to make it easier, or just add a drizzle of white chocolate.

What’s The Difference Between Molasses Cookies And Gingerbread Cookies?

Most people think of gingerbread at the holidays and they think of a cookie that is hard, like a gingersnap or a gingerbread man.

Molasses cookies share the same warm and cozy spices that gingerbread also has. The main difference is molasses cookies make a soft and chewy cookie instead of a crunchy cookie, yum!

Ingredients For Molasses Cookies

For The Cookie Dough

• butter – unsalted, softened
• granulated sugar
• brown sugar– light brown sugar or dark brown sugar can be used
• egg
• light molasses– Use light molasses, Blackstrap molasses does not work to substitute in this recipe.
• all purpose flour – Measure flour by spooning the flour into the cup and then leveling. Scooping the flour with the measuring cup can result in too much flour really easily in these cookies.
• baking soda
• cinnamon – ground
• ginger – ground
• cloves – ground
• salt
• milk

For The Decorations

• white chocolate chips
• candy melts optional- We used green, red and brown for the trees.

How To Make Chewy Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

Making The Cookies Dough

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking oil.
2. In a large bowl with an electric hand mixer or the paddle attachment on medium, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar together until smooth and fluffy.

3. Add egg, molasses and milk to the butter and sugar. Mix all the wet ingredients on medium until combined.
4. In a second mixing bowl add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, and salt. Stir all ingredients together until well blended.
5. Add the dry flour ingredients to the wet butter and sugar mixture. Mix on low speed, then medium with a mixer (or with a rubber spatula) until the dry ingredients are fully mixed and a dough forms. Be careful not to overmix the dough or it can become tough.

Baking The Cookies

1. Scoop the cookie dough into about two tablespoon balls of dough. Using clean hands, roll the cookie dough into smooth balls.

2. Place cookie dough balls on a pan lined with parchment paper with at least two inches in between cookies.

3. Use the bottom of a glass and press down gently on each ball of cookie dough to flatten the cookies.

4. Bake cookies for 11-12 minutes until cooked on the outside but still gooey in the middle.
5. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes on the pan. Transfer cookies to a wire rack or clean kitchen towel to finish cooling.

Decorating The Cookies

1. Place white chocolate in a medium-sized heat-safe bowl. (Taller works better, but it needs to be wide enough to dip the cookies.) Melt the white chocolate in the microwave on half power, stirring about every 60 seconds until fully melted.
2. Once cookies are fully cool, dip each cookie halfway in white chocolate. Place on a sheet of parchment paper to harden.

3. Melt the candy melts each in a microwave safe bowl according to the directions. Fit the piping bag with a tip (we used Wilton tip #3 but another small tip like Wilton tip #2 works also.) If you don’t have a piping bag and tip you can fill a freezer zip-top plastic bag and snip the corner to pipe the trees onto the cookies. Fill piping bags or strong zip-top bag with different colors of melted candy melts. A dessert decorating kit like this Wilton kit will give you all the basic supplies you need to get started. I own this kit personally and it’s great for a beginner.
4. Snip the tip of the bag with scissors and make green squiggles for trees. Add brown tree trunks and red ornaments. Let chocolate and candy melts fully cool and harden, then enjoy!

Variations And FAQ For Chewy Gingerbread Cookies

• You could dip the entire cookie in white chocolate and decorate these cookies to look like a snowman face. Or skip the white chocolate and decorate them to look like gingerbread men faces.
• Another idea would be to just add colorful drizzles across the entire cookie or just the half of the cookie dipped in white chocolate.
• Sprinkles can be added to the Christmas trees before the chocolate cools to represent the Christmas ornaments instead of using candy melts. Add sprinkles directly after piping the Christmas tree for best results.

Can I Use Blackstrap Molasses In This Recipe?

Blackstrap molasses; the flavor is deeper, saltier, and much more bitter than light molasses. While blackstrap molasses has had a resurgence in the health community, it’s not really well suited for baked goods.

Sometimes local bottles of molasses don’t specify if they are light or blackstrap molasses. A quick taste test will tell you which type of molasses you have.

Molasses should have a pleasantly bitter taste but the bitterness shouldn’t knock your socks off. Last year was the first time I tried blackstrap molasses, and it’s not a flavor you forget! Check out this article about how to tell the difference between blackstrap molasses and true molasses if you are still unsure.

Can I Substitute Something Else For The Molasses?

Molasses has a very specific flavor, but it is an ingredient that most home cooks and bakers don’t use a ton of. That sometimes makes it hard to keep an entire bottle for just a few recipes. If you do buy a bottle of molasses for these cookies, try these chocolate gingerbread cookies or these gingerbread rice krispie treats with your extra molasses.

Here are some ideas from Recipe Lion for what to substitute for Molasses. I have not tried any of these ideas in this specific recipe (If you try it, let me know in the comments how it went!) Know that the flavor will be different if you make a substitution, but the cookies will still be delicious.

How Do I Store Soft Gingerbread Cookies?

These cookies can be stored in an airtight container on the counter for 3-4 days.

Can I Freeze These Cookies?

Yes, you can freeze these cookies already baked. I recommend freezing them without the chocolate decorations as the cold may cause some of the tree decorations to break.

You can also make these cookies into dough balls and freeze as cookie dough balls. Cookies may take a few extra minutes in the oven to cook from frozen.

The cookie dough does need to be pressed to spread properly but that’s harder to do when the dough is frozen. Instead, pull the cookies out halfway through the cooking time. Press each dough ball with a glass, then return the pan to the oven to finish cooking.