Super soft cookies, crunchy sugary tops, these Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies are my modern take on a holiday classic.

We are officially approaching the homestretch of the most wonderful Time of the year. Never mind all the brilliantly sparkled holiday lights adorning homes and their landscapes, the rosy cheeked red dressed men that are now creepily sporting masks for children’s safety, the abundance of gifts starting to topple over underneath live or jauntily decorated artificial trees, pay attention to the most important thing of all…the holiday cookies. Sugar cookies, gingerbread men, Chocolate Chip cookies galore, and old favorites like Peanut Butter Blossoms and Mexican Wedding cookies. One of the highlights for myself is a deliciously spiced, sink your teeth into it soft Ginger Molasses cookie. There is something about the combination of molasses, butter, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger that just announce that the holiday season is unarguably here.

During all seasons I could live off cookies - in fact during my graduate years I was living off the “broke girl’s soup and cookie with a side of coffee” diet. While there is something magical about just a perfect Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie, these Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies are really incredible and the type of cookie you can really settle into by the fire with a good cup of tea. These cookies are sweetly spicy from the ginger and other spices, with the dark oomph from the molasses. While I make a single batch for my husband and I, it is incredibly easy to plow through the entire amount of cookies because you keep going back for the soft, buttery, spicy little delights.

These Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies sparkle during the holiday season, but the pillowy centers contrast so perfectly with the crunch of the Turbinado sugar makes them craveable all year.

The Ginger Molasses cookies of my youth I do not have the recipe for, and perfusing the literally thousands of iterations of recipes out there for all things gingerbread, gingersnap, and ginger molasses, this recipe is a more modern twist on what I remember having as a child. The cookie is incredibly soft, so soft in fact, that it finishes baking on the baking sheet when you pull them out of the oven. The ginger flavor is more present than in a traditional Molasses cookie, more akin to a gingersnap, however the molasses flavor is still balanced and strong. The cinnamon, cloves, and allspice are all there are supporting players that nestle in deep into the butter filled little treats. I made the choice to use just white sugar in the dough for these cookies to allow for maximum fluffiness and softness inside, rather than going for a chewier texture that brown sugar lends to cookies.

One of my favorite things about this variation of a soft Ginger Molasses cookie is that I use Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw) to roll the tops of the cookies in before baking rather than the typical granulated white sugar. This was a deliberate choice, as it not only adds a festive, sparkly look to the cookies, it actually enhances the flavor and texture of the cookies. The Turbinado sugar adds those caramel notes to the cookies that replaces the need for the brown sugar in the dough, and then the crackle of the crunch between your teeth as you bite in is a perfect textural juxtaposition to the velvety softness of the cookie itself. You can, of course, use granulated white sugar in liu of the Turbinado sugar however I personally think it’s worth it to try the variation.

A higher heat helps puff the cookies up, then the cookies finish baking on the cookie sheets for the ultimate soft centers!

So as we run towards the finish line of this year, gliding through the holidays, make sure to have an ample supply of these Soft Ginger Molasses cookies in your arsenal. They’ll get you through the late nights of wrapping gifts, the early morning hours of the last days of remote learning or getting ready for work, or are the perfect little mid afternoon perk you up with a cup of strong tea.

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies

Author: Iris Anna Gohn

Servings: 24-26 cookies

Cozy, comforting, nostalgic for us adults, it’s almost insultingly easy to put together and chill the dough while you do other things before baking them. While making the holiday cookie tins, one beautiful timesaver I have found when doing several types of cookies in a single day is to do a two step process - choose cookies that mainly need time in the fridge to chill, and then bake off the next day. One day of prep, one day of baking. (A third day too, I suppose, if you are doing iced cookies as well).

Be sure to let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for the full 10 minutes before transferring them to the cooling racks. The cookies are just very slightly underbaked when you pull them from the oven and finish cooking on the hot sheets - if you go 11 to 12 minutes the undersides of the cookies get too brown. When you first pull the cookies out, the tops of the cookies will be dry but if you poke them they are super, super soft and would fall apart if you try to transfer them to a cooling rack right away.

I do not recommend rolling the entire cookie dough ball in the turbinado sugar as the bottoms would caramelize too much and no one wants to taste burnt sugar. I also think it would detract from the softness of the cookie if both sides of it had crunchy sugar - just my own two cents on it.

You can store these cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days - if they last that long. I think the flavor actually develops overnight after they are first baked so my favorite day to eat them is the second day.

Ingredients

2 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 1/2Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger
3/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
1/4 Tsp Ground Allspice
1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
12 Tbsp Salted Butter (3/4 Cup, or 1 1/2 sticks), room temperature (I use Costco brand, if you use unsalted butter, increase salt by heaping 1/4 Tsp)
1 Cup Granulated White Sugar
1/3 Cup Molasses
1/2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
Turbinado Sugar for rolling (Sugar in the Raw)

Directions

For the Cookie Dough:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. This should take 1-2 minutes.
Add the molasses and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until thoroughly incorporated. This should take just about a minute.
Add in the egg and mix on medium high speed for just over a minute till it is fully incorporated into the sugar mixture. This should take just about a minute, but scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add half of the dry ingredients, and turn the mixer on low. Slowly add in the remaining flour until everything just comes together, roughly 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl as needed so the flour all gets incorporated.
Scoop 2 Tbsp balls of cookie dough (I use this OXO medium cookie scoop) or 1 1/2 Tbsp of cookie dough and place on a foil lined sheet pan. You should end up with between 24 and 26 cookies for reference.
Cover tightly and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours. The dough must be VERY chilled before baking or else they will spread too much.

To Bake:

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll the tops of the cookies only in the turbinado sugar (if you roll the whole thing the sugar caramelizes too much underneath and no one wants burnt sugar) and space out 12 cookies to a sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway. Cookies will be dry to the touch but incredibly soft and not fully baked through - this is the goal. Trust the process.
Remove from oven and let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. The residual heat will continue baking the cookies, if you try to remove to a cooling rack immediately it will not work as the cookies are underdone and too soft to hold their shape. If you want a slightly crisper cookie edge with soft centers, increase baking time by an additional 30 seconds to a minute.
After 10 minutes transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool. By the time they are cooled completely the insides are soft, the edges just slightly crisp, and they are perfect. Once cooled, store in an airtight container.