Chewy, spiced Molasses Cookies are a delicious, old-fashioned treat for the holidays

We may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of our links.

Warm spices and molasses come together in this cookie recipe in a beautiful flavor medley. The molasses imparts a deeply sweet character balanced by a mix of ginger, cloves and nutmeg. They have a satisfying, soft chewiness that makes them a perfect sweet treat between meals.

These are also among the best cookies to break up the monotony of your usual holiday cookie repertoire. Icing-coated sugar cookies and peanut butter blossoms have their place, but this cookie takes a subtler approach, elevating the warm spices at the time of year they can be most appreciated.

This molasses cookie recipe calls for beating shortening and sugar in a stand mixer, but a handheld one works fine as well. Other than that, this recipe calls for the usual equipment: mixing bowls, measuring cups and a wire cooling rack. If you’re having trouble finding molasses, you can order that on Amazon, too.

What is molasses?

Molasses is the boiled byproduct of the sugarcane plant. The plant is crushed and the naturally occurring juices are extracted and boiled between one and three times, producing a different grade of molasses each time. With each boil, the molasses gets thicker and loses some sweetness. After the second boil, molasses begins to have a slightly bitter flavor. The third boil yields blackstrap molasses.

What molasses should I bake with?

A well-stocked grocery store may have two types of molasses in the baking aisle: full-flavor molasses and blackstrap molasses. Full-flavor molasses is the commonly-used ingredient for baking. Blackstrap molasses is made by boiling full-flavor molasses, removing more of the naturally-produced sugars and creating an inky, bitter flavor reminiscent of the smokiness from barbecue.