30 Minute Ginger Molasses Cookies

Hi hi! I am just popping in to share this super easy recipe for my Ginger Molasses cookies! These are a soft and chewy cookie which ticks all the boxes for me - while it makes for an amazing holiday cookie, I love it all year round too.

This ginger molasses cookie has no chill time, so you can have them ready to go in about 30 minutes.

I have played around with stuffing them with homemade caramel and also a super easy cream cheese filling. There are notes on this further down the post.

This is a super soft and chewy ginger molasses cookie - if you are after more of a thin and crispy situation with the same flavour profile, check out my easy gingersnaps recipe, or my roll-out gingerbread cookies for a recipe which is great for decorating with icing.

How to make super easy Ginger Molasses Cookies

These cookies are soft, chewy, and super easy to make. There is no chill time when making them, so you can have them ready to go in no time at all. 

All it takes is a few simple steps - creaming together the butter and sugars, adding in the egg, then incorporating the dry ingredients and mixing to combine. The soft dough is then scooped and rolled into balls, then rolled in a spiced sugar mixture. 

The cookies then have a quick wee spin in the oven until they are super puffy and perfect, and left to cool just for a bit, leaving you with spicy, super delicious, chewy ginger molasses cookies.

What goes into Ginger Molasses Cookies?

• Brown Sugar - This gives flavour but also helps to keep the cookies thick and on the chewy side. The ratio of brown to white sugar (and leavener) controls the spread and texture of a cookie, so these are the things I usually play around with when developing!
• Granulated Sugar - This gives spread! Super spread out cookies usually have a higher ratio of granulated to brown sugar (along with less flour and more butter). #Science.
• Molasses - Just a wee bit to help give a super deep and toasty flavour.  Make sure you've got unsulphured. If you're in NZ, use treacle.
• Spices - I popped loads of ginger in these, along with a wee bit of cinnamon and some cardamom. There's also ginger in the sugar that the cookies are rolled in before baking.
• The other usual suspects - Our friends Egg, flour, butter, and baking soda!

A few wee tips for Ginger Molasses Cookies

• These are massive. If you want them a little smaller, a 2 Tbsp ball of dough would work perfectly too - just bake them for 9-11 minutes instead of the longer time.
• To me these are a delicious amount of ginger, but if you really want a super spicy cookie then feel free to increase it (I love that really strong ginger taste too).
• If you don't have cardamom on hand, you can add a little more cinnamon.
• If you like your cookies a bit crunchy, up the baking time a minute or two
• If you like your cookies really soft, you can increase the flour quantity to 340g for a cookie that is a little puffier.
• These won’t look done when they come out of the oven / will look all puffed up, but they settle on the tray!
• If you're in Nz (or the UK) and can't get molasses, treacle will work great. 

Can Ginger Molasses cookies be made ahead of time?

Yes - the dough for these cookies can be made ahead and frozen. I prefer to leave them uncoated. Place the rolled cookie dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until solid then transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer.

When you are ready to bake, remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5-10 minutes before rolling in the ginger sugar and baking. I like to bake my cookies from frozen at a slightly lower oven temperature - 165°c / 330°f is good.

For all my tips and tricks see my post: How to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen

How do you store ginger molasses cookies?

These cookies store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

How to make stuffed ginger molasses cookies

I played around with stuffing these cookies with both a cream cheese filling and a homemade salted caramel and it worked perfectly. This is a super fun way to add a delicious twist to this cookie recipe - often I double the recipe and stuff some and then leave some plain.

To stuff with cream cheese:

• Make cookie dough as directed.
• To make the cream cheese filling, beat together 225g room temperature cream cheese and 50g powdered sugar until well combined.
• Scoop out the cookies as directed.
• Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten a ball of dough with your hands. scoop 1 tbsp of the cream cheese filling onto the dough and then carefully enclose the filling with the cookie dough.
• Flatten the cookie slightly so that it bakes down evenly (if you leave it as a ball the cream cheese will cause a hump when it bakes).
• Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.
• Roll the cookies generously in the ginger sugar and arrange on a baking pan - I do 6 per pan.
• Bake as directed for 13-14 minutes, until set around the edges. Remove from the oven and scoot into a round shape using a slightly larger cookie cutter than the cookie.

This also works amazingly with my easy chocolate cookie recipe.

To make caramel stuffed cookies:

I borrowed this technique from my caramel stuffed chocolate cookies but the concept is exactly the same and the same as stuffing them with cream cheese. I use my homemade caramel recipe.

• Make a batch of caramel candies as directed. I haven't tested this with storebought caramels but I assume it would work the same.
• Cut the caramel into 4cm squares.
• Make the cookie dough as directed.
• Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten, then place a square of caramel onto the dough. Carefully enclose the caramel in the dough, then gently flatten the dough ball slightly.
• Bake as directed.

For more detailed instructions on this method please refer to my post: Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies