The Perfect Molasses Cookie
These are without a doubt my favorite holiday cookie. The Perfect Molasses Cookie is soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and has the perfect amount of spice.
THE PERFECT MOLASSES COOKIE
These cookies are made with so much love. My mom has been making them every holiday for as long as I can remember. They are truly a family favorite and the holidays wouldn’t be the same without them. My mom and I always make a bunch of cookies and treats over a few days in December to give out to family and friends. These are ALWAYS on the list. The kitchen smells ah-maz-ing.
FAMILY MOLASSES COOKIE RECIPE
The recipe comes from one of my mom’s oldest friends. My mom still has the lovingly stained recipe card that the original recipe is written on…it must but 30+ years old. There is so much nostalgia tied up in this recipe. Every time I make them it takes me back to my childhood. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without making these ginger cookie beauties.
HIGH ALTITUDE MOLASSES COOKIE ADJUSTMENTS
I’ve adjusted this recipe so that it works perfectly at high altitude every single time. Be warned that this makes a ton of cookies. If you live at sea level, simply increase the sugar to two full cups and increase the baking soda to 4 teaspoons instead of the 3 teaspoons called for. The original recipe calls for canola oil but I’ll often use coconut oil or even avocado oil. You can roll the cookies in regular granulated sugar but I really like to use a coarse sugar. It’s so pretty and adds a lovely crunch.
MAKING MOLASSES COOKIES AHEAD
These cookies freeze beautifully. In fact, I love them right from the freezer. Well, I love all cookies right from the freezer. But these especially. My mom and I made a batch this past week and have them stored in my chest freezer to be passed out to friends and family when it gets closer to the holiday! So make ahead and get ahead of the cookie game!!
As always, thanks for reading and happy baking! xo, Kelley
Recipe by Mountain Mama Cooks by way of Sally/ photos by Kellie Hatcher
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High Altitude Molasses Cookies
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Pin RecipeDescription
My favorite holiday cookie and the recipe my mom has been baking since I was a little girl!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- coarse sugar to roll cookies in or extra granulated sugar will do
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, salt and baking soda; set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat oil, sugar, molasses and eggs.
- Stir in flour mixture and mix well.
- Shape dough into balls and roll into sugar.
- Bake for 10 minutes taking care not to over bake.
Notes
These cookies have been adjusted for high altitude. If you don’t need to adjust, increase baking soda to 4 teaspoons and the sugar to 2 full cups.
57 Comments
These look and sound amazing!
Wonderful! Must make these next week!
You should- they are soooo delicious!!
These are, by far, the best molasses cookies I have ever tasted. They have never been a favorite of mine, but these certainly make me reconsider. And….easy to make. Thank you, thank you Kelly for sharing.
My husband could not stop eating these amazing cookies!
So glad he liked them!
I am excited to make these! Perfect for a PC cookie exchange. Question- what size balls, tbsp or tsp?
Good cookies – but definitely not *HIGH* high altitude recipe. I live at 9,000 ft above sea level – and had to add an extra 3/4 of flour before these cookies would come out similar to the picture. Before adding flour, they were just gingery-crunchy pancake cookies!
If you’d like to check out my high altitude adjustment page, it will show you how to adjust for your altitude. I live at 7000 feet (very much high altitude…..) where this recipe was tested and 2000 feet makes a huge difference!
I’m not sure what I did wrong – I’m at 5,500′ and these came out as sweet, crunchy pancakes. VERY flat, VERY crunchy… not sure how to fix it! =(
Bummer. I’m not sure what happened. This is a tried and true recipe for us.
This is very similar to a molasses cookie recipe that I have made for years (at sea level). We have now moved to about 5500 feet and I searched for some high altitude tips and arrived here. My recipe calls for butter, however, instead of vegetable oil. Do you think that using butter instead of the oil would change the chance of success?
I’m not sure..this is one of my mom’s old recipes. I’d love to adapt it to use butter instead. Let me know if you try and how they turn out!
Will do!
Well, I did the recipe using butter and your modifications to the baking soda and sugar. The taste was great though the cookies spread more than usual and were quite thin. They were chewy still and melted in your mouth. They didn’t last a day! If you try it with butter at your altitude, let me know how it goes. Oh, I also baked at 375 since that is what my recipe had called for and the temp I had always used.
Maybe chilling the dough would help prevent spreading thin cookies.
Yes. And, making sure the flour is accurate as well!
I have to say, I haven’t tried your recipe, but I have one that I have always used for years called World’s Best Chewy Ginger Snaps. I compared the recipes and mine is almost identical except mine is for half the amount of yours. Everything else proportion wise is the same except mine calls for butter instead of oil and my ginger amount is the same as yours, but for half the recipe of yours. One additional ingredient mine has is 3.5 ounces chopped crystallized ginger, so for your recipe it would be doubled. I had never used this. Give it a try and see if you like it. Adds additional chewiness and ginger flavor. If you try it, let me know what you think. Thanks! Love your blog. So glad to have found it.
These cookies are amazing! Molasses cookies are my favorite but I can never seem to find any recipes that work in my 5800 altitude. These worked wonderfully and tasted amazing! The only adjustment I made was using melted margarine instead of the vegetable oil and I didn’t have any problems. Thank you so much for sharing your mother’s fabulous cookie recipe with us!
You’re so welcome. This recipe is a long time, family favorite. So glad you enjoyed them!!
I have looked for this recipe since I lost the one from the Ft Scott, K S steam engine Tractor and hit and miss engine where they we’re making sorghum. The difference between this and all other recipes is the use of oil which was in their original recipe. Thank you!!!
My FAVORITE cookie of all-time!
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These were super good! I added ginger and walnuts, and subbed the oils for coconut and avocado. Posted them on my blog at saltsugarsea.com with a link back here to the original recipe….hope that’s ok! Maybe I should of asked first????
Love this! I used butter instead of oil and they came out perfect at 10 min. Thank you!
Delicious! Thank you! I live at 8,300 feet so I added an extra 1/4 c of flour and an egg white. Everything else stayed the same.
I live at 7400′ in Colorado and these came out delicious and perfect!!! I made a minor addition of 2 Ts of flour, baked for 12 minutes on center rack. Thank you for this amazing and easy high altitude cookie, not a trivial accomplishment
Nice! These are my favorite!!!
I forgot to ask in my initial comment…when you said it made a huge batch (I got 55!) you said it freezes well. Did you mean the dough, the finished cookies or both?
You could do both. If you freeze the dough, make the balls first and freeze those. You’ll need to add a minute or two to the cooking time. No need to defrost first. The fully baked cookies freeze beautifully as well!
My father is dealing with cancer and I recalled that he used to love good old fashion molasses cookies, so I treated him to this recipe. I am SO thankful for this recipe, absolutely amazing and don’t last long around here! I live at 9200 ft in Colorado, I followed this recipe as written and it has been perfect each time. Thank you so much, these made my dad a happy guy!
You made my day! Thanks for the kind comment. My mom, too, is battling cancer and I know how hard it can be to find any food that sounds good. Best of luck with your dads treatment and much love to you and your family. xo
I’ve been looking for a successful molasses cookie recipe for years. I saw the title and thought, yeah, right. I made it and I AM A BELIEVER!!!!! I had several people not believe that they were homemade! Thank you for this recipe!!!!
You are so welcome! It’s one of my favorite recipes on the blog. In fact, I just shot new photos last week and I’m giving the post a makeover- it’s time. These old photos don’t do the recipe justice! Thanks for the kind comment!!
The only thing that does this recipe justice is making it and enjoying it!! I forgot to mention that I used an 1.5 inch scoop and still made over 4 dozen large cookies! And, I didn’t have to adjust for high altitude. Also, I rolled some of them in sprinkles. 😀
Made these yesterday and they were on point! Baked at altitude of 7500 and they came out perfect. Tasted great. Froze most for Christmas but saved a few for my hubby and I to munch on. Honestly wondered how they would turn out once I mixed the oil and sugar; the mixture seemed very oily and separated a bit but everything came together well in the end.
I don’t want to set expectations too high, but I really think these are perfect. Easy to make, the look beautiful, and taste fantastic. A slight crunch with a moist center. Oh, and get the granulated sugar! Worth it.
Thank you. I concur….these are perfect!
i hope to use less sugar..i wonder how that will affect the cookie..we live at 6300 in NM. what do you think? also i only have turbinado and brown sugar..thought i’d try 3/4 c turbinado and 1/2 brown? total11/4 c total sugar?
Go for it. I’m sure they’ll be great. And if it doesn’t work, you’ll know why 🙂
You’re my hero! I tried to adapt my own recipe with no luck. I made these and they came out perfect! THANK YOU!!
Lifetime Denverite and aspiring beginner baker, let me just say, I am absolutely in love with these cookies. I have never left a review for any recipe before, but I am just floored by how tasty these turned out and how lovely this recipe was to make. I cannot wait to continue trying other recipes (especially the Lemon Poppy Seed Bread and the Salted Chocolate Chip Blondies)!
Love your recipes. Re these: I made a mistake the first time I tried them (at 7200 feet) and they spread out to one hard gigantic sheet. OK, fine, my bad. But I just tried again and had someone else actually watch to make sure I wasn’t making another measuring, assembly or baking error. This time they still spread out across the pan but they do taste delicious. I can’t imagine what I’m doing wrong to make them not look like the gorgeous cookies in your pic. Maybe the third time will be the charm.
Hmmmm. Are you measuring the flour correctly? Perhaps you need a little more. You could decrease the baking soda a tad? What is your elevation?
Hi and thanks for the quick response. I think so. I was careful to measure by spooning stirred flour from the bag into the cup and then leveling with a knife. I’m at ~ 7100 feet . . .
Hi there! I am making these right now and am wondering if you need to chill the dough like some other recipes call for? Thanks for all of these wonderful high altitude recipes!
Kate – Victor, Idaho
You don’t have to chill the dough though I almost always do! Happy baking!!
Hello! I live at 6,900 feet in Arizona. I’ve had difficulty with baking in general since moving here. My husband was craving molasses cookies so I googled High Altitude Molasses cookies and found your site. The cookies turned out delicious with a perfect shape. I did decrease the heat to 350 and baked them for 8 minutes. I think because my oven is electric, it tends to run hotter than a gas stove so the adjustment was necessary for me. Thank you so much for the recipe. This one has been added to my “Favorites”. Take Care, Kathy
Love these! Did you mean 1 teaspoon of baking soda, or is 1 tablespoon correct? I think I’ve tried both but can’t remember for sure.
It’s 1 tablespoon. If you’re higher than 7000 feet, decrease by 1/2 teaspoon!
Made these today at 7500ft. They are not only wonderful but they came out perfect!!! Thank you from Flagstaff, AZ
Thank you! They are my favorite holiday cookie of all time!
Can the dough be made ahead of time and frozen into balls? I usually like to just pull a few out to bake at a time.
Yes, of course! I do that all the time.
So easy, great texture, delicious flavor – an all-around win!
Question how can I add some cooked sweet potato to this recipe? I am at 8000 feet ?? Need to make a sweet potato dessert for our sweet potato festival and we love these!
I’m sorry but think that adding sweet potato wouldn’t be good in this!