You won't be able to resist these sweet and spicy Ginger Molasses Cookies. Made in under 25 minutes (+ chill time) for the perfect fall treat. But beware, these cookies are highly addictive!
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This fall I'm taking some time to go back through some of my favorite My Darling Vegan recipes from the archives and give them some MUCH NEEDED love. Over the next couple of months, I'll be re-sharing some of YOUR favorite recipes new and improved. Oh, don't you worry. I will also have NEW recipes for each week.
To start us off, I am re-sharing one of my VERY FIRST recipes today.
Ginger Molasses Cookies!
I love these Ginger Molasses Cookies and I think you will too.
How to Make Vegan Molasses Cookies [Video]
Recommended Ingredients & Equipment
Imagine a chewy molasses cookie meets a ginger snap and you've got yourself a ginger molasses cookie. It's soft, slightly chewy, slightly cakey, sweet, and spicy. In other words, the perfect fall cookie.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- All-Purpose Flour - I have also made these cookies with 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour Baking Blend with great success. (<<affiliate link)
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder
- Spices - You will need cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
- Vegan Butter - Look for a high-quality non-hydrogenated vegan butter. I recommend either Earth Balance or Miyoko’s.
- White & Brown Sugar -
Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements.
- Coconut Oil - Feel free to also use avocado or canola oil.
- Blackstrap Molasses
How to Make Molasses Cookies
Step One – Whip the Butter and Sugar.
Whip the sugar and butter until they are light and fluffy. Next, add the oil and molasses. Fortunately for us, the combination of oil and molasses act as the binder (egg replacer) and we don't need any other egg substitutions for this vegan cookie recipe.
Once they are added, the dough will start to look curdled. Don’t worry about this. When the dry ingredients are added, the dough will sort itself out.
Step Two - Add the Dry Ingredients
In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Slowly add them to the butter/sugar mixture until they are just combined. Be careful not to overmix or the dough will become gummy and dense.
Once the flour and spices have completely incorporated, turn off the mixer. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
Step Three - Bake the Cookies
Once the dough has chilled, roll it into balls about 1 rounded tablespoon big and coat them with granulated sugar. Place them on a parchment-lined baking tray and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Cookies should feel slightly underdone when pulled from the oven. They will continue to bake on the baking tray.
Allow them to continue to cook on the baking sheet outside of the oven for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack.
Serving and Storing
Serve these cookies once they are cool.
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Freeze leftover cookie dough for up to two months. To do this, roll all the dough into balls. Place them on a baking sheet in the freezer to freeze all the way through. Once frozen, transfer your cookie dough into a large Ziplock bag and return to the freezer. When you’re ready to bake, remove from freezer, roll in sugar, and bake!
Tips and Tricks
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you a gummy and dense cookie.
- For cakier cookies, add an extra ¼ cup of flour and bake for 2 minutes longer.
- Pull cookies out when they are slightly underdone. I found 11-12 minutes to be the perfect baking time. They will continue to harden as they cool, giving you a crispy outside with a deliciously chewy center.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chewy Cookies
Ginger Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup vegan butter, I use Earth Balance
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- ¼ cup blackstrap molasses
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, for coating
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda and powder, spices, and salt. In a separate bowl or stand up mixer, beat vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add oil and molasses and mix to combine. In several batches add the dry ingredients until a dough begins to form. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place rolling sugar in a small bowl. Spoon out 1 rounded tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Coat with sugar and place the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough, leaving about two inches between cookies.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Jennifer says
These were awesomely perfect!! Thanks!!
Sarah says
Thank you, Jennifer.
GS says
Yum!! I just made these and they came out v soft and chewy. I substituted vegan butter for 2 tablespoons of pumpkin puree and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. I didn't have canola oil so instead used olive oil. Did not affect taste.
Sarah says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your substitution. Good to know.
SarahL says
Made these this afternoon - yum! The dough was a bit dry for sugar to stick to once I'd rolled it into balls so I skipped that step. I had to hide them in the top cupboard so my son would stop eating them. This recipe will definitely be a keeper 🙂
Luciana says
I just made these and they are delicious! I baked these for exactly 10 minutes and immediately moved them onto a wire rack. I got fifteen cookies out of one batch (using a cookie scoop for uniformity), and they aren't as puffy as the pictures on here, they are quite flat. Should I make them larger next time or add an extra 1/4 tsp of baking powder?
Still, they might not make it to tomorrow!
Sarah says
I'm glad you liked them so much! I'm going to have to go back and look at this recipe - it's been a long time. But I would suggest keeping them mostly round (only slightly flattening them) before baking and if that still doesn't work out for you, it wouldn't hurt to put in an extra 1/4 tsp of baking powder, that little amount wouldn't affect the taste.
Amanda says
Do you flatten the cookies before baking, for leave them as balls?
Sarah says
Yes, I slightly flattened them (not much!) before baking. I'll make sure to note that in the recipe. Thanks!
Hannah says
If I were to make these ahead of time and freeze them, would they be hard once I thaw them out or stay chewy? Have you tried freezing a batch?
Sarah says
I would suggest making the dough and freezing that. Then you can bake off as many as you like, whenever you like, and they will be fresh and chewy every time. To make it even easier, pre-scoop them, let them freeze on a cookie sheet, then once they are frozen solid you can put them in a plastic bag. that way you don't have to try and scoop frozen cookie dough.
Sarah O. says
I made these today for a vegan friend, and I was in disbelief at how good they turned out to be. I used applesauce in place of the vegan butter, and I subbed in soy flour because she's also gluten-free (I know... I know) and seriously, they were perfect. Huge and chewy with soft, sweet interiors and beautiful tawny color. I cannot thank you enough for this recipe, it is smashing!
Sarah says
I'm glad they were such a hit! I will try it with the applesauce next time for a healthier alternative!
Mel says
Hi! I'm new at vegan baking, so I subbed the oil with coconut oil- only as they were baking, did I start to worry that they would harden. And they did, like a molasses biscuit - but they were delicious! I will try them again with some other kind of oil (sunflower or corn ok?) as we don't have canola here. My only problem was that the dough was never doughy- it was more crumbly. I still managed to press them together and they held fine, but I may have overcooked them a bit because they weren't getting flat as in your picture. I will definitely be making these again with the right oil and without over baking- what a great way to eat my molasses 😀
Sarah says
I'm glad you tried them. Corn or vegetable oil would work fine next time. Enjoy!
CIRCE says
Could you use coconut oil as a 'vegan butter'? Or do you think that'd make them too solid, since the oil is harder at room temperature than butter?
Sarah says
Coconut oil would, like you said, probably make them no longer "chewy" molasses cookies. You could try Coconut Butter, which you can find at most health food stores or well stocked grocery stores. The consistency is much more like butter and I believe it would work quite well.
Katrina says
Hi! I made a double batch of these yesterday, and while they look great and taste super yummy, they are crunchy, not chewy! I thought maybe after sitting a day, they'd soften, but no such luck. Any idea why that would happen? Could I have baked them too long? I might try my mom's old trick of putting a slice of apple in the container with them!
Sarah says
I'm sorry, how disappointing! My best guess is that they were over-baked, but without seeing them I can only guess. I took a quick look at the recipe and I can't think of another reason they would have turned out that way unless there was a substitution of ingredients.
If you rolled your cookies smaller than mine, they would have taken less time. Or if your oven is not accurate, you might also have run a problem of over-baked. I hope this helps.
Emily says
I made these for Thanksgiving dessert to go with a pumpkin pie spread, and they were absolutely amazing! My entire non-vegan family has been begging me to make them again ever since! I had been craving gingerbread-type baked goods for months, and with Thanksgiving I finally had an excuse to make some- so seasonal! I've already made two more batches since Thanksgiving, and I'm planning on using these as part of holiday gifts- as well as making them for Christmas! Thank you so much for the recipe- SO delicious!!!
Aruna says
Interesting. 🙂
Would it work if subbed 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar for the white sugar and molasses? Would there be enough molasses in that sugar?
I don't have molasses, but I do have an unopened package of dark brown sugar that I never got around to using.
Sarah says
There isn't enough molasses in brown sugar for that to work, sadly. I'm not sure how it would taste. Good, probably, but certainly different.
Stephanie says
Do you think I could replace the Earth Balance with veggie oil? These look AMAZING!
Sarah says
You can sub if you're having a hard time getting Earth Balance overseas. The texture will be different (a little flatter and denser) but it shouldn't affect the flavor much and I believe they would still be delicious! Let me know how they turn out.
Stephanie says
Awesome, thanks Sarah! Can't wait to try these 🙂
Kylie @ immaeatthat says
YUM. You have me craving some sweet spiced cookies now! And yay for fiesta dishes! I have the same mugs:)
Jade says
these sound beauuutiful! can't wait to try them out..my housemates will love these. am always inspired by your creative blog posts..thanks for sharing 🙂 x
Sarah says
Thank you!
Annie says
It's the cracks that get me - they just beg to be eaten!
Thank you so much for joining the Potluck!