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
Deb says
Wonderful! I love these cookies. After the first time I made them, I reduced the flour to 2 1/4 cups, as the dough was somewhat dry with the full amount. They were fantastic both times, however. Thanks for the recipe!
Lori Yerse says
Can I substitute unsulfured molasses for black strap?
Sarah McMinn says
Sure!
Amanda says
These are yummy; however, 125g is far from 2.5 cups of flour. 2.5 cups is more like 330g when using the scoop and level method. My dough was very slack so I went back and weighed out 2.5 cups to get the correct metric measurement. Oops!
Mira says
Thank you for this recipe! They are so deliciously chewy and flavourful. I LOVE these cookies and have made them countless times, as have most of my (non-vegan) friends.
I think that there is an issue with the metric measurements though, as some of the ingredients (flour, baking soda/powder, cinnamon, sugar) seem to be about half of their respective US measurements in the recipe. I used the metric measurements and ended up with closer to a buttercream than a cookie dough. I added in the other half of the ingredients that seemed to be missing and after that they turned out great.
Nicole Devereaux says
Delicious and chewy. Any troubles with the dough not being sticky enough are easily remedied with 2-3 tablespoons of almond milk! I was questioning if they would be gingery enough when I saw the ginger to cinnamon ratio, but they are lovely! If you like them authoritatively gingery, you could add another 1/2 tsp of ginger, but these are fantastic sharing cookies!
Briana Wills says
Thank you!! I found the same thing and used cashew milk - perfect 🙂
Jordan Brackin says
After chilling would these work with cookie cutters ? This is my fav cookie recipe but never tried to make shapes. Thanks
Sarah says
I think so. The dough is kind of stiff so it might be difficult to roll but I imagine you could make it work!
Brigid says
I plan to make up the cookies and then freeze them. Do I put the cookie dough in the oven frozen and then do you double your baking time?
Sarah says
I would take them out and let them thaw about 10-15 minutes before putting them in the oven then bake the as normal.
Maria says
I made these and they were delicious! Used vegan margarine instead or earth balance and shortening instead of coconut oil because that’s what I had but they were fanatic anyway!!!
Jordan says
Has anyone successfully used whole wheat flour? Ive made these with all purpose and they are amazing. Do you think whole wheat would change the taste and texture?
Sarah says
They would change the taste and texture. I would recommend starting with 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 whole wheat and see how that tastes.
Joi Poulin says
can i sub margarine for the earth balance?
Lorinda says
Hi, I have used the same molasses cookie recipe for probably 25 years. They were my son's favorite. Well he eats vegan now so I have been looking for a replacement. I added ground cloves and ground ginger since those were in my old recipe. Just took them out of the oven, they are a hit! We will have an inter-denominational Christmas meal, 3 Keto, 2 Vegan and 4 Omnivores. We are a very non judgemental family. Thanks for helping.
Carol says
Where do I click to print your recipes?
Sarah says
I just added a recipe card plugin so you can print it. It should work now!
Kat says
Made these for a vegan friend and I subbed ~ 1/3 cup pumpkin puree for the vegan butter since I didn't have any and they are perfect! Puffed up, soft on the inside, pumpkin flavor is not overwhelming.
Cat says
I used coconut oil (an equal amount) instead of Earth Balance and they turned out marvelous!!! I used extra virgin, so it does have a coconut flavor, which reminds me of butter. But, I'm sure you can use refined, if you don't want the slight coconut flavor. Thanks so much for this recipe! I like to make vegan versions of all the non-vegan cookies I crave at the grocery store. These more than satisfied my fall cookie craving!
MADI says
I was just wondering if I could make this with normal butter?
Kate says
These were fantastic. Much better than I expected considering how quick and easy they are. Thank you for this great recipe!