Molasses Crinkles Cookies (12 cents each)

Have a hankering for chewy molasses cookies? Then this recipe for Molasses Crinkles is just the thing! A fun and easy alternative to traditional gingerbread cookies, these ginger molasses cookies feature a crunchy sugar coating.

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Love gingerbread but possess an aversion to the whole cookie cutter rigamarole? Who’s got time for that?

Don’t mess with cut-outs; you can simply roll dough balls in coarse sugar for the best chewy molasses cookies. 

These molasses crinkles are the lazy baker’s way to happiness!

Why Make This Molasses Cookie Recipe

They are just like gingerbread. Almost exactly. I took my mom’s recipe for gingerbread men and converted it to a simpler, easier cookie recipe. It’s got all the delicious spice from ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, but without the hassle.

Molasses Crinkles are easy. Just stir up the spiced cookie dough sweetened with molasses and roll the dough balls in coarse sugar. 

They are an extreme hit. Molasses Crinkle Cookies are a cookie your people will get excited about. They are especially fantastic when you sandwich vanilla ice cream between a pair of them. Yum!

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make Molasses Crinkle Cookies:

butter – I love to use real butter in Molasses Crinkle Cookies, but you can use margarine or a plant butter if you prefer. Just be sure to use room temperature butter so the ingredients blend well.

sugars – You’ll need brown sugar for the cookie dough, and raw sugar or demerara sugar for rolling the cookie balls. If you run out, you can make your own brown sugar with regular granulated sugar.

molasses – This is a key ingredient in the cookies, but you don’t need a lot. A little goes a long way. Use up extra molasses in Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce and our other gingerbread recipes.

egg – You just need one egg for these soft and chewy molasses cookies.

lemon zest – You can use fresh lemon zest or buy it in a jar in the spice aisle. If you’ve got lots of lemons, though, remember you can freeze lemon zest and juice. 

flour – I like to use unbleached all-purpose flour, but you can use regular as well as whole wheat pastry flour.

baking soda – Don’t omit the baking soda. It’s what gives texture to the Molasses Crinkle Cookies.

spices – You’ll need ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, ground nutmeg for these gingerbread-flavored cookies. If you’re short of one, that should be fine. You can also use pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice if that’s what you have.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here’s how to make a quick batch of Molasses Crinkles:

• Preheat the oven to 350 °. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silpat baking mats.
• In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in the molasses, egg, and lemon zest until well mixed.
• Sift in the flour, baking soda, and spices and stir gently to combine.
• Roll dough into 1-inch balls and roll the cookie dough balls in the demerara sugar. Place 9 cookies on a cookie sheet, spacing evenly. The cookies will spread while baking so leave space for them to do so. If the dough gets too soft and sticky while you’re rolling the balls, chill the dough for 10-15 minutes before proceeding.
• Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until set. Cool completely on wire rack.

Molasses Crinkle Cookies are good for 7 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 8 weeks when stored in a deep freeze.

These are great Christmas Cookies to Make Ahead & Freeze. You can keep a stash of Frozen Cookie Dough made from this recipe to bake later.

FAQs

Recipe Costs

Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.

• butter – $0.75
• sugars – $0.27
• molasses – $0.30
• egg – $0.15
• lemon zest – $0.10
• flour – $0.33
• baking soda – $0.02
• spices – $0.15

While your costs may vary depending on where and how you shop, you can expect to pay about $2.07 for a big batch of Molasses Crinkle Cookies, about 12 cents each.

How to save more:

Here are some of the strategies you can use to make Molasses Crinkle Cookies more economical:

• Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on the price of flour and butter can help keep the price down.
• Buying in bulk – It’s rare that I would buy just one bag of flour. Instead I stock up when I see a sale. I also have gotten into the habit of buying cases of flour from Bob’s Red Mill.  I practice the same bulk buying for spices and other baking ingredients.

Serving Suggestions

These Molasses Crinkles are delicious when paired with other cookies such as Chocolate-Almond Biscotti, Peppermint Brownie Bites, or Easy Homemade Sugar Cookies for a fun and festive cookie spread.

More Gingerbread Recipes

This post was originally published on November 29, 2012. It has been updated for content and clarity.