chewy cookies, chocolate cookies, holiday cookies, molasses cookies
Ingredients
186g or ¾ cup unsalted butter (unsalted and softened, european style butter if you have it is best )
1 teaspoon each ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground allspice (optional, gives the cookies an holiday spiced flavor)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
200g or 1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
3 egg yolks (from large eggs)
75g or ¼ slightly heaped cup molasses
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons or 65g dutch process cocoa
1 ⅔ cup or 210g all purpose flour (sprinkled in and leveled, not packed)
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
about ¼ cup fine granulated sugar (for rolling)
Categories
Dessert
Snack
Steps
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a hand mixer, beat the butter, salt, vanilla and spices if using. Add the brown sugar and beat until creamy, a full minute.
Add the egg yolks and beat until light and airy, another minute. Pour in the molasses and beat to combine.
Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking soda. Beat until the dough is just combined. At this point you can bake the cookies right away or, if you've used overly melty butter or european style butter, set the dough aside for 30 minutes at room temp.
Portion scoops of dough onto prepared cooking sheet in 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie, leaving room for the cookies to spread (about an inch around each dough ball). Roll the balls between your hands to smooth the dough over then dip the tops of them in bowl with the extra granulated sugar for rolling.
Bake until the cookies spread, have set edges and puff up and crack in the oven, about 10-12 minutes.
Reviews
Jessica on 2026-01-01 (5 stars): These were delicious! I added the spices with the dry ingredients instead because that’s how I’ve always done it. I also added a white chocolate drizzle on top to add a bit of sweetness
Katie on 2025-12-24 (5 stars): Had to stop everything and rave about this recipe. Absolutely delicious and the cookies came out in perfect circles without having to reshape them. Love that they are chewy too. Will be making these again!
Lori on 2025-07-29 (5 stars): Great recipe. My great granddaughter loves molasses cookies and chocolate. So this was a good recipe for me to try.
Vijiti Dixit on 2025-02-22 (5 stars): This recipe is wonderful! So easy to make and super delicious! It made 24 good sized cookies for us.
Sue on 2025-01-24 (3 stars): I used miyokos vegan butter and gf flour (1:1 sub) and added 1 tbsp fresh ginger. The cookies taste good but spread and flattened out like pancakes. They didn’t look like your pictures at all. What if I put the dough in cupcake tins so it couldn’t spread? Would that work?
Drew on 2024-12-22 (5 stars): I was so excited about the cracks that I forgot to leave a rating with my last comment LOL, sorry about that!
Liz L on 2024-12-16 (5 stars): Phenomenal cookies! Super easy to make and they are an amazing add to my cookie box.
Grace on 2024-12-09 (5 stars): These are simply perfect. The dough is soft and the flavor of the cookies is rich and has a nice nuance from the molasses! I’m including these in my annual holiday baking from now on.
I did not include the optional spices but followed the rest of the recipe exactly. I used my 1oz scoop and actually got 35 cookies.
Salomé Aka on 2023-12-22 (5 stars): Made these as part of my Christmas cookie box, rolled them in festive sprinkles rather than sugar and everyone loved them. One of my friends described them as "the best chocolate cookie she's ever had"!
