This is the perfect holiday cookie! There’s something about ginger, cloves and cinnamon that makes me think it’s Christmas! Just the aroma of these baking in the oven brings back lots of happy holiday memories!
Do you ever eat a delicious holiday treat and wonder to yourself “why don’t I make this all year round?” (I say that about pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving!) You will love these and maybe they will become a holiday tradition for you!
Home-baked cookies make a nice neighbor gift too (or even homemade cookie dough is a great neighbor gift!) Years ago, at Christmastime, our brother and sister-in-law gave us some homemade frozen cookie dough with baking instructions attached on a cute tag. I thought it was a clever idea. We were given so many holiday treats that we could hardly eat them all before they became stale! We put away the frozen dough for later. (Then, later on, we were able to make the freshly baked cookies!)
Soft & Chewy Molasses Crinkles
1 c. sugar
¾ c. shortening
1 egg
¼ c. molasses
2 c. flour
1 ¾ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
Make the Cinnamon Sugar by stirring together:
¾ c. sugar
1 – 2 teaspoons cinnamon
With an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and shortening. Add egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Stir together. Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.
Chill the dough several hours or overnight.
After the dough has chilled, roll the chilled dough into 1” balls and then roll the balls in cinnamon sugar. Place the balls of dough onto an ungreased parchment lined baking sheet 2” apart (they will spread.) Bake at 375° for 8 – 10 minutes. Do not allow the cookies to brown or they will become hard! Allow the cookies to remain on the baking sheet for 2 minutes after removing from the oven. Then transfer cookies from the baking sheet with a metal spatula to a wire rack for cooling.
I made these yesterday and had them in the fridge over night until the afternoon. I have a brand new oven and my cookies have been turning out great, so I was excited to make these. They taste great! But, mine didn’t turn out “crinkle” like at all. They were actually quite flat and I also found the oven temp too hot as the bottom of the cookie burned. I changed the temp to 350 and put them in longer but they still were flat with no crinkles. I refrigerated the rolled dough before I put them in the oven to cool them down thinking that might be it but …still flat. I don’t know what I did wrong? All my ingredients are fresh. But, they taste great!!!! just like a ginger snap.
I wonder if it might be due to your altitude. Do you live in a high altitude or a low altitude? Here is some good information on adjusting your recipe https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/high-altitude-baking.html. Hope this helps!
My snickerdoodles are supposed to “crack” but never really did until I stopped rolling them in my hands and started using a cookie scoop with minimum handling with my hands. Now they crack perfectly! Hope this works for you too!!!! =)
These look lovely- I can’t wait to try them out!!
Oh my goodness! These cookies look DIVINE!
I love molasses cookies. All soft and chewy! So good! Such a great fall time cookie.
My batch turned out perfect! Moist and crinkled on the top. Yum!
THESE COOKIES ARE GREAT WITH A CUP OF TEA. SOFT AND CHEWY. MINE CRINKLED. HAVE MADE THEM SEVERAL TIMES, ALWAYS A HIT WITH FRIENDS.
These look amazing! Just the picture brings back happy childhood memories.
Would these work with butter rather than vegetable shortening? I’d love to give them a try!
They may have a different texture. Butter and shortening have different melting points so they may not be exactly the same. (I would probably try using half butter and half shortening and see how they turn out.) Here is a great blog post from Sift and Whisk describing the difference. http://www.siftandwhisk.com/blog/baking-basics-butter-vs-shortening/
These cookies were fantastic! They crinkled perfectly and were deliciously moist! Will most definitely make these again 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!!
These were sooo good! I made them yesterday as part of my christmas cookie baking and the other cookies are still there and these are gone. Mine crinkled perfectly even though i did roll them in my hands. I didnt refrigerate as long only about an hour while i was working with other cookies. They were a hit!
Would there be anyway to make the dough and freeze it to bake later? Please advise.
Great question Karen. I imagine you could. I have frozen other recipes of cookie dough and they baked up perfectly after thawing the dough. Let us know if you try it!
I tried it and think I will make them fresh next time. The dough seemed pretty dry after thawing. I went ahead and made them but they aren’t really chewy; more like spicy tea cookies. Good but eager to try them the “right” way. 🙂
Your recipe has ingredients with 1t. Is that teaspoons or tablespoons ?
I use a lower case t for teaspoons and an upper case T for Tablespoons
Going to make a batch! About how many cookies does this recipe yield?
It should make 2-3 dozen cookies. Enjoy!
What kind of molasses do you use?