Chewy Molasses Cookies
We just got back from NYC yesterday and I have a lot of questions. Like, why does everyone wear black? I had a cherry red pea coat and a pretty yellow scarf. Jorge could pick me out of every crowd, because everyone around me was in black or gray. I guess NYC really took 50 Shades of Gray to heart.
Also, how the heck do you go grocery shopping? Jorge tried explaining to me that in cities like NYC, they just shop for what they need that day. They shop in little delis and grab what they need. Well, I saw the prices in those delis…and there is no way I am buying a small bag of sugar for $5 or a small thing of toilet paper for $6. I buy toilet paper like the world is ending tomorrow. I buy that giant thing of Charmin that has 24 of the double thick rolls. The package is almost as big as me and lasts forever.
So if I lived in NYC, I’m pretty sure my bill each month for cabs would be outrageous. I would have to drive to the only Target in Manhattan and buy the biggest package of toilet paper I could find. Of course, I would also have the cabbie wait for me. Because there is NO way I would walk down 5th Avenue with my arms clutching a refrigerator size package of toilet paper. I do have some standards.
Besides all the logistics questions I had, I loved NYC. I loved that there is so much to see and do. I loved all the local non-chain restaurants that line each street. Central Park was amazing and I loved getting to walk everywhere. While I am from a big city (Houston), this was a totally different experience and reminded me a lot of the things I loved most about Chicago and San Francisco. By the end of the trip, I decided I would move to NYC in a heartbeat…if I made enough money to have my own driver, live in a Penthouse apartment and not mind buying a $5 bag of sugar.
While in NYC, we went to try some of the famous cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar. We got 3 different flavors of cookies and Jorge got the milkshake. We were um, not impressed. At all. Maybe they were having a horrible off day? Maybe we were just let down after the awesomeness from Bouchon Bakery…but either way, we were left with a serious hankerin for some good cookies after that letdown. So of course the first thing I did when we came home? Made cookies! 🙂
I have always been a huge COOKIE girl. Ok, well to be honest, I am a SUGAR girl…not at $5 a bag…but I digress… I like cake, pie, cupcakes, pudding, ice cream, cheesecake and candy. So to be fair, I love it all as long as it includes sugar. But I really do love cookies and I have blogged a lot of them.
These Chewy Molasses Cookies are different from my usual cookie. I like the thick chewy cookies. But while playing around with some different ingredients, these came out of my oven instead. They were flat and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But once I took a bite, I was hooked! The edges are crisp and the center chewy, and the spices + molasses make for a scrumptious combination!
Chewy Molasses Cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- coarse sugar, for rolling
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Move racks to the center of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and cloves. Set aside.
In stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix in molasses. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix until fully combined.
Using 1 heaping tablespoon of dough, shape the dough into balls or you can use a ice cream scoop to form the balls. Place corase sugar in a shallow bowl, and roll the dough balls in the sugar to coat them. Place on the prepared cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches for spreading.
Bake for 8-10 minutes – until the tops crack. Remove from the oven and leave them on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to finish cooling on a baking rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Gorgeous looking cookies! They are all so.perfect.exactly.the.same size! Wow – nice job and welcome home from NY!
Perfect cookies…;)
These look so good Jessica!
Wish I had one with a glass of milk!
xo
I was so excited to try the Momofuku cookies after baking them for a year. I went to the 56th street location on Saturday and tried three kinds and was also not impressed. I did stop off again yesterday and pick up the birthday cake truffles and they were incredible. So disappointing though!
Ugh! So glad to hear I am not the only one!! And now I am wishing I had bought the birthday cake truffles instead of spending $20 on bad cookies, milkshakes & crack pie. 🙁
Looks great!
Haha! I love your thoughts on NYC. So funny! These cookies look awesome, they are all so perfectly flat and round!
I love your recap!! I lived in Boston for 9 years and I’ll never forget the moment I fell in love with my now husband: he DROVE ME TO COSTCO!! IN THE SUBURBS!!!! I’m honestly not kidding. The power of bulk paper towel is incredible.
These look perfect! Glad you had a good NYC trip…
Did you try the Crack Pie at Milk Bar?
I did…and um wasn’t a fan. Is there something wrong with me?? I wanted to love everything from there, but I just didn’t. 🙁
those look yummy!
i work in nyc… and live in nj. people here get their groceries delivered by either the grocery store or by a company called fresh direct, that has pretty much everything you could ever want. no hauling! i wish we had them where i live in nj but it’s too far out in the burbs for that.
Isn’t NY just AH-mazing!!?! I would also move there in a heartbeat–if I didn’t have a 5 year old that would have to come with me. Gosh, if I was back in my earliler 20’s I would so pack up and do it for a few years, just to do it! I, too, was baffled and surprised by the costs and logisitics of groceries. That’s something that would be really hard on my if I actually lived there. Coming from little ol Iowa it would be a big change!
Black is THE color of New Yorkers! I too wear black pretty much daily, it’s about 80% of my wardrobe. For groceries, Fresh Direct is probably #1. There are also Whole Foods scattered throughout the city, as well as the grocery store Food Emporium. A lot of people try to get to Jersey to do shopping though, no sales tax on food or clothes, and no city prices. I hope you come back to visit again and hit some other local bakeries – Brooklyn and Queens have some really amazing ones!
mmmm cookies! I’m a sucker for molasses anything. So glad you had fun in NYC!
I don’t think I could live in NY. I like my quiet suburbs. I now have a mental picture of you running down 5th Avenue with a big package of toilet paper with your red coat and yellow scarf. Thanks for the laugh. These cookies look scrumptious. I love molasses and have some leftover from another recipe, so now I have a use for it.
I LOVE NYC. We live two hours away now and find ourselves wanting to go every single weekend. I know what you mean about Momofuku…it’s just okay…definitely overrated. I think their cookies are overall too greasy.
These cookies look fabulous! There’s nothing like a chewy, spicy molasses cookie, in my opinion. And NY, it stole my heart each time I visited over the past four years. My BFF was living there and she managed to get the hang of shopping there without going bankrupt. But she was not shopping at those delis, that’s for sure!
Our peacoats are black, like our souls. 😉
No, but seriously…I have a green peacoat that I wear in the spring/fall, and it’s nice to stand out from the crowd!
Hahahaha…I had the same question about all-black clothing when I went back east to D.C. for college. I showed up with blonde hair and wore a pink sundress to class the first day. I was a freakin’ target.
Well, I can tell you that everyone wears black because otherwise we’d all be FILTHY. Black hides the dirt. And when we lived in Brooklyn, there was an actual full grocery store down the block, plus a couple smaller bodega-style stores, and that worked very well for groceries. There are definitely some real grocery stores in Manhattan too! It’s doable–you just have to be willing to drag bags around on the train. 🙂 Anyway. Molasses cookies are my favorite, and these look great!
I made Ginger Molasses Cookies a few weeks ago. They’re great!
haha And I love your depiction of NYC! It really depends what part of NYC you are in as you’ll see less black clothing in certain parts. As for grocery shopping, if you live in the city, there isn’t room for that package of 24 double thick rolls of Charmin! And no need to go out and buy groceries when you can utilize the services of Fresh Direct. Oh, and I’d rather walk or take public transportation then hail a cab.
Glad you had so much fun! =)
these look DE-licious!
Chewy centers with crispy edges make the best cookies!
bahahaha you crack me up girl!! And I’ve been looking for an awesome Molasses Cookie Recipe!! Can’t wait to whip these up!
I would pay $5 per bag of sugar to make these. I love them. Loved your NYC pics!
In the ingredients, it calls for one egg, but the directions say mix in one egg at a time. How many eggs are needed?
Oops! My mistake, just one egg is needed. I just updated it, and now it says to mix the one egg in. 😉
I love NYC! What a fun trip 🙂
IVe never tried Molasses cookies, but these sound awesome!
As a native NYC-er, I have to say, you DO get used to it. Although it’s always a little weird telling people that Whole Foods is actually the cheapest grocery store in town… 😛
I so want to go to NYC, but hubby isn’t really on bored yet.
So sad that the cookies didn’t live up to the hype for you, it is on my list for when I do make it there 🙂
your cookies look fantastic though!
Molasses is now a permanent part of my pantry. It’s an excellent addition to cookies AND I will never buy store-made brown sugar again! I had no idea it was so easy to make 🙂 But I am sure I could spare some molasses to make these cookies, yum!
First of all — so jealous of your NYC trip! Second, I need to bake those cookies!
Love how perfectly uniform these cookies turned out. They look like they have the absolute perfect combination of crisp and chewy at the same time.
I 100% agree with you on the NYC thing! And these cookies are gorg!
ginger cookies are one of our favorites! you described NYC perfectly (and i loved your instagram photos!) 🙂
I made these last night!! They were absolutely delicious. So, I sent my husband to the store for molasses. He asked a worker where it was because he couldn’t find it. The worker pointed him to it and the said, “The 1950’s called, they want their baking supply back.” Hahaha!!
Mmmm… I love molasses! These sound great, and will be added to my HUGE list of things I want to bake!
I have tried 3 different batches of gingerbread this holiday season and have not had any luck getting the chewy sugary taste I want. Is there a difference between gingerbread and molasses cookies? Maybe it’s molasses cookies I’m looking for…also do you think these could be rolled out with some flour and cut in the shape of gingerbread boys or would they spread too much?
These cookies are very different from the traditional gingerbread cookies that you cut into gingerbread girls and boys. They are flat and chewy.
And sadly no, they spread WAY too much to even begin to try cutting them into shapes.
Hope you give them a try!
It’s true, you must wear black. Or grey. This was a banner year, because now some things can be brown. The strange thing is, you just wake up one day and realize you haven’t bought anything except a scarf in color for years.
Most neighborhoods have a grocery store like Fairway or Food Emporium – everything is just like a suburban grocery store except: less, closer together, higher up, and stocked according to bizarro-logic. I go to places like Stop-and-Shop now, in the suburbs, and panic because there’s just so MUCH of everything and it goes on forever.
Haven’t had time to cook a thing this december, but I’ll look forward to these cookies!
Ok I made these today and I can’t stop eating them! These are exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much for this recipe!!
Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe. I made these for Christmas and they were an instant hit. My husband barely let me get any out of the house to share. Will be a staple for years to come. Happy New Year!
I love cookies and make different kinds but I must say these are the best cookies ever. I made them along with other cookies over the holidays and I could not stop eating them. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Awesome! I had someone email me that they were a flop for them. So I am glad to hear that it was a fluke and the recipe is a winner! 🙂
Hi, Jessica! I live in Belarus (Minsk). I’m glad I found your site. I love everything what you do. I want to make these cookies, but I have a question. Stick – how much is it?
1 Stick of Butter = 8 Tablespoons or 1/2 cup! 🙂
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I’ve made these twice in one week. They are the best cookies I’ve EVER eaten!!! I’m looking for a chocolate chip cookie that is just as thin and chewy. Any idea how to do that?
Question, I was about to make these but I noticed there’s a discrepancy in the recipe. Ingredients say 1 egg, but directions say add eggs. Can you clarify the proper quantity? Thanks!
Hi Lex! Yes, sorry and thank you for catching my error! It is just the one egg! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed them!!
Made with one egg. Delicious flavor, I will make these again. 🙂
Hi there Jessica,
I love this recipe….have been making them since 2013. I’m using a #60 scoop (a level tablespoon) and get 42 cookies consistently…..about 3 1/2″ across when done. How BIG are your cookies? …..the dough spreads out and I may have a “dinner plate” size cookie!! My daughter has requested I make these for “Cookies for a Cop”….a program to thank our local law enforcement for all they do and let them know we appreciate them. (of course I said I’d be glad to make 8 dozen??!!!)
Anyway, just wondering about size of your batches…thanks 🙂
I love that you are baking for such a great cause!
To be honest, it has been many years since I have made these cookies. I said I got 28 cookies, mine seem to have been larger than yours. But as long as you are happy with the size and they are consistent, I think they are perfect just like that! 🙂 I hope all the officers enjoy your cookies!!
Hi Jessica…I was looking for a cookie like this! They served them in my high school cafeteria at East High School in Rochester New York back in the 1970’s with a thin confection glaze. I did add 2 pinches of ground cayenne pepper for that faint tingle that lingers on the palate. I also substituted the ground ginger for 1 TABLESPOON of FRESH minced ginger instead, which I whipped in with the butter and sugar mixture. These cookies make an amateur baker look like a professional. Yummy…pure perfection…kudos to you Jessica!
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Make these every year for my family. My Grandmother used to make them but I never had the recipe so was so excited to see it when you first posted it!!!!! Full disclosure I’m a terrible baker. Today accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda. They are really good but definitely different. Puffy and soft, still a big hit!!!