Chewy Molasses Cookies

Don’t you just love biting into a chewy molasses cookie with cracks all over the top? After lots of trial and error, I finally created a recipe that achieves this, and you can easily make this gluten free and get the same results! I’ve included an explanation of how to troubleshoot some common problems when making molasses cookies.

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Chewy Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

1 egg, large
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar (for rolling)

Preheat oven to 375˚.

Beat egg in a large bowl and then add the oil, sugar, and molasses.

Add the spices, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and flour. The dough should be relatively stiff.

Put the 1/3 cup of sugar into a shallow bowl or plate.

To make large cookies, roll about 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball and coat with the sugar. Feel free to adjust the size. Place on a lined cookie sheet, about 4 inches away from each other. More space between cookies is always better.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown and cracked on top.

Let cool and enjoy!

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Variations:

Replace the flour in a 1:1 ratio with my Gluten Free Flour Blend to make this recipe gluten free! The cookies in the photographs are gluten free and nobody could tell the difference!

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Some help with troubleshooting:

I had problem problems in the past with creating the classic cracks on top, so I did some research. The cracks form when the outer layer of the cookie forms a crust before the rising agent has had time to work, so when the rising agent works, it pushes through the crust and cracks it. I’ve had the most success with adding both baking soda and baking powder. The key to creating these cracks is to get the cookies into the oven as soon as possible to make sure the rising agents work as well as they can, so don’t rest them! Always check to make sure the oven has completely preheated before baking the cookies so the outer layer of the cookies can cook quickly. Large cookies also help with the cracks on top because there is a larger volume to surface area ratio, so there is more rising agent to push through the outer crust.