These molasses cookies are what I make the moment I think that Fall is in the air. The scent of those traditional, warm spices reminds me of holiday baking and that makes me happy. This is a moist, chewy cookie, not hard like a ginger snap.
These cookies always have a home on my Thanksgiving and Christmas cookie trays. In recent years, I’ve used them as the base for my Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Spicy Crumble Topping (click here for the recipe), so I always make sure to set aside a dozen of these cookie dough balls just for that purpose.
Use whatever sugar you like to roll them in. I roll these in demerara sugar for the color and sparkle but they are also great just rolled in granulated sugar; rolling them in superfine (castor) sugar makes them melt in your mouth even more.
Ginger Chew Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (23 oz. as weighed)
- 1 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (Vietnamese is my favorite)
- 4 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups salted butter (softened)
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup dark molasses (I use Brer Rabbit brand)
- 3/4 cup demerara sugar (or other sugar, for rolling them in)
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, weigh out the flour and add the dry seasonings to it, up through the salt. Blend them into the flour to make sure you have no lumps, especially with the baking soda.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. With this ratio of butter to sugar, don’t expect it to get too fluffy, even if the butter is soft. Sometimes I stop the beaters halfway through and kind of knead the butter mixture by hand a bit to blend the butter in more. Add in eggs and molasses and beat another minute, until blended and fluffy; gradually add the flour mixture to creamed mixture and mix well.
- Use a #40 cookie scoop to make cookie balls, placing them onto a wax-lined sheet pan. You should yield about 48 cookies. Lightly roll each cookie in your gloved hands to smooth the outsides before rolling them in the sugar. Place them back onto the pan. If you plan on making the Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with some of this dough, set aside 12 cookie dough balls that haven't been rolled in sugar.
- Freeze the dough for an hour, then bake as many as you like, storing the rest in the freezer. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased, foil-lined baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes at 350F, rotating halfway through, until tops are just cracked. Let them cool on the pans for 10 minutes, then move them to wire racks to cool.
