Old-Fashioned Molasses Cookies
24 cookies
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Ingredients
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- 1 ½ sticks (170 g) butter, softened
- 1 cup packed (200 g) soft dark brown sugar
- 85 g molasses
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 2 ⅓ cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda and ½ tsp fine salt
- 1½ tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, for rolling
Method
- Cream. Beat the butter and brown sugar 2–3 minutes until light and fluffy, then beat in the molasses and the egg until glossy.
- Mix. Whisk the flour, baking soda, spices and salt together, then fold in just until no dry streaks remain. The dough will be soft and sticky — that's right.
- Chill. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or overnight. Don't skip this — warm dough spreads flat.
- Roll. Oven to 350°F (180°C, fan 160°C); line two trays. Roll into 24 walnut-sized balls (about 30 g), coat each in granulated sugar and space 5 cm apart.
- Bake. 10–11 minutes, until the tops have puffed and cracked and the edges are set but the centers still look soft and underdone.
- Cool. Leave on the hot tray 5 minutes — they firm as they sit — then lift onto a rack. Keep waiting dough in the fridge between batches.
Granny's tip
Freeze half the dough balls, already rolled in sugar — they bake straight from frozen with an extra minute or two, so there's always a warm cookie for whoever wanders into the kitchen.