If you could only bake one cookie this holiday season, this should be it. Seriously. Forget the fussy, decorated sugar cookies and the crumbly shortbread for a moment. These Soft & Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies are a stand-alone star, boasting a deeply comforting flavor profile of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and rich molasses. More importantly, this has the potential of being the most adaptable recipe in your cookie arsenal. Think of it as the little black dress of your recipe box. Perfect on its own, but ready to be accessorized with anything from white chocolate, dried fruit, or candied ginger to festive holiday-colored chocolate candies or a sweet powdered sugar icing drizzle. This perfect molasses spice cookie recipe is the ultimate blank canvas, ready to be transformed into whatever your lil’ holiday heart desires.
I’ve basically been counting down to Christmas Cookies Week 2025 since, oh, about December 31st of 2024. After baking five separate batches of cookies last year, using the same trusty Simple Brown Sugar Cookies (Soft & Chewy) cookie dough, I knew that I wanted to do the exact same thing this year as well. Having a tried and true cookie dough recipe to rely on at the snap of a finger during the holidays always makes life much easier. You can switch up the cookie add-ins and add-ons to create so many different kinds of cookies, or even split the dough and make two or three different kinds in one go. So, I took a little stroll down memory lane and looked back at all of the cookie recipes we’ve shared over the years, searching for that one magical dough that’s not only delicious on its own, but also ready to be dressed up in a million different ways. After much deliberation and quite a few back-and-forth conversations with myself, I landed on the dough from our Reindeer Molasses Spice Cookies. Decorating those adorable lil’ reindeer was a real pain in the tuckus, but the cookies themselves? They were soft, chewy, and full of flavor. Basically, everything you could ever want in a holiday cookie. And because I started tinkering with new Molasses Spice Cookie recipes way back in June, y’all are not just getting five new cookies this week. Nope, y’all are getting seven, plus a few bonus recipes from earlier in the year, and a recipe round-up of The Best Molasses Spice Cookie Recipes. Consider it my early Christmas present to you. Each one is a little different. Some have just one new ingredient, some have a few sneaky tweaks, and yes, there’s even the appearance of yet another reindeer cookie recipe. Spoiler alert. Decorating it was just as much of a pain in the ass as the original.
Ingredients:
Cookie Dough:
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
- 3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/4 Cup Molasses
- 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
- 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- Pinch of Ground Cloves
- Pinch of Freshly Grated Nutmeg
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and molasses; mix for 1 minute on medium speed.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated. Repeat until all of the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the dough. Do not overmix.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough out onto a Silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to rest for 5 minutes before removing them to a baking rack to finish cooling completely.
Suggestions:
- When mixing the cookie dough, make sure to scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure that all of the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
- After you remove the cookies from the oven, gently use your fingers to press little indentations down into the top of each cookie. Gently pressing indentations into the tops of the cookies after you remove them from the oven helps to give them a bumpy and more desirable appearance.
- This recipe will yield approximately 2 to 2 1/2 dozen cookies, depending on how large you scoop the cookie dough out.
- Store the baked cookies in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.
Improvements:
- If you aren’t a fan of ground cloves or nutmeg, feel free to make these a ground ginger and/or a ground cinnamon cookie only. Simply omit the ground cloves and freshly grated nutmeg.
- Drizzle a little bit of simple powdered sugar icing over these cookies. Infuse the icing with vanilla, freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice, or the grated zest of an orange or lemon.
- Fold your favorite cookie add-ins into this cookie dough. Try using M&M’s, chocolate chips, dried fruit, chopped nuts, coconut, or crystallized ginger.
- CLICK HERE to check out all of our past cookie recipes. Don’t forget to check out our Christmas cookies section.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
- 3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/4 Cup Molasses
- 2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
- 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- Pinch of Ground Cloves
- Pinch of Freshly Grated Nutmeg
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and molasses; mix for 1 minute on medium speed.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated. Repeat until all of the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the dough. Do not overmix.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough out onto a Silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to rest for 5 minutes before removing them to a baking rack to finish cooling completely.
PIN THIS RECIPE
Don’t let this recipe slip away. How often do you find a recipe intriguing, yet forget where to find it when you finally get the hankering to make it? Instead of digging through old posts or wandering aimlessly around on the internet, why not Pin this recipe to Pinterest where you can find it when you eventually need it? Simply Pin the image above and you’ll have it when that time comes. You can follow us HERE on Pinterest or simply click HERE to find all of our pin-worthy recipes.
Lemon Iced Gingerbread Cookies
Cinnamon Chip Holiday Spice Cake Mix Cookies
Iced Eggnog Chewy Spice Cookies
Try our original Soft & Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies recipe. If you could only bake one cookie this holiday season, this should be it. Seriously. Forget the fussy, decorated sugar cookies and the crumbly shortbread for a moment. These Soft & Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies are a stand-alone star, boasting a deeply comforting flavor profile of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and rich molasses. More importantly, this has the potential of being the most adaptable recipe in your cookie arsenal. Think of it as the little black dress of your recipe box. Perfect on its own, but ready to be accessorized with anything from white chocolate, dried fruit, or candied ginger to festive holiday-colored chocolate candies or a sweet powdered sugar icing drizzle. This perfect molasses spice cookie recipe is the ultimate blank canvas, ready to be transformed into whatever your lil’ holiday heart desires. CLICK HERE for the recipe.
Molasses Spice Cookies are undeniably soft, delightfully chewy, and absolutely bursting with rich, comforting flavor. They’re practically bursting at the seams with the cozy, comforting flavors of ground ginger and cinnamon, with just a hint of freshly grated nutmeg, and the tiniest pinch of ground cloves, all wrapped up in a big molasses hug. They’re the kind of treat that makes you want to sneak back into the kitchen for just one more. And then maybe another after that. Whether you’re in the mood for a cookie loaded with chocolate chips, crammed with crushed sandwich cookies, or slathered with chocolate icing and a sprinkle of salty pretzels, we’ve got you covered. Your new favorite cookie recipe is about to make itself right at home. CLICK HERE for the recipes.
Christmas is a time for family, friends, and delicious holiday cookies. From classic butter cookies to iced gingerbread cookies, this list of ultimate Christmas cookie recipes has something for everyone. Whether you’re looking for festive colors, unique seasonal ingredients, or just a cookie that’s super easy to make, these Christmas cookie recipes will help you find the perfect cookie for the season. CLICK HERE for the recipes.
This will be the 9th year Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck has participated in this particular Christmas Cookies Week event. Below you can find links to all of the recipes we have contributed throughout the years; however, you can also CLICK HERE to find an entire list of our past cookie recipes. Don’t be afraid to let a non-traditional cookie recipe play a role in your holiday baking this year because when it comes to Christmas cookies, variety is always a good thing. Happy baking, y’all.
2025
Soft & Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
Chocolate Chip Molasses Spice Cookies
Buttery Oatmeal Raisin Molasses Spice Cookies
OREO Cookies & Cream Molasses Spice Cookies
Reindeer Cocoa Iced Molasses Spice Cookies
2024
Red & White Sparkling Brown Sugar Cookies
Honey Roasted Peanut Chocolate Kiss Cookies
Coconut & Dried Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Frosted Jammy Bits Cookies
Cornmeal Dried Cranberry Brown Sugar Cookies
2023
Ginger’s Cherry Chocolate Chip Sprinkle Cookies
Sparkling Sugar Irish Butter Slice & Bake Cookies
White Chocolate Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies
Orange Mixed Berry Glazed Thumbprint Cookies
Cinnamon Powdered Sugar Panko Cookies
2022
Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Toffee Cookies
Chocolate Fudge Brownie Oatmeal M&M Cookies
Lemon Iced Gingerbread Cookies
2021
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Grape Nuts
Cappuccino Swirl Butter Cookies
Dark Rum Cherry Almond Thumbprint Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cocoa Powder Cookies
Old-Fashioned Jubilee Jumbles Cookies
2020
Cinnamon Chip Holiday Spice Cake Mix Cookies
Peppermint Cream Cheese Crushed Oreo Cookies
Cran-Raisin Oatmeal Cookies with Grape Nuts
Sadie’s Double Pecan Butter Cookies
2019
Cream Cheese Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies
Chocolate Hazelnut Winter Wonderland Cookies
Coconut Grinchy Christmas Breakfast Cookies
Soft Cinnamon Apple Pecan Cookies
Chocolate-Dipped Christmas Butter Cookies
2018
Chocolate Espresso Brown Sugar Cookies
White Christmas Peppermint Holiday Cookies
Chocolate Chip Vanilla Cookies
No-Bake Peanut Butter Cup Cereal Cookies
Whoville Christmas Wreath Sugar Cookies
2017
Crystallized Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mexican Chocolate Chip Crinkle Cookies
Make sure to check out all of the other great Christmas Cookies Week 2025 recipes below. A huge thanks to Jolene’s Recipe Journal for hosting this event.
- Soft & Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
- Nut Brittle Cookies by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Gingerbread Biscotti by Jolene’s Recipe Journal
- Cappuccino Swirl Cookies by Hezzi-D’s Recipe Box
- Nutter Butter Snowman Cookies by Blogghetti
- Pumpkin Pie Thumbprint Cookies by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- White Mocha Cookies by Magical Ingredients
- Peppermint Shortbread by Art of Natural Living
- White Chocolate Dipped Gingersnaps by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Tahini Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies by The Spiffy Cookie
