Soft and perfectly spiced, these cookies will soon become one of your favorite! These cookies are soft and chewy, with that classic dark molasses flavor!
My Thanksgiving recipe extravaganza got me in the baking mood, so I scoured my cupboards to see what I had to work with… and alas… no vanilla extract. Ugh!!! Then I remembered my great grandmother’s recipe for Spiced Soft Molasses Cookies… uses no vanilla extract 😀
Off to my recipe binder I went, and I got right to it 🙂
For me, I find it easier to buy the shortening in rectangular packages instead of the tubs. The rectangular packages are marked for easy measuring and you don’t need to deal with a measuring cup.
I also spray the inside of my measuring cup with cooking spray before measuring the molasses. It makes it a lot easier to get the molasses out of the cup.
I used my stand mixer because, well I had it, so why not… but you could easily use a hand mixer or even stir by hand 🙂 Once you cream together your shortening, brown sugar, egg and molasses, when adding your dry ingredients, add them a little at a time. They blend in a lot easier that way.
Now comes the fun part… rolling the dough into balls and tossing them in sugar. If you have kids, this is a great part that they can help you with. It’s like playing with play-doh, that you bake, then get to eat 🙂
Look at all the deliciousness!!
These cookies make your house smell fantastic! So make some, curl up on the couch with your favorite Netflix show, a glass of milk and a couple of cookies… and enjoy!! 🙂
These molasses cookies are one of my kids’ favorites 🙂
Yay cookies!!
The little lady likes them too 🙂
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Spiced Soft Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
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In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, shortening, molasses, and egg until combined. Stir in remaining ingredients.
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Shape dough into rounded balls, about 1” in diameter. Place some granulated sugar in a small bowl and roll balls in the sugar.
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Place the cookie balls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, about 2” apart.
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Bake for 13-16 minutes until just set and cookies appear dry and cracked.
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Remove from baking sheet to cooling rack
These look SO delicious!
Thank you!!! They definitely hit the spot 🙂
Your little boy is cheering for your cookies! I would too. I love making molasses cookies, but only do it for Christmas. These look delicious and so moist!
He gets really excited about food lol
My mom used to make lumberjack cookies… I’d forgotten about them until now. Thanks for stirring up good memories. And sure looks like the kiddies love them!
They’re one of those classic cookies that lots of people had, but tend to get overlooked. I’m glad it brought up good memories 🙂 They definitely loved snacking on them!
By the looks of those happy faces your cookies MUST be delicious. 🙂 I remember my grandma making a similar cookie…but I had no recipe until now…thanks for sharing yours!
Thank you!!! And you’re welcome, I hope they taste similar to your grandma’s 🙂
I am going to have to buy some Molasses. I see all these wonderful recipes calling for Molasses and I never have it. Your cookies look and sound wonderful! 🙂
Until last year, I’d never used it before 🙂 Thank you!!
Wow, these look and sound AMAZING!
Thank you!! They’re a different type of cookie, but definitely delicious 😀
Haven’t tried spiced cookies, but they always look good to me. And these cookies definitely sound awesome. 🙂
Thank you very much! They’re yummy 🙂
These look fabulous! My daughter and I will be making them for Thanksgiving this year. FYI, my browser (Chrome and Edge, both) wouldn’t show the fractions. The only way I could get the full ingredients list was to print the recipe. This is what I see, “tsp / ground cloves” I’m not sure what the problem is, but my computer nerd husband said to let you know. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Hi Christina 🙂 I hope you LOVE the cookies as much as we do! Oh thank you for letting me know! Looks like there was a recipe card coding issue, but I’ve fixed it now 🙂
As expected, these cookies are to absolutely wonderful. Thanks again for the recipe!
Can I use butter instead of shortening?
Hi Shannon 🙂 I’ve always followed my great Grandmother’s recipe, but I think using butter instead would work just fine 🙂