These vegan molasses cookies are the perfect one bowl holiday cookie! They’re ready in just 20 minutes, spiced with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg and will have your whole house smelling like a bakery.
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These vegan molasses cookies are my faaaaavorite holiday cookie. I love my peppermint cookies and all, but these are SO easy to make, perfectly chewy, sweet, spiced and more.
They have a slight crisp to the edge when you first bite in, but still have a super soft center. Don’t worry, no crispy cookies will be found around here!!
This recipe is naturally vegan, gluten free and can easily be made refined sugar free by subbing the white sugar for coconut or maple sugar. Perfect with a glass of my fall spiced sangria while you bake!
How to make this recipe
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the room temperature butter and sugar until well combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the remaining wet ingredients.
Add in the dry ingredients, making sure to spoon and level the flours, don’t pack them in! Mix together with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough into balls and roll in the sugar.
Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the cookies have crackly tops and have mostly flattened. They’ll firm up as they cool, so take them out early for chewy cookies.
When you remove the tray, slam it down onto your counter or stove or other hard surface to encourage the cookies to spread and the tops crackly more.
Let cool completely, then drizzle with the optional maple icing and enjoy!
How to get perfectly round cookies
Most of the time, my cookies come out of the oven looking less than perfect. They don’t always spread properly, the chocolate (if there) melts into the cookie strangely etc.
As soon as a batch of cookies come out of the oven, there’s a few things I do to make them perfect. One, if I want them to be crackly like these vegan molasses cookies, I’ll slam the tray down on the counter or stove to encourage that last bit of spreading. If chocolate is involved, I sprinkle on a few extra chips so they melt juuuust right into the top of the cookie.
To correct the shape, I use a round cookie cutter to spin around the cookie and get a perfectly round shape. You’re not cutting the cookies, so use one that is slightly larger than the cookie itself and spin it around the cookie to get it perfectly round. These tricks yield perfect photo worthy cookies every time!
How long do they keep?
These vegan molasses cookies will keep at room temperature for about 3-5 days. Store them in an air tight container and pop in the microwave for 5-10 seconds before eating! They’ll be good as new.
The best molasses
Molasses is derived from the process of refining sugar and is naturally vegan and gluten free. My favorite brand is Grandma’s molasses. I do not recommend blackstrap molasses since it is triple boiled (as opposed to double boiled like regular molasses) so it is far less sweet and even has a bitter taste. You want to use dark, unsulfured molasses for the best flavor possible.
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Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
Wet
- ¼ cup butter or refined coconut oil (I recommend butter/vegan butter for best flavor)
- ⅔ cup granulated cane sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 tbsp non dairy milk (I used almond)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry
- 1 ½ cups fine blanched almond flour
- 1 ¼ cups oat flour (certified GF as needed)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
For Rolling
- 4 tbsp granulated cane sugar
Optional Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the room temperature butter and sugar until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Beat in the remaining wet ingredients.
- Add in the dry ingredients, making sure to spoon and level the flours, don't pack them in! Mix together with a wooden spoon until well combined.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough into balls and roll in the sugar.
- Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the cookies have crackly tops and have mostly flattened. They'll firm up as they cool, so take them out early for chewy cookies.
- When you remove the tray, slam it down onto your counter or stove or other hard surface to encourage the cookies to spread and the tops crackly more. I then like to use a round cookie cutter to spin around the cookie and get a perfectly round shape. You're not cutting the cookies, so use one that is slightly larger than the cookie itself and spin it around to get it perfectly round.
- let cool completely, then drizzle with the optional maple icing and enjoy!
brooke
These cookies were absolutely amazing! We made them for Christmas and everyone really enjoyed them. They were so easy to make with simple and clean ingredients – making for a perfect recipe!
Claire Cary
Thanks Brooke! These are such a favorite of mine, so glad you all enjoyed!
Elizabeth
I made These today with coconut sugar and blackstrap molasses and they still came out amazing! Question: better stored in fridge or counter? Giving them away tomorrow and want them to still be crisp outside and chewy inside. Thank you!
Claire Cary
yay! So glad that worked out. I’d recommend room temperature in a container to keep them fresh!
Elizabeth
Worked great – thank you!
Melissa
Made these yesterday. They taste even better than traditional gingerbread cookies. I made my own glaze with condensed coconut milk, maple syrup and peanut butter. Instead of rolling in sugar I rolled them out and cut them with a cookie cutter. The cookies kept their shape perfectly in my (toaster) oven. I forgot to add in the ginger but they were still delicious. Will definitely make again this week
Claire Cary
omg so glad they turned out well even without the ginger!! Also good to know they worked out as cutout cookies!