It’s this time of year, when the weather grows cold and the days grow dark early, that I spend more time in the kitchen. My son and I work hand-in-hand baking breads and cookies. The oven’s heat keeps are old 1890s miner’s home warm on even the coldest of days, while the aroma of sweet things perfumes the air and speaks of the holidays to come.
Recently, we made a batch of Chewy Molasses Cookies from Nourishing Cookies, – sweetened with honey and molasses, spiced with cinnamon, ginger and cloves. They sparkle in the light, and their softness makes them almost cake-like in texture. I warm milk on the stove, sprinkle it with freshly grated nutmeg and we sit down with the cookies for an afternoon treat.
Making Holiday Treats a Bit Better
Like most of you, I try my best to make our holiday treats and sweets a little bit better, a little bit more wholesome. We make sprouted spelt sugar cookies, sugar plums, turron de navidad and my favorite buche de noel. They’re still treats, and still special, just a touch healthier and a touch more nourishing. We focus on good quality, natural ingredients: grass-fed butter, pasture-raised eggs, organic flours and whole, unrefined sweeteners like molasses, maple syrup, and honey. Their sweetness is balanced with nourishment not found in refined white sugars: primarily minerals and B vitamins.
Nourishing Cookies
This recipe comes from Nourishing Cookies, a delightful ebook, with recipes for simple, wholesome, natural cookies and treats for wintertime holidays. It’s a charming little guide, available for $4.99, and contains traditional holiday cookies and treats like No-Bake Chocolate Coconut Snowballs, Soft “Sugar” Cookies with Honey Buttercream Frosting, Mexican Orange Cookies and several others that my family already loves. You can check it out here.
Chewy Spiced Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon available here
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves available here
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger available here
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup organic blackstrap molasses I buy this variety
- 2 eggs beaten
- turbinado sugar for dusting the cookie
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together at medium speed the butter, honey, and molasses until light and fluffy; about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds each.
- Lower the stand mixer speed to slow and incorporate the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until just combined. Do not overbeat.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the turbinado sugar into a bowl. Roll the cookie dough between your hands into 1” balls.
- Roll the balls into the turbinado sugar and place on top of the parchment lined cookie sheet, 12 cookies at a time. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
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hi there
I lost you at the butter section…
1 stick goes into the batter, right… but where is 1 tablespoon unsalted butter softened -goes…?
Sorry about the repeat comment. Didn’t see the same question posted. Feel free to not post!
Hi there. Could you sub maple syrup and achieve a similar result?
Are there any gluten free flours we can use for this recipe?
You could try and let us know how it goes.
Would maple syrup work in place of the honey?
You could try and let us know how it goes.
The recipe worked well for me. I measured two cups of the whole wheat flour unsifted. I put the flour in my sifter (a metal mesh strainer) with the spices and shifted them twice before adding it in the 1/2 c additions. I flattened the 1/3 teaspoon balls of dough a little before baking. I am sure they are great rolled in sugar, but I loved them just fine without it. I only baked 7 cookies and will wrap the rest of the dough up after forming it into a log. Then I will freeze it and cut off slices as I want them.
I followed the directions and cooked one sample cookie. It turned out perfect, puffy, fluffy, light, and delicious! This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
Ooops, I meant to list 1 T of honey to the yogurt topping on my last comment. Sorry!
I tasted a little bit of the dough, amazing! I can hardly wait for them to chill. I am not going to dust them in turbinado sugar, rather I am going to dip the baked cookies in the following yogurt mixture:
1 c plain yogurt
The juice of one orange
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
I use this mixture as icing on things like pumpkin or blueberry muffins. I sometimes also add uncooked oatmeal to it and then 1/2 hour later or the next day enjoy it as breakfast.
my cookies also spread. Make sure to give them plenty extra space on your cookie sheet. The batter is extremely sticky and I had to use olive oil on my hand to roll them. Next time I will add a quarter cup more flour and a quarter cup less honey. Hopefully that will balance them out.
The flavor is great though!
If you’ve already chilled the dough and are just reading these reviews about the dough spreading….roll the balls and pop them in the freezer before baking. I think that may help.
These cookies are divine! Molasses spice cookies are one of my favorites and I was so happy to find a perfect recipe without the refined sugar and flour! Yay! Thank you!
Using parchment paper didn’t keep my cookies from spreading. Maybe they didn’t chill long enough? I’ll try again in the morning.
Definitely had to add more flour- almost a cup! And the worked out 🙂 smelling yummy
Made these with your recipe exact the first time and then sub’d buckwheat the second time. Both were delicious. I cannot tell the difference in the two.
I just made these and the SAME thing happened to me. Very flat cookies that melted into each other, bubbly and spongy looking, more cake/bread like texture. At least they taste divine! Has anyone figured out how to remedy this, yet? What are we doing wrong?
You gals need to use the parchment paper. It stops the cookies from melting into each other!
I accidentally made a batch of these with no eggs, and they were actually amazing! If you would like a chewier, firmer cookie, try it without the eggs. I found that the spices were more intense as well, which I also really liked. I’m glad I made this “mistake.”
My son has a severe egg allergy so I am DELIGHTED to hear this! The rest of the recipe sounded amazing, but I hesitated to make it without eggs given the other comments about the dough being too thin.
I will be trying them without eggs today!
I have been making these from my aunt’s recipe, which is close to the same. When I made a batch a few days ago, I tried subbing buckwheat flour for the flour, and the results are awesomely gluten free.
Chopped bits of candied ginger are a nice add-in.
I have made this recipe two times with spelt flour. Once, I used butter. The cookies were soft. Once, I used half butter and half palm shortening. They were more snappy. Both times were delicious and my 5 year old loves them, which is why I have made them twice.
I also weighed the honey (252 g) and the molasses ( 88 g) into the bowl to make it easier and less messy.
Thanks for the yummy recipe.
I tried these today, and I have no idea what went wrong, but they totally flopped.
The flavor is great… not too sweet, and perfectly spicy, but when I mixed up the ingredients (following the directions exactly) I noticed that it seemed more like a batter than a dough. I chilled the mixture hoping that it would harden up some, and it did a bit… enough for me to roll some rather sticky balls and put them on the baking sheet.
However, within a couple minutes of going into the oven, the balls had ‘melted’ and spread into each other resulting in a thin, spread out mess. The texture after baking was also more like a very soft bread/cake than a cookie.
I’m disappointed, because I can tell that they would taste SOOO yummy… mine just didn’t turn to dough and cookies as it should have :/
The same thing happened when I made them. I chilled them overnight and still they were extremely sticky. Am wondering if I should’ve added more flour (Einkorn) because of the altitude?
The exact same thing happened to me. I have two pans of giant flat cookies. Mine are covered in small holes and look like sponges. I am not at much of an altitude in central Virginia. I may be able to eat these at home, but I won’t be able to take them to a party like I was planning. I wonder what the difference was.
This this is what happened with mine as well. The dough looked very whipped and light when I scooped it out so I’m thinking maybe I overbeat it? But when I tried rolling it into balls it was so sticky. The taste is very good but the texture is very airy and is like a bread. Since I still have a good deal of batter left I think I may try making a little loaf of bread and see how that goes!
Elevation issue?
I made these today after chilling the dough overnight, and the same thing happened to me. I did everything exactly by the recipe, but my dough was whipped like a batter and they turned out flat & sponge-like. I am at sea level in Florida. Has anyone figured out how to fix this? I like the flavor!
How would you go about converting this to a gluten free cookie?
Could I substitute einkorn flour for whole wheat pastry flour ?
I love you and this recipe… and I don’t see how you deal with all these substitution questions. 🙂
Do you think you can substitute maple syrup for the molasses ? 1:1?
I LOVE this recipe! I am wondering how you think the flour would stand up to soaking? Would this compromise the baking at all?
Hey, we’re on a lower-gluten diet and don’t use wheat, could you substitute spelt or einkorn? At what ratio would you recommend?
Buckwheat! The cookies come out delicious.
Hi Julie! I’ve stored these in a resealable plastic bag for the last 5 days, and they show no signs of hardening. HTH.
How many grams in a stick off butter?
I want to know that too
1 stick = 1/4# of butter or 113.5 g.
Jenny, how long will the cookies stay soft?
multiply the eight tablespoons in a stick of butter times the 14 grams of butter in one tablespoon, which will give you your answer.
I am interested in your cookies cookbook, but my daughter has a nut allergy. how many of the 10 recipes include nuts?
thanks!