These molasses crackle cookies are chewy, crisp, and packed with wholesome winter spices. The sugar coated exterior makes these cookies seriously addicting. They’re a holiday season favorite that you’ll want to share with all your friends and fam!

Molasses cookies are a holiday classic. What other time of year do you have a molasses cookie? Now is the perfect time to indulge in these bold-flavored cookies, packed with ginger, molasses, and cinnamon in every bite. They’re the perfect combination of soft and chewy and that cute little crackle is the perfect vessel to store the sugar coating. 

These molasses crackle cookies pair well with a hot cup of cocoa and a crackling fire. See what I did there? What sounds better than that? Crisp, chewy, but yet also gooey, these cookies are the BEST.

Fun Fact About Molasses: Do you guys remember learning about the Great Molasses Flood in history class? For some reason, whenever I make these cookies my brain floats back to that time in social studies when we learned that a molasses tank burst open in 1919 spilling TWO MILLION gallons of molasses into Boston’s North End neighborhood. Have you ever been to the North End? It’s a really teeny neighborhood in Boston, I can’t even begin to imagine how much molasses that could've been. Anyway, I couldn’t resist sharing this little fact as I am a Bostonian myself.

Are you ready to make these amazingly chewy, soft, and delicious molasses crackle cookies? I can’t wait for you to try them!

Ingredients in these Molasses Crackle Cookies

Molasses: Dark unsulphured molasses I recommend Grandma’s molasses, found at most grocery stores or Wholesome brand that you can get on Amazon or Thrive Market.

Spices: A combination of ground cloves, ginger, and cinnamon are what really gives these cookies their powerful flavor.

Dry Ingredients: Regular all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.

Wet Ingredients: Unsalted butter, coconut sugar, molasses, egg, vanilla extract, granulated sugar.

Kitchen Tools Needed for this Recipe

• Mixing bowls, whisk, spatula
• Stand or hand mixer
• Measuring cups/spoons
• Baking tray and parchment paper

How to Make these Molasses Crackle Cookies

Step One: In a medium bowl, add your dry ingredients: AP flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Step Two: In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until combined and really creamy, approximately 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses until combined. On low speed, beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.

Step Three: Slowly add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Do this in small portions, adding a section of the dry to the wet, let combine, add another portion of the dry, repeat until the dough is combined.

Step Four: Cover dough in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for a minimum ~2 hours or maximum overnight. If chilling overnight, remove the dough from the fridge and let it rest for 30 minutes before continuing onto the next steps.

Step Five: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball using your hands. Roll the balls into a bowl of granulated sugar. Place the balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet 2” apart.

Step Six: Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes until edges have set, cookies will appear a bit fluffy at first but will flatten as they begin to cool down. Let cookies rest on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.