Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my molasses cookies hard? ›

Bake soft molasses cookies on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. It's very important to not over bake the cookies or they will be hard and dry instead of soft and chewy. To check for doneness, open oven and gently push the side of a cookie with your finger or utensil.

Blackstrap Molasses

“Please avoid this dark and bitter molasses for your baking recipes,” she said. “It will make your cookies dry and quite frankly inedible.

To successfully replace shortening in a cookie recipe, you can swap in 100% butter, but you might want to accordingly lower the liquid in another part of the recipe (due to the butter's water content). You could also do a mix of butter and coconut oil.

Why don't my molasses cookies crack? Molasses cookie dough won't have those signature cracks on top if the dough is too wet. The cracks happen when the surface of the dough dries up. Rolling in sugar really helps this because the sugar binds the moisture and dries out the dough.

Baking powder

Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate and acidic salts. The reaction of these two ingredients results in a cookie that is soft and thick, but slightly harder.

Use fresh baking soda.

The baking soda causes the cookies to rise in the oven, then deflate slightly as they cool. This is what causes the cracks to form. If the baking soda is too old, it won't serve that purpose.

Unsulphured molasses can be light, dark or blackstrap, as long as it hasn't been treated with sulphur dioxide. Most commercially produced molasses is unsulphured.

Blackstrap molasses has a lead warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because the processing of molasses infrequently involves using a direct flame with coals that may contain a high amount of the caustic substance potash. The soil in which the sugar cane grows may also contain lead.

After the end of World War I, refined sugar prices dropped drastically resulting in the migration of consumers from molasses to white sugar crystals.

Doubling up on molasses softened the cookies significantly.

Molasses is also extremely dark in color, so this batch of cookies turned out to be a deep brown.

Can I skip molasses in cookies? ›

Both light and dark brown sugar can be used to replace molasses in baking. One cup of molasses can be substituted with 3/4 cup of brown sugar. If you are looking for the closest flavor match for your recipe, try brown sugar.

What Is the Best Type of Molasses for Cookies? There are three types of molasses, two of which are suitable for molasses cookies: light molasses and dark molasses. Choose dark molasses for a darker color and stronger molasses flavor, but if all you can find is light molasses, that will work, too.

Gingersnaps typically have a crisp, snappy texture and a spicier, more pronounced ginger flavor, while molasses cookies are soft with a deeper, rich molasses flavor.

The Problem: Your Oven Is Too Hot

If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot. Here's what's happening. The butter melts super quickly in a too-hot oven before the other ingredients have firmed up into a cookie structure.

Another way to soften cookies is by placing the cookies in an airtight container with a damp paper towel. The paper towel will release moisture and help to soften the cookies without making them too soft or mushy. Another way is to place the cookies in a plastic bag with a slice of apple or a damp tea towel.

The best way to soften up those hard cookies is something you probably already have in your kitchen… bread! That's right, a piece of fresh bread will make those tough treats soft and chewy.

Whatever moisture is left in the cookies is always in a state of evaporation. At the same time, the sugars and starches are solidifying. Ergo, hard cookies.

the more you mix cookie dough. the more the gluten develops and they become hard and dry and an unfavorable texture.