Soft, spiced, and sweet Molasses Cookies filled with Holiday spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and molasses are a fun addition to any Holiday cookie tray!
What’s your favorite cookie to make during Christmastime?
I don’t know that I have an absolute favorite. Any flavor works for me, as long as the cookies fit my Christmas cookie standards 😉
What are those standards, exactly?
They need to be sweet (but not overly sweet!), have some sort of fun twist (like spices or extracts), and be gluten-free without anyone ever knowing.
These Molasses Cookies are such a great example of that. Filled with tons of spices and a little molasses, these sweet and spicy cookies are just what you need this Holiday season.
My ultimate Christmas Cookie plate right now would have: Molasses Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, and Thumbprint Cookies. A little bit of everything!
Or, forget the cookie tray and you can fill a tin to the brim with these cookies for a great party host treat or homemade gift for friends and family! 🙂
For sweet and spicy success, check these tips out.
First, be sure your butter or coconut oil is softened. Too melted and your cookies will spread too far and thin. Too solid, and you won’t be able to mix it with your other ingredients! You want just barely soft.
Next, if you want to make these cookies a tad bit healthier you could substitute the brown sugar with coconut sugar. Other than that, I would not recommend trying to substitute the sugar with other sweeteners (like maple syrup or stevia).
Be sure to use a high quality gluten-free all purpose flour for your cookies too! For these cookies in particular I was given Josie’s Best Gluten-free all-purpose mix for a fun group post on Instagram. Their flour is great!
If you want to buy gluten-free all purpose flour in the store, I’d recommend Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1, Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, and King Arthur’s measure for measure flour. I’ve used and like all of them!
On the same note, please use high quality spices too! Your cookie flavors will fall flat if your spices are old or cheap. As much as I love saving money and buying knock-off brands, I would recommend getting some real deal spices if you can, for these cookies to really stand out.
And, kind of random but still important, be sure you’re using fresh baking soda for these cookies. You won’t get quite as many pretty cookie crinkles if your using the same baking soda you used last Christmas! 🙂
If you make one cookie this Holiday season to balance out all the chocolate peppermint cookies, thumbprint cookies, peanut butter blossoms, etc… make it these gluten-free, dairy-free Molasses Cookies!
Such a fun addition to any cookie tray or a great homemade, Holiday gift, these flavors are Christmas in a cookie, if I do say so myself. 😉
You might also want to take a look at my gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Gingerbread Breakfast Cookies!
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened (or butter)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 3 tbsp molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
- 2 tsp ginger
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg and cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar, for rolling the cookie dough in
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To begin, preheat your oven to 350 and line two pans with parchment paper.
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In a large mixing bowl, add your coconut oil, brown and white sugars and blend them together with a hand mixer for a couple minutes, or till they are well creamed. Add your molasses and blend together again till it is well incorporated.Then add your vanilla and egg and briefly blend till the egg is just incorporated.
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In another mixing bowl, add your gluten-free flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda and salt and stir them together till well combined.
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Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir/fold the ingredients together till a smooth, even cookie dough forms.
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Prepare a shallow bowl with the 1/4 cup of extra sugar for rolling the cookie dough balls in.
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Using a small cookie scoop, scoop a ball of cookie dough, release it into your hands and roll it into a ball. Roll the ball around in the small bowl of sugar till the entire ball is covered in sugar, then place it on your pan. Continue till all of your cookie dough balls have been scooped and rolled in sugar, and have been evenly placed apart on both of your pans.
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Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or till the edges of the cookies have set and the cookies have cracks throughout the tops.
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Let cool entirely, then devour!
These cookies taste best within the first 4-5 days. Store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Has anyone made these? Mine came out flat. I tried freezing the dough balls before putting them in the oven but they still came out flatter than pancakes and I couldn’t get them off the cookie sheet in one piece. They tasted yummy but I wouldn’t be able to serve these to guests.
I have neighbors that are gluten and dairy free and wanted to bake goodies for their kids for the holidays. Found this recipe and tried it out. My family and I loved them so much as well as the neighbors! I didn’t realize how many amazing tasting foods could be gluten free!! Thanks for the recipe.
Great to hear!! Thanks for the review Tasha.