I am in love. With these soft and chewy ginger spice cookies.
These are the kind of cookie that you need in your cookie jar. And if you don’t have a cookie jar, it’s the type of cookie you should buy one for. I didn’t even know I was a ginger-spice-molasses type person until I ate these. I looked at the recipe and it looked pretty basic so I was trying to think of something to snazz them up. I thought about sandwiching them with cream cheese frosting, adding orange zest, dipping them in white chocolate etc. But that all changed when I took a bite of a cookie warm out of the oven and I knew that these little beauties needed to stay exactly like they were. Some ginger cookies are soft, some are puffy and cakey. These are are chewy. They’re a little on the thinner side and they crisp just around the edges and then get soft and perfectly chewy in the middle. My kind of cookie.
These cookies are so simple and inexpensive–you probably already have everything in your house, and if you don’t, you should because they’re pantry staples. You’ll need flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and table salt.
You’ll also need an egg, some molasses, and some butter-flavored shortening.
Yes, we are aware that shortening is a controversial ingredient. My position is that a) it’s nearly trans fat-free and b) there are a few recipes where shortening usage (in my opinion) is a must–pie crust, fried chicken, and these cookies and c) if you’re eating any of those foods often enough to cause health problems, it’s probably less about the trace amount of trans fats and more about the fact that you’re eating pie crust and fried chicken and cookies in alarmingly large quantities. You’re welcome to substitute something else for the shortening, but if you come back and say, “I used coconut oil and my cookies tasted gross, kind of coconut-y” or “I used butter and my cookies fell flat and were as hard as rocks” or “I used the tears of virgin unicorns and now my friends and family say that virgin unicorns don’t exist and I have become a social outcast,” I might be a little bah-humbug-ish.
Anyway.
Preheat your oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (these sheets are fantastic!) or Silpat liners. Cream your shortening and sugar together for a couple of minutes until it’s light and fluffy.
Add your molasses…
and your egg..
and then mix until combined. While the egg/sugar mixture is mixing, whisk together your dry ingredients.
Then add them to your creamed shortening mixture.
Using a standard-sized cookie scoop, scoop the dough…
and then roll the dough ball in sugar.
and then place it on baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough.
If desired, you can use a flat-bottomed cup or mug to gently press them down.
Aside from measuring out brown sugar, I’m not sure there’s a more satisfying cooking task.
They will puff up a bit while baking and then flatten out when they cool.
Perfect for stacking, packing, and snacking.
My breakfast of champions: a Diet Coke and one (okay, three) of these cookies
And I know I said they shouldn’t be messed with, but the one thing they’re practically begging for is to be turned into ice cream sandwiches. Under cook them just a bit and then smoosh them with pumpkin ice cream, or homemade vanilla with cinnamon would be awesome. And we also have this scrumptious variation!
Print
Ginger Spice Cookies
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen
Description
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter-flavored Crisco
- 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 cups flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners. Set aside.
Combine sugar and shortening in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the egg and molasses and beat until completely incorporated.
While the sugar mixture is mixing, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add them to the creamed shortening mixture and mix until combined.
Using a standard cookie scoop, scoop the dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place 12 dough balls on each cookie sheet. If desired, use a flat-bottomed glass or mug to gently flatten the dough.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just set around the edges and you start to see crackling on the top. Be sure not to overbake! Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the baking sheets.
Notes
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
Questions & Reviews
I have been making this recipe for nearly ten years for coworkers, friends and family over the holidays. People seriously lose their minds over these cookies! If I make them once for people I have no choice but to make them again, they are that good! Thank you for the amazing recipe.
Where did the recipe go:( I’m desperate!
So sorry!! We’re having some trouble with our printable recipe card feature and we’re doing some work on it last night when traffic was slow; it should be working now.
Best spice cookies I have made and very easy to make.
Yay, this makes me so happy!!!
Hi! Just curious what the smooshing step does. If I left them in balls would they be negatively affected, or maybe just thicker and less thin? 🙂
Thankya for the help and recipe! I learned I liked chewy ginger cookies at the Barnes & Noble cafe last Fall, where they had huge ginger cookies that were amazing; excited to learn to make them myself!
You don’t have to smoosh…I just enjoy it, haha!
Drizzle with white chocolate and you have gourmet!!
The addition of milk chocolate chips to ginger cookies is amazing!
This recipe is equal parts perfection and Christmas all wrapped-up into a few glorious bites. Bravo Ladies!!
Add a dash or two of cayenne pepper if you like spicy things! It really kicks them up a notch.
Thanks for the recipe, these were shared in a recent cookie swap and were a hit! (Photo here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/goffstownpubliclibrary/15985462222/).
-Tammy at Goffstown Public Library, New Hampshire
I’m not a molasses/ginger type person but I went ahead and made these anyway. I used plain crisco because I had it. Mine did flatten, just not as much as yours. SO. GOOD. 🙂
I love these cookies. They are my go to for ginger cookies…and the ginger pizzookies are out of this world. Thanks!!
Disappointed in this recipe. I was looking for a chewy molasses cookie which the author has claimed and these are NOT. I even tried the recipe twice thinking I did something wrong. Both times they turned out cake like and very dry on the edges.
I made these cookies this weekend. My 6 year old asked when I was going to make ginger cookies and since I had never made them for him I decided to try out this recipe. My 4 year old son says, “Oh cookies! Can I have one?!” I tell him of course, but that he might not like them because they are a different kind I’ve never made for him before. He tries one bite and says, “Oh yum! Can I have them all?!” =) When my 6 year old got home I thought he was going to be so pleased when I told him I made him ginger cookies. Turns out he wanted ginger bread cookies…or so he thought…until he took one bite and grabbed three more cookies and ran out of the room as fast as he could so I wouldn’t stop him. Needless to say they were a hit! Thank you!
If you had ANY idea how many searches I did for Gingerbread (from scratch) ANYTHINGS today – and came up short…. Then I came to see the crock pot giveaway and over to the right? lo and behold?! These lovely darlings <3 Guess what meself will be doing tomorrow? (hint) making my kitchen smell DIVIIIIII- HINNNNNEEE! TY
these are amazing. Thank you for sharing! Made the little pizookies with them… yum yum yum! Best part is that now I have all the ingredients to make these again and again and again 🙂
it’s pretty wonderful ginger spice recipe, it’s looking very delicious, learn something new, thanks
wow this recipe really delicious, i like this type spice cookies, this very informative tutorial, thanks for shearing
it is really nice ginger spice cookies tutorial, very delicious i am gonna start now make this recipe, thanks for shearing
wow this is really excellent Cookies making method i really appreciate for this trick
Yum. These are awesome. I made them teaspoon sized and turned them into sandwich cookies/ whoopie pies with your perfect cupcake filling and frosting (doubled, of course) everywhere I take thm they get gobbled up!!
Great recipe.But it doen’t say anything about cream in the ingredents.Why does it say add cream in the directions?Proboley a dumb question.But I have not made cookies in a while.;)
Anne- “cream” is actually a verb here, not an ingredient! It just means you want to beat those things together until light and fluffy, that’s all 🙂
Sara,I am ssssoooo sutpid.I KNEW that was a dumb question.So sorry.I just moved here from Mexico and I am tring to learn the English lanquage.(and spelling :)) Oh,and I guess I should tell you,the E mail that I put in really isn’t my email,I do not have one.It wouldn’t let me post a comment with out it,so I put one in that I had seen on a website.So please do not send E mails to that person.But my name IS Anne.
i have made these delicious cookies 4 times – the first two were fluffy and rhe second two were flat. Same ingredients, only thought is weather?? Any thoughts…
I have made these delicious cookies 4 times now. The first two batches, the cookies were fluffy. The second two batches were flat. I used the same ingredients, so i am not sure what happened…any thoughts???
I just made these and slathered them with pumpkin spice cream cheese. Oh. My. Goodness. They were incredible and will be the perfect treat for pumpkin carving tonight… If any make it that long! Thank ladies!
I made these just now for our church social and can’t wait to here how they like them! I just ate two and they were the best ginger/molasses type cookies I’ve ever made.