Go ahead and add these chewy honey molasses cookies to your favorite cookie list. Even if you've never tried them. I guarantee you will love them and they will be a favorite!
What's not to love? These molasses honey cookies are soft and flavorful with a very mild taste thanks to a heavenly combination of black strap molasses and local honey.
You'll feel like you're at grandma's house. 🙂
One of my favorite memories of my grandma's house was her stash of molasses cookies. They were soft, chewy, and not overly gingery so my unsophisticated taste buds could handle them.
This recipe will remind you of days past where things were more old fashioned. When homemade meals and treats were more prevalent. When things were baked with love to show hospitality, gratitude and willingness to set aside some time away from life's busyness to do something to bring joy. My grandma enjoyed having tea and cookies with her neighbor. We need to do more of that!
What's in these honey molasses cookies?
All the things you might expect — sugar and spice and everything nice of course! Namely, brown sugar, butter, shortening, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger plus a sprinkle of sugar on top. Flour, baking soda and an egg hold all these yummy ingredients together.
The best part about these molasses cookies is...
... the crinkles! When these bake, cracks form along the top. The cracks not only make these honey molasses cookies look picturesque, the crinkly tops actually add a really lovely texture. The edge of the cracks are slightly crispy which just tastes amazing paired with the soft and chewy center.
These cookies are so easy to make!
No refrigeration required. No lengthy list of ingredients. No long list of steps. These are quick and easy to make but taste as good as anything you'd buy at a bakery. Even better really, since you can eat these while they're still warm when you make them homemade.
Why add both shortening and butter to these cookies?
A few reasons. Butter has a lower melting point so will result in flatter cookies. However it has more flavor and will produce a better tasting cookie.
Shortening on the other had has a high melting point, which helps your cookies retain some more structure as they bake.
So using each of these in this recipes gives you the benefits of both.
You can substitute butter for shortening or the other way around but keep in mind the properties of each when you do and expect the end result to vary accordingly.
Dark Brown vs. Light Brown Sugar
So, did you know brown sugar is brown because it has molasses in it? Yepper!
The difference between dark brown and light brown sugar is that dark brown sugar has more molasses than light brown sugar.
We're using dark brown sugar in this recipe because we are adding in honey in place of some of the molasses. So you'll get more molasses flavor packed into these cookies by using dark brown sugar. If all you have is light brown sugar though, no biggie. Just use that.
Love cookies?
Be sure to check out my other cookie recipes!
This recipe for Chewy Honey Molasses cookies was featured on South Your Mouth and Meal Plan Monday!
Chewy Honey Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup shortening
- ½ cup butter, room temperature 1 stick
- 2 tablespoon molasses
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 1 egg
- 2 ¼ cup flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2-3 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- In large bowl, cream together dark brown sugar, shortening, butter, molasses, honey and egg using a hand mixer.
- Mix in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt (reserve sugar for later).
- Scoop out dough using a small cookie scoop into 1 ½" balls, placed on a lined baking sheet about 2" apart. Sprinkle each ball of dough generously with sugar.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 325°F for about 12-15 minutes or until the center of the cookies no longer looks wet.
- Let cool for at least 5 minutes before moving.
We like a stronger tasting molasses flavor. So I added an extra tablespoon of molasses to this recipe. It was very good. This cookie is a nice soft cookie.
Hi Sandy, So glad you enjoyed them!