Chewy Chocolate Molasses Cookies
Molasses cookies are some of my all-time favorites and normally I’m a purist with them, preferring just the robustly-flavored cookies as is. But I threw caution to the wind and added chocolate. Three times. At first, I was going to just going to add a bit of cocoa powder to the cookie batter to round out and complement the molasses, but my hands had a mind of their own and reached for the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
After the addition of chocolate chips, a Trader Joe’s 72 percent Pound Plus bar was staring back at me and I just had to slice some chunks from it. When I made these New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, I learned that I could really pump up the quantity of chocolate-per-cookie ratio and that it will somehow all hold. I put that chocolate theory into a dark and dreamy reality. The combination of both semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate, in conjunction with the cocoa powder and molasses, gave the cookies such depth of flavor and the different types of chocolate created varied texture. Chocolate chips are sweeter and tend to hold their shape better than the more bittersweet baking chocolate, which tends to melt and ooze.
These molasses chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy, thanks in part to a higher brown to granulated sugar ratio, which renders cookies softer, moister, and more intensely flavored. I also added a couple tablespoons of canola oil to the batter to keep the cookies soft. Moist and puffy cookies with soft centers, chewy edges, robustly-flavored with rich molasses, warm ginger, fragrant cinnamon; and a trifecta of chocolate. When I see puddles of chocolate, I can’t help but to dig in. They’re a perfect holiday cookie exchange cookie. Or to exchange with just yourself.
What’s in Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies?
To make these chewy molasses cookies loaded with chocolate chips and chunks, you’ll need:
Unsalted butter Egg Brown sugar Granulated sugar Molasses Vegetable oil Vanilla extract Unsweetened cocoa powder Spices All-purpose flour Baking soda Semi-sweet chocolate chips Bittersweet chocolate
How to Make Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe takes advantage of using melted butter, which means you don’t even need to dirty a mixer to make these. Add the first 12 ingredients together, all at once to the bowl, many of which are spices, and stir. Then fold in flour, baking soda, chocolate chips and chocolate chunks, and refrigerate the dough for at least two hours, up to five days. Because the butter is warm, and from stirring and working the dough, if you try to bake these without chilling the dough, chances are that the cookies will spread. Before baking, I rolled each cookie through a cinnamon-sugar mixture, further boosting the spice quotient.
To achieve a crackled appearance on top of the cookies, and to expose some of the glorious chocolate that laid under the surface of these golden puffy nuggets, immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, I firmly but gently tapped each cookie with the back of a spoon. Whack-whack. Because my cookie dough was well-chilled, the cookies stayed quite domed while baking and the tap-tap-tapping flattened them a bit and easily broke their warm surfaces, exposing glistening, shiny, luscious chocolate. Allow the cookies to cool and firm up on the baking sheets for about five minutes so you don’t have a literal hot chocolate mess on your hands.
What Type of Molasses Should I Use?
I use unsulphered molasses in all my cooking and baking. Blackstrap molasses is too bitter for me to enjoy in desserts, and I would caution against using it in this recipe unless you prefer a bitter and very pungent bite. I don’t, but to each her own.
How to Store Molasses Cookies
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Tips for Making Chocolate Molasses Cookies
If you don’t keep all the spices on hand, you can mix-and-match a bit based on what you have. The spices used, including cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, are all used in significant enough quantities to really stand up to the powerful punch of molasses, and not become lost. Too often ginger and molasses cookies are a little lackluster so I made sure these are well-spiced and robustly flavored. If you’re like me and normally double the cinnamon and ginger in recipes, before doing so, taste the batter because I’ve been mindful of that, but of course, season to taste. Taste preferences for warming spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg are highly personal and the oomph of the batter is also dependent on the quality of the spices used.
More Easy Christmas Cookies:
Soft & Chewy Molasses Gingerdoodles— These soft molasses cookies taste like a cross between chewy gingerbread cookies and crinkly snickerdoodles. An unbeatable holiday cookie recipe! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
Molasses Crinkle Cookies — The richness and depth of the dark molasses, coupled with dark brown sugar and spices, make them some of my favorite cookies ever!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies — Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract that I used, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall!
Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies— These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are bursting with chocolate chips in every bite! They’re thick, hearty, perfectly chewy, and not at all cakey.
Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, loads of white chocolate, and so much pumpkin flavor!! A pinch of salt balances the sweet white chocolate for a salty-and-sweet treat!!
Chai Cookies — The chai spices give the cookies so much depth of flavor. Cozy, comfort-food cookies that warm you up inside!
Soft Butter Pecan Cookies — Buttery soft dough with big chunky pecans in every bite! Salty-and-sweet and so hard to resist!!
