I love these flavors so much and am so excited to be baking with them. Actually, I bake with them all year, but it’s safe to blog about them now.
Last week I started a Gingerbread & Molasses pinterest board in preparation for all the ginger and molasses recipes I know I’ll see online and want to remember. Food blogs are so predictable this time of year. First pumpkin, then ginger and molasses, then mint. I hope we linger in this phase for awhile. My new board inspired me make something to kick off ginger and molasses season.
These bars are my heaven. They’re dense to the point of being almost like molasses fudge, with an abundance of chocolate chips that melt, making them even closer to fudge. Like a fudgy gingerbread brownie of sorts. If you’re looking for a traditional, soft and fluffy ginger or molasses cake, or traditional cakey gingerbread cookies that you’d decorate, these bars are not that. There’s no chemical leaveners in them because I wanted them to stay flat and dense. Back to that fudge factor.
They follow the pattern of my trusty blondies recipes, and are made in one-bowl, no mixer required, and the batter is whisked together in minutes before being turned out into a pan and baked. Simple melt one stick of butter in a bowl in the micro, stir in an egg, brown sugar, molasses, 3 teaspoons ground ginger, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon each of cloves and nutmeg. That’s 7 teaspoons of spices for a small pan of bars, and the bars definitely have a zippy kick. Not overwhelming for me personally, but they’re bold. There’s nothing more disappointing than lackluster-spiced pumpkin, ginger, or molasses-based recipes so I use a heavy hand. If you don’t like bold flavors, dial the spices back, possibly even halving them.
I recommend using a light to medium molasses so the bars don’t taste bitter or too pungent, a likely result if you use blackstrap molasses. After stirring in the flour, add 1/1 4 cups chocolate chips, turn batter out into the pan, and top with 1/4 cup additional. I always place a few chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or candy pieces on top of my cookies and bars. It adds a visual pop to your treats so they really glisten and shine.
Bake the bars until they’re done. For me, that was 32 minutes. Because ingredients, climates, and taste preferences vary, always bake things until they’re done in your oven and to your taste. It’ll be a little tricky testing with a toothpick because you’ll keep hitting melted chocolate patches. There are worse things. If you prefer more well-done, drier, bars, bake longer. Easy enough, but I can’t tell you how many people write to me, ‘But I baked it for exactly as long as you said and it wasn’t done’. Okay, then bake a little longer. Maybe you live in a humid climate or your oven runs 25 degrees cooler or you like drier food than I do. I’m an admitted under-baking queen.
I let the bars cool overnight. It makes cutting them much easier because the chocolate fully sets, they’re not as gooey, and they have a chance to rest, and for the flavors to marry. Ginger and molasses treats really do taste better in the few days after baking them.
The thick molasses, the softening and tenderizing effects of the brown sugar, coupled with the chocolate that melts and then sets up, they’re like eating a piece of dense, rich, molasses fudge with bold spices. The chocolate stands up beautifully to the boldness of the molasses and spices and is a wonderful pairing.
If you’re the type of person who frequently utters statements like, ‘Oh that’s too strong’, or ‘That’s so spicy’ or ‘Wow, that’s too rich’, don’t make these. They’re not going to be your thing. However, if you’re a person who has to at least double the cinnamon in most recipes and you’re a real fan of molasses, coupled with a love of chocolate and fudgy things, they’ll be your thing. They’re definitely mine.
Related Recipes
Molasses Triple Chocolate Cookies – Soft & chewy molasses cookies with chocolate 3 ways – chocolate chips, chocolate chunks & cocoa in the dough – for a chocolaty twist on the traditional. Well-spiced with cinnamon, ginger, & cloves Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
Chocolate Molasses Chocolate Chip Cake with Baileys Irish Cream Glaze – Part chocolate cake, part molasses cake, with chunks of chocolate chips & a smooth Baileys glaze
Pumpkin Banana Bread with Browned Butter Cream Cheese Frosting – This bread is a mixture of both pumpkin and banana flavors, and also incorporates molasses
Soft Batch Dark Brown Sugar Coconut Oil Cookies – No butter, no white sugar, full of rich flavor from dark brown sugar, molasses, and coconut oil
White Chocolate-Topped Cinnamon Chip Cinnamon Bars
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies – Molasses in the batter gives them great flavor
Nutella-Swirled Peanut Butter Chip Blondies – Dense, rich, and fudge-like
Cookie Butter Spread Ginger Molasses Cookies (no-bake, vegan, with GF option) – Easy, no-bake little cookie dough bites made using Cookie Butter or Biscoff
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars – Dense, soft, chewy, and loaded with chocolate chunks
What’s your favorite gingerbread or molasses recipe?
