Our Christmas baking is in full swing right now. On the list is our favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bakes, Classic Sugar Cookie cut outs, Thumbprint Jam Cookies, & these Bourbon Molasses Ginger Cookies.
I have always been obsessed with gingerbread. I distinctly remember my Grandma having a jar of cookies on the counter at her house one year we were visiting and they held the best, chewy Gingersnaps ever! I wish I had the recipe she used.
In search of a chewy ginger cookie, I saw a recipe for Bourbon Molasses Ginger Cakes. I already have several delicious cake-like recipes on my blog; Banana Gingerbread, Gingerbread Orange Spice Cakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, and Caramelized Bacon Pumpkin Ginger Cookies.
If you don’t have bourbon in the house, you can substitute with coffee and the cookies will still be delicious!
This recipe does make quite a few cookies. Don’t worry, if you don’t have a party to serve them at, you can freeze them for later when you have the craving for chewy Bourbon Molasses Ginger Cookies!
These cookies are also perfect to make with the kids. I made the dough while they were at school, covered the dough with plastic wrap and let it get cold in the fridge. When the kids got home, the big boys and I worked together to form the dough into balls and the little girls each had a small bowl of sugar to roll each dough ball in.
You really can’t mess this part up. Unless of course, you knock the whole bowl of sugar on the kitchen floor like one of my 5 year olds did! Let’s just say you can stick to my kitchen floors right now! Hahaha!
Please, don’t be afraid of the amount of spices in this recipe or the pinch of black pepper. I promise they are perfect balance to the sweet molasses and bite of bourbon. Make sure that your ground black pepper is very fine. (I don’t recommend using your pepper grinder for this)
Ingredients
- 1 lb Butter, unsalted & softened
- 2 1/4 cups Dark Brown Sugar, lightly packed
- 1/2 cup Molasses
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp Orange Zest
- 2-3 tbsp Bourbon or strong Coffee (use less bourbon for a subtle flavor)
- 4 3/4 cup Flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp ground Ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground Allspice
- 1 tbsp ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground Cloves
- pinch of ground Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar for Rolling dough in
Instructions
- Beat butter and dark brown sugar in a stand mixer or with electric beaters until well combined and fluffy.
- Beat in one egg at a time.
- Add molasses, vanilla, orange zest and beat until well combined
- Slowly add in bourbon or coffee while mixer is on low speed.
- In another bowl, combine flour, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, salt, & baking soda.
- Turn mixer on and add two cup of dry ingredients at a time and mix until flour mixture is just combined with wet mixture.
- Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Remove from fridge and scoop out dough and roll into 1 inch balls
- Roll balls in granulated sugar
- Bake at 350Ëš F for 8-11 minutes depending on the size of your dough balls
- Remove from oven when the edges are starting to crisp but the tops of cookies are just soft.
- Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes to continue baking and then remove to a wire rack to cool.
One last cookie tip! To keep these Bourbon Molasses Ginger Cookies soft and chewy take them out of the oven when the edges of the cookies are starting to crisp, but the tops of the cookies are still soft. Allow the cookies to remain on the baking sheet for 5 minutes to continue to bake. This makes all the difference in the texture of the cookie and keeps them chewy and soft!
Merry Christmas!
Ooh. I’ve had molasses in baked goods, but I’ve never had bourbon in them. I can almost taste that flavor combination.
These are cookies that I need to make for Santa. I am sure he will enjoy them.
Yummy! These cookies look fantastic! I would love to try them now with some ice cold milk!
Now those are some Christmas cookies! The bourbon and ginger sound really tasty together! I bet these would go quick in our home!
These cookies look really good. I love molasses the most. It’s one of my favorite kind of cookies. I’m sure these will be delicious.
These cookies look scrumptious. Perfect for the holidays. I’ve always loved ginger cookies.
These cookies look and sound fantastic. Great to know they freeze well too.
I am drooling over these cookies! Love the addition of Bourbon. I should try it!
It looks like such a great recipe! I can’t wait to add it to my cookie list!
I made these yesterday. While they are very tasty, we couldn’t taste the bourbon flavor (I used the full 3 Tab) and they also spread a lot and left greasy marks on the parchment. I’m wondering if there’s an error in the recipe? Is 1 lb of butter correct or is it supposed to be 1 cup? I’m not complaining since they are still delicious. Just not the same texture as other molasses cookies I’ve made.