1 Bowl Giant Molasses Cookies. Vegan Ginger molasses cookies. Huge, chewy and Crinkles! Easy Holiday Christmas Cookie Recipe. Vegan Whole Grain.
Because Giant Cookies and One Bowl! These crinkly chewy molasses cookies are easy and make perfect gifts. Who doesn’t want a 5 inch cookie!
Loads of molasses, loads of flavor. These cookies are chewy! If overbaked, the edges will be crunchy but the center will be chewy. Adjust baking time to preference (less bake time for more chewy, longer for crunchy). For variation, add candied citrus/orange peel. Add other spices of choice. Add peppermint extract or crushed peppermint candy cane for festive. I love these with candied ginger pieces on pressed on top just before baking. For gluten-free version see these Gluten-free Ginger Molasses Cookies.
These cookies are palm oil free. I usually use whole grain Spelt and the cookies crack a lot more with spelt (pictured) compared to whole wheat flour. These cookies can get quite crunchy as they sit. They are best served the same day or the next. Store in a covered container. Overly crunchy or flat cookies can be used to make gingerbread crust for any pie.
Make these! What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
For more Christmas Cookies, see this mega round up of 40+ Vegan Holiday Cookies!
And more DIY food gifts collection.
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Steps:
Make the dough. It should be well combined and not too stiff.
Shape the dough into flat discs. Place on baking sheet atleast 2 inches apart. Put a drop of water in the center of each cookie.
Bake for 14 minutes. Cool completely and devour. Spelt Cookie below
The cookies will be soft out of the oven. Let them cool and set.
Wheat cookies below.
1 Bowl Giant Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1/2 cup (60 g) powdered sugar ground raw sugar or other fine sugar
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 3 Tbsp oil organic safflower or organic canola
- 3 Tbsp blackstrap molasses reduced this from 3.5 tbsp
- 1 Tbsp non dairy milk
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ground ginger
- 1/3 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- a generous pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) baking soda scant
Dry:
- 1 cup (120 g) Spelt flour for wheat based see the recipe below
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180ºc.
- In a bowl, mix sugar, oil, molasses, non dairy milk spices and salt. Mix until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the baking soda and mix well.
- Add 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour and mix in. Add more flour 1 tbsp at a time to make a soft not sticky dough. If the dough seems too dry. Let it sit for 2 minutes and then mix/knead with your hand. The dough gets wetter as it sits as the molasses seeps into the flour. Depending on your molasses and flour, you might need 1 tbsp or so less or more flour. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Take handfuls of the dough and make a smooth flat disc. (2 to 2.5 inch size). Place the disc on the sheet and press the center lightly to even out the thickness if needed. You can coat the discs in sugar. I don't as the cookies are already quite sweet.
- Place discs at least 2 inches apart as these cookies will double in size. Put a drop of water in the center of each disc.
- Bake for 14 minutes. * The cookies will spread then develop cracks in the last few minutes. They will be soft to touch. Let the cookies cool and set on the sheet for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the sheet, cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Notes
Baking time depends on the oven and cookie size. If the cookies are too crunchy, they were over baked. They should be chewy and just about crunchy on the edges when cool. * Bake 1-2 cookies to figure out the best baking time depending on your oven, cookie size, preferred chewy/crunchy balance. Less time for chewier and longer for crunchier cookies. Nutritional values based on one cookie
Nutrition
Meggie
I was really in the mood for these ginger cookies and your easy and quick recipe had me happily eating them in a matter of 15 minutes! I added some dried orange peel to the batter with allspice. Wonderful 🙂 This has sparked my cookie spirit for the winter! Thanks Richa
Vegan Richa Support
Sounds yummy!
RubyTwoShoes
Gorgeous Molasses Cookies! Love, love, love ’em…
Thanks for the wonderful recipe, I wish I could post a photo they came out so beautiful. : )
Richa
Yay
Lisa
Wow I can’t believe it’s taken this long for me to find your beautiful blog!! It’s exceptional and I cannot wait to make so many of your recipes, this one included!!
Thank you for all you do to spread the word of animal abuse! Your blog is a treasure!!
Vegan Richa Support
Awesome sauce! I”m so glad too.
Starla
wow these are quite special! I only had a little bit of powdered sugar so subbed mostly regular granulated sugar and just made sure it was ‘melted’ in the oil. I used a tablespoon of water instead of milk. Beautiful thank you for the lovely recipe can’t wait to share these cookies.
Vegan Richa Support
Great idea! So glad you enjoyed them!
Dotothy
Can’t seem to find how much wheat flour to use instead of spelt flour
Vegan Richa Support
woopsie! sure use 1 cup of whole wheat and 2 T of almond. be sure to include the almond if using whole wheat.
Tina M
I made these tonight with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour (148 g, which according to their website is 1 cup). I used sucanat instead of powdered sugar — didn’t even bother to blend the sugar to make finer granules. I just let the wet ingredients sit for a little longer than usual and stirred vigorously. These cookies turned out super good even with my subs! I didn’t flatten the dough balls because the dough was pretty wet as it was. I used a 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop, so my cookies were littler than your recipe called for. I got 19 cookies from the batch. I baked for 14 minutes. They didn’t spread very much, but they did crackle in the last couple minutes. When they cooled, they had this lovely, chewy, almost crunchy little crust, with a tender, soft caramelized center. I brought them to a meeting and people ate them up immediately, raving about how good they were. I’ll make these again for sure. Thanks for the recipe!
Richa
awesome!
Traci Styner
My husband asked for ginger cookies. Within 1/2 hour he had them with no fuss and easy ingredients.
These are the best ginger cookies ever! I made them with whole wheat pastry flour and they came out perfect.
Richa
awesome!
Ryan
Is it molasses syrup or molasses in sugar form that we’re supposed to use in this recipe? thanks
Richa
syrup
Mathéus
and may I also ask what you think the best substitution options are for different flours to use? I’m all out of spelt.
Mathéus
Could I use margarine in place of the oil?
Richa
yes
Shannon Alex
Hey! I’m about to make these literally right now, but I only have one type of sugar which is granulated coconut sugar… do you think it will make a difference not using a powdered sugar??
Richa
you can use granulated sugar. it will take a long time to mix in in the wet mix. You can pulse it in a blender to make it finer and that will be much easier to use.
Joni
Hi, I made your cookies using 1/3 cup molasses and 1 1/4 cup chickpea flour. Also subbed stevia cup for cup blend for the 1/2 cup sugar and sprinkled the tops with sugar. They were awesome! Thanks for posting this recipe!
P.S. the WW version turned out great, too.
Thom
Why do we need the almond flour/ground almonds in the gluten version of the recipe?
Richa
If you are using all spelt, then you dont need almond flour. Wheat flour can end up making a bit too crisp cookies, if overbaked even a bit. The almonds ensure that the cookies dont get over crisp. Underbake by a minute for a batch to see if that is the right time for your oven. the cookies are soft when they come out and will set as they cool
Cam
They seemed good for me, soft when I took them out, but within ten minutes of cooling on the baking sheet they got super hard and dry. I won’t be making these again, but if anyone wants to try it, I’d say put them on the cooling rack as soon as they come out.
Richa
oh no. hey probably got overbaked ( if the size was small, or the oven was running hot). these cookies are just the right crisp and chewy when baked for the right time. i bake them for just a ionute or so longer once they spread and crack. The large size ones take 14 or +1 minutes.
Tessa
I was wondering if you knew the calories per cookie? Thanks.
Richa
I don’t know. I don’t calculate nutrition of the recipes as there isnt any easy widget to do so accurately. So that means i have to use a couple of sites to do the calculation and thats something I don’t have any bandwidth for at the moment. In the future, I plan to hire someone to help me add that information to the recipes.
Denise
Hello! I really like your recipe. I love the combination of blackstrap molasses with ginger. I have tried this recipe twice already but it doesn’t flatten out. It has cracks but not as deep as the ones in the picture from your recipe. Is it because of the sugar? I used granulated brown sugar..and olive oil. I didn’t want to use the coconut oil because the flavor might be ruined. I used all purpose flour instead of the spelt flour.
Richa
I think its the all purpose flour more than the brown sugar. the recipe works best with a whole grain flour which is generally a coarse flour and absorbs more of the moisture.
Vegan chick
Great cookie. . I’ve made these several times, including a chocolate variation by adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder. Also made a GF version by subbing 3/4 C Bob’s GF mix and 1/4 C buckwheat flour for the spelt. A delicious and versatile recipe.
naomi pockell
Big Tree Farms makes a palm sugar flavored with ginger that would certainly fit into this recipe in place of regular granulated sugar. It is a bit less sweet than regular sugar, but has all the chemical attributes needed for these cookies. I’d also add some candied ginger chips for a triple-ginger version. I may have to make these today……
Richa
yes lots more ginger is all good!
Merin Tom
Love the post Richa! I am not much of a baker ,but i think i should be able to handle this recipe! Many thanks for sharing this!
Merin
https://meiasos.blogspot.co.uk
Sharon
These look and sound great. Do you think I could sub applesauce for the oil?
Richa
They wont crack with the applesauce. Try omitting the oil, no sub. You will need less flour. Start with 3/4 cup and add more only if the dough is sticky.
Deborah Stout
These were a total fail for me, and I bake a fair bit. Followed the recipe as written but cookies didn’t rise or crack. Don’t know what I could have done wrong 🙁
Richa
oh no. maybe the baking soda was too old? That is the only leavening in these cookies. did they spread or get bigger at all? also, the cookies crack in the last 1-2 minutes. if they were too soft, then maybe bake a minute longer. I’ve had them spread and crack even with closer to 1/4 tsp baking soda. You can use the cookies, coarsely crushed for a gingerbread crust for a pie.
Doreen
mine did not spread > I think they left out One EGG
Alex
Just made these and I had the same problem; the cookies came out looking like flat pancakes. the three varieties of flour listed are different textures and densities. So in the attempt to be versatile, this recipe lacks an actual measurement for flour which is probably the most important part! I used w.w. pastry flour and yes, my dough was soft but not sticky. And yes, I tried baking an extra couple mins to get them to crack. The taste is okay but this recipe needs to be rewritten.
Richa
I will keep the recipe to use with only Spelt flour. Wheat flours are generally much finer and vary depending on the brand which makes the cookie a bit fussy. I think a bit of no gluten whole grain flour along with the wheat flours might do the trick. I will rework it for wheat when i get a chance. Till then use Spelt flour. It was originally written with only spelt flour, but many people asked for wheat options so I tried it with the options and the cookies were fickle, cracking some times and not some other times. If they are too flat, you also might want to check the baking soda.
Courtney
YUM. These turned out amazingly, thank you for sharing!
Richa
Awesome!!
Ambar
Never been a big fan of molasses but these look and sound so good!
Richa
they don’t have a strong molasses flavor 🙂 Just a bit and all the chewyness from the molasses
Tara
These look so good! Do I have to use blackstrap molasses or is it okay to use regular molasses?
Richa
regular should work. blackstrap molasses i think will have the best caramelization/chewyness in the cookies. let me know how the cookies come out.
Tara
They taste good but the cookies came out very flat. Maybe blackstrap molasses IS the way to go! 🙂
Richa
if they flattened too much, the dough probably needed some more dry flour. how was the dough, was it sticky?
You can use the flat cookies to make gingersnap crust for your favorite pie. process in a food processor and use!
Tara
The dough wasn’t teribly sticky but you’re right, I needed more flour. I will definitely try these again, the taste was quite yummy. I like the pie crust idea, thank you!
Julie
Would love to make these! Would fresh ginger work in place of the ground ginger if I double the amount? Thanks so much! I’ve been looking for a recipe just like this one.
Richa
sure, use minced fresh ginger. you can also add chopped candied ginger.
Claudia
Do you think it would work if I subed I blended apple for all the sugar and only added 2 Tbsp of molasses ? I think I will have to use buckwheat flour as well.
I thought you might be interested in this gingerbread spice blend Ground ginger, cassia, coriander, caraway, clove, ginger, nutmeg. I dont know the amounts its off a packet of oh so good shortcakes, sigh.
Richa
blended apple will add too much moisture and will also not be enough sweet for the cookies. They will be bland. The molasses and sugar caramelize in these and spread making the cookies large, crackly and flat.
Try playing around with this recipe instead https://www.veganricha.com/2014/12/gluten-free-ginger-molasses-cookies.html . Omit the non dairy milk if using blended apple. Make sure to get a soft dough consistency. you might have the issue I mentioned earlier that the cookies will not be sweet enough.
Claudia
Thank you but I am trying to repair my teeth (no oats unless soaked) and its going well really dont want to fall off the wagon.
I tried someone elses giner cookie recipe with the spice mix I mentioned (way to sweet) used 1 1/4 tsp ginger then 1/4 tsp of all the others turned out just like Mr Kiplings Mmmm just need a suitable base now.
Thank you for all your loverly recipes I am always making your cabbage and carrot pancakes ! Have a happy christmas x
Richa
hmm. you can use buckwheat in that recipe, or in this recipe. you would really have to adjust the moisture to dry ratio though with blended apple.
Bella
These cookies sound and look great! I was wondering if I could use gluten-free flour? Also, if I omit the cinnamon (allergy), is there something else I can add?
Richa
yes you can try a gf flour blend, or use this recipe https://www.veganricha.com/2014/12/gluten-free-ginger-molasses-cookies.html
and yes, you can omit the cinnamon.
Ruth
Thanks Richa. Again, as always! Can I use xylitol instead of the sugar?
Richa
I haven’t tried baking with xylitol. The sugar here caramelizes with the molasses on baking, so I am not sure it will work the same. You might get less spread cookies. Let me know if you try.
Rosamund
These look wonderful, definitely going to make these, thank you so much for the great recipies
Mae
YUUUMM Richa!! I’ve never been great at making cookies because I’m not big into sweets, but tis the season right?? My favorite cookie that I’ve ever made is a cranberry orange cookie. I’m making your gluten free chocolate dipped sugar cookies on Christmas though! I’ll let you know how they come out 🙂
Richa
I love cranberries with orange! I don’t much eat sweets myself, so the cookies last a long time :).