Soft, flavorful, and easy to make gingerbread cookies without the ingredient of molasses.
If the spiciness of molasses is too intense for your taste, or you simply don't have it on hand, you can still make amazing gingerbread cookies without molasses.
If you have dark brown sugar on hand, that is preferred over light brown as it takes the place of the molasses, but either can be used.
The gingerbread cookie dough is super easy to make and has very few ingredients and steps to the recipe.
The dough can be chilled and rolled out for cutting into your favorite shapes, or you can immediately create drop cookie dough balls for baking right away.
Don't worry if you don't have molasses, you can still make gingerbread cookies with this recipe.
Ingredients
You likely already have everything in your cabinets that you need to make these cookies.
Flour- all-purpose flour
Butter- salted, softened at room temperature
Brown sugar- dark brown sugar is preferred, as it takes the place of molasses, but light brown sugar will also work.
Spices- use ground nutmeg, clove, ginger, and cinnamon
Instructions
To make the gingerbread cookie dough, start with the dry ingredients.
Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl until loosely mixed. Set aside.
Next, cream together the butter and brown sugar until combined. The mixture will resemble pieces, but the butter should be smoothly incorporated.
Add the vanilla and egg. Beat until combined.
After mixing in the vanilla and egg, the mixture should resemble a batter.
Add the flour mixture, about one cup at a time, and mix until combined into a stiff dough.
Once the dough is combined, it should be covered and chilled in the refrigerator for a minimum of one hour.
(See recipe notes below for baking the cookies right away without chilling.)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the dough has been chilled, it can be rolled between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch thick.
The parchment paper will keep the sticky dough from sticking.
Remove the top sheet of parchment paper and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut shapes into the dough, leaving a quarter-inch between shapes.
Peel away the excess dough, leaving the shapes on the bottom piece of paper, then transfer to the oven and bake for 7-9 minutes until set.
Cool on a baking rack and repeat until all the dough has been baked into cookies.
Enjoy the delicious cookies as they are, or decorate them with your favorite decorations once cooled.
Adults and kids have so much fun with these adorable cookies!
Swapping light brown sugar for dark brown sugar in a recipe that calls for molasses can replace the molasses flavor when it is omitted.
In addition to a warm, sweet, and somewhat smokey flavor, molasses helps to make cookies extremely soft and chewy.
Replace every one cup of molasses for ¾ cup of brown sugar.
Recipe Notes
- Dark brown sugar has additional molasses in it, so it helps to replace the molasses flavor. For a milder taste, use light brown sugar.
- Soften butter at room temperature, or use a safe quick-soften method.
- The cookie dough can be portioned out onto a baking tray using a scoop and drop method for round cookies.
- Intricate cookie cutter shapes require the dough to be rolled out thinner, closer to one-eight of an inch thick.
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Related recipes...
Gingerbread Cookies Without Molasses
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon clove
- ½ cup butter salted, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg large
Instructions
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour (2 ½ cups), baking soda (1 tsp), salt (1 tsp), cinnamon (1 tsp), ginger (2 tsp), nutmeg (¼ tsp), and clove (⅛ tsp) until mixed then set the bowl aside.
- In a seperate bowl or stand mixer, beat together the butter (½ cup) and dark brown sugar (1 cup) until combined.
- Add vanilla (2 tsp) and egg; beat until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture one cup at a time until completely combined and dough has been formed.
- Cover the dough, and chill for at least one hour, or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Roll the chilled dough between two pieces of parchment paper to about ¼ inch thickness.
- Remove the top piece of parchment paper, and cut the cookie shapes using your favorite cookie cutters, leaving about ¼ to ½ inch space between.
- Pull away excess dough around the cut shapes and reserve for re-rolling.
- Transfer the cookies on the parchment paper to a baking sheet by lifting up the parchment paper on both ends and moving to the baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes until edges are golden and centers are set.
- Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely.
- Repeat with remaining dough until all of the cookies have been formed and baked.
- Decorate as desired and enjoy.
Notes
- Dark brown sugar has additional molasses in it, so it helps to replace the molasses flavor. For a milder taste, use light brown sugar.
- Soften butter at room temperature, or use a safe quick-soften method.
- The cookie dough can be portioned out onto a baking tray using a scoop and drop method for round cookies.
- Intricate cookie cutter shapes require the dough to be rolled out thinner, closer to one-eight of an inch thick.
- Simple shapes, like gingerbread men, can be cut from ¼ inch thick dough while still preserving the shape.
Laura Marin says
Do it I all time taste good my friend does then
Nanette says
These cookies will definitely be in my gift baskets for Christmas!
Erin says
Thank you Nanette 🙂 I hope you like them!