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These soft and chewy vegan ginger molasses cookies are full of holiday flavors you’ll love. Each bite is a little piece of heavenly perfection! How could you possibly achieve this classic cookie recipe in a vegan way? You’ll have to make a batch to find out.
Table of Contents
📖 About
When it comes to the holidays, it’s hard to imagine all those baked goods without any ginger molasses cookies. Since we love festivities (eating, baking, eating, repeat), it’s never too early to start baking cookies! Seriously, we could eat holiday cookies all year round.
We’re refining all of our holiday recipes and really wanted to share what may be our absolute favorite holiday cookie. We think it’s the pull-apart softness and chewiness (thanks to the molasses) that makes them so irresistible.
The complexity of flavors comes from all the different spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In addition to the molasses, this is what makes ginger cookies so special.
So, are you stressing about making large batches of cookies for your family over the holidays? Worry not. We’ve got your back! This recipe is 100% vegan and absolutely fool-proof.
🍲 Key ingredients
- Ginger: ginger is actually a flowering plant, and its rhizome (the underground stem) is the part we consider to be ginger. It has a warming characteristic and carries a combination of citrus and earthy notes. Ginger is also known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea effects. Check out this post for more information on how to store ginger!
- Molasses: made during the extraction of sugar from sugarcane and sugar beets, this dark and sticky ingredient is well known for its role in baking. Historically, molasses was widely used in the early 20th century in the Southern States and Caribbean. But, now that white sugar is so cheap widely available, it’s become much less prevalent. In just one tablespoon of unrefined molasses, you’ll receive over 10% of your daily magnesium and manganese requirements.
- Spices: an extremely important aspect of this recipe is achieving the right spice ratio. You want enough spices to work in harmony with the molasses, but not too much to overpower everything. Ginger, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg is one of our favorite combinations to create a warming, happy, and holiday-like taste. Anyone else with us on that?
- Vanilla: there are over 150 types of vanilla in the world, but the most common varieties you’ll see are Tahitian and Madagascan. Each one has slightly different flavors and aromas, which help enhance all the other ingredients in this recipe. Being budget-conscious, one thing we do splurge on is quality vanilla. It’s an ingredient you really don’t want to skimp on.
🔪 Instructions
To start this recipe, you’ll need to whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set that aside while you prepare the wet ingredients.
Using another mixing bowl, either with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the softened vegan butter and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, which takes about 2 minutes.
Then, mix up the corn starch “egg” in a small bowl. Add that into the butter and sugar mixture along with the molasses and vanilla. Mix everything on low-medium until it’s well combined.
Next, slowly mix in the dry ingredients on low until they’re evenly incorporated. Cover the bowl of dough and chill it for a couple of hours. This will help prevent the cookies from spreading out too much during the baking process.
Once the dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line some baking sheets with parchment paper! Time to bake these babies.
Fill a small bowl with cane sugar, then begin rolling the dough into balls about 2-inch in diameter. Roll each ball in the sugar until it’s completely coated, then evenly spread the cookies out on your baking sheet. Slightly press the dough balls down before putting them in the oven.
Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. Remove your cookies from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes on the baking pan before transferring them to a wire rack.
🌡️ Storage
Let’s be honest, nothing beats a warm cookie right out of the oven, so it’s best to eat them right away. But, these cookies will store well at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days. You can also freeze them for up to 2-3 months.
💭 Budget tips
We think everyone should be able to eat better for less, so here are a few tricks to make this recipe even more affordable:
- Skip rolling the cookies in cane sugar
- Don’t splurge on the vanilla extract
- Replace half the vegan butter with coconut oil
- Don’t buy organic molasses
🍴 Tasting notes
Ginger molasses cookies will surely put you in the mood for any holiday (also maybe some rum & eggnog). They’re:
- Soft
- Chewy
- Rich
- Holidy-spiced
If you try these cookies, please rate them and leave us a comment below! Want to stay up-to-date with new recipes? Subscribe to our newsletter or connect with Broke Bank Vegan on social media. Happy eating!
Vegan Ginger Molasses Cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Extra mixing bowls
Ingredients
Dry
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour ($0.18 USD)
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda ($0.01 USD)
- ¼ tsp salt ($0.01 USD)
- 2 tsp ground ginger ($0.04 USD)
- 1 ¼ tsp cinnamon ($0.05 USD)
- ½ tsp cloves ($0.02 USD)
- ¼ tsp nutmeg ($0.04 USD)
Wet
- ¾ cup vegan butter, softened ($1.74 USD)
- 1 cup brown sugar ($0.32 USD)
- ½ tbsp corn starch + 3 tbsp water ($0.02 USD)
- ¼ cup dark molasses ($0.31 USD)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract ($0.42 USD)
For Rolling optional
- ~ ⅓ cup cane sugar
Instructions
- To start, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a separate mixing bowl, either with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the softened vegan butter and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes (make sure to scrape down the sides as needed). Then, mix in the corn starch + water mixture, molasses, and vanilla, and beat on medium-low speed until combined.
- Next, slowly add in the dry ingredient mixture and mix until evenly incorporated. Cover the bowl of dough or transfer it to an airtight container to chill for 1-2 hours.
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Fill a small bowl with cane sugar, then roll the dough into balls about 2-inches in diameter. Coat each ball in cane sugar, then evenly spread out on your baking sheet. Lightly press down each cookie ball with a spatula, and sprinkle with a touch more cane sugar.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to crack slightly on top and the edges look done. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking pan. Then, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
- Optional ingredients are not reflected in the price or calories of this recipe.
- If you don’t have ground ginger, try replacing it with 2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated.
- If you don’t have access to vegan butter, replace it with coconut oil (although, the difference in fat content will slightly vary your results).
- Make sure the brown sugar you use is vegan-friendly!
Nutrition
♻️ Similar recipes
For more delicious cookie recipes, check out our:
- Soft and chewy peanut butter cookies for PB cookies with a little flare!
- Vegan oatmeal raisin cookies if you love cinnamon spice and everything nice.
- Easy tahini cookies for a grown-up take on peanut butter.
- Snickerdoodles for soft, chewy, and holiday-ready cookies to go with this ginger molasses recipe.
- Vegan caramel apple cheesecake if you’re feelin’ extra.
💬 FAQ
If you want to make these cookies gluten-free, replace the all-purpose flour 1:1 with a gluten-free all-purpose flour of your preference. Just make sure you double-check the replacement ratio on whichever flour you use as it may affect the results.
While you can substitute the brown sugar with another sweetener, the rich, caramel flavor of brown sugar is hard to replace with something like cane sugar. If you want to make your own vegan brown sugar, try mixing coconut sugar with molasses or try using maple syrup. Results will vary.
Yes, this recipe requires chilling the dough so the cookies don’t spread out too much in the baking process.
Thank you for a great recipe! I’ve made this recipe twice now (used Earth Balance vegan butter), and these are amazing. I bake them about 1/2″ thick, and just until the bottom of the cookie lifts off the parchment paper I bake them on and holds together… they’re puffing up but still a bit soft when I pull them from the oven. Gotta watch ’em carefully as they bake fast. They get a bit crunchier as they cool and still have soft chewy centres. So delicious as is (although next time I may add some freshly grated ginger for even more ginger kick)! Anyone, even omnivores, who likes ginger/molasses combo will be hooked!
Hi Larissa!
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment! We are so happy you enjoyed the recipe. Great tips! We are definitely going to try them with fresh ginger next time!!
I made these today for a vegan potluck that is in two days. I am NOT vegan. These are absolutely fantastic, and I will make them again!! I was worried about my ‘regular’ brown sugar, so I used ‘Sugar In the Raw’, which I have fallen love with! But seriously, these cookies are super delicious, with or with the sugar rolling, which gives them a little crunch. I made a few without, and I loved them.
Hi Marsha,
What a fantastic item to bring to your potluck! We are so happy to know that you loved them! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
These are amazing!!! I’ve made four batches this past month. Vibrant flavor. I baked some at recommended time for soft chewy cookies and slightly longer for a bit of a crunchier cookie. Making two more batches today. My son and his girlfriend, and me too, think they’re the best cookies they’ve ever had. I followed the recipe to the tee. But did add a 1/4 tsp of allspice. Thank you so much.
Hi Tracey,
That’s awesome to hear! Thank you very much for the comment and we are so glad you enjoyed them!