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Rich, spicy, heart-warming vegan molasses cookies. Mmm... These gems are brimming with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and the robust flavour of molasses. They're soft, chewy, and oh-so comforting.
I used dark brown sugar and blackstrap molasses for the deepest molasses flavour. If you prefer something milder I'd suggest subbing inuse fancy molasses and light brown sugar.
You can roll your cookies in raw sugar, sanding sugar, or even just regular granulated sugar for a touch of holiday sparkle. Next time, if I used raw sugar again, I'd just press the tops in the sugar instead of rolling them - the large sugar granulesare pretty crunchy.
Red Path is my go-to brand for most sugars. They've got plain ol'white sugar, plus golden yellow, dark brown, and demerara style sugar. For rolling I used Sugar in the Raw (not Red Path.)
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Vegan Molasses Cookies
★★★★★4.8 from 41 reviews
- Author: Brittany Mueller
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 48 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Baking, Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
Description
Chewy, rich and spicy vegan molasses cookies brimming with ginger and cinnamon.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
- ½ tbsp (7.5 ml) cinnamon
- 1 tsp (5 ml) ground ginger
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) ground cardamom
- ½ cup (120 grams) vegan butter, melted
- ⅔ cup (130 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (125 ml) blackstrap or fancy molasses
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) vanilla extract
- raw sugar (for rolling)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. Mix well.
- In a larger bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, molasses and vanilla.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Pour raw sugar into a bowl for rolling.
- Scoop cookie dough by the heaping tablespoon and roll into balls. Roll or press dough in raw sugar. Gently press each dough ball to flatten slightly. Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving at least 1 ½" between cookies.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are cracked, puffy, and the edges appear cooked. Cool on a cooling rack.
- Once cool store in a sealed container.
Notes
For best results, make sure to measure your flour accurately! How to Measure Flour.
Keywords: vegan molasses cookies
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Reader Interactions
Comments
M.
Fantastic cookies! I've made them several times.
★★★★★
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Jenna
So soft and delicious
★★★★★
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Victoria
Excellent cookies! I subbed 1/2 oat flour, 1/2 chickpea flour. I also subbed 90 g olive oil for the 120g vegan butter (another baker advised to use 3/4 oil for 1 cup vegan butter). Next time, I'm going to try replacing part of the oil with apple sauce or mashed sweet potato.
★★★★★
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Kelly
Soooooo good! Even non-vegan's love them!
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Carla @ Foodie Digital
These are officially my family's new favourite cookie recipe! I was a little impatient and didn't want to wait for the dough to firm up on the fridge, so I skipped melting the vegan butter before I creamed it with the sugar. Despite my cheat, the cookies turned out amazing, with a crispy cracked outside and soft chewy inside.
★★★★★
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leona
ive been making these regularly for a couple of weeks. ive adjusted the spices to my taste but found it unusual that there was no salt? I've been making them with oil in place of vegan butter and using 3g of salt per batch.
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Ashley C.
Amazing cookie! I made these for my neighbors as a gift. I didn't follow the recipe exactly - instead of butter I did 1/4 coconut oil and 1/4 applesauce. I didn't have cardamom on hand so I did 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cloves
For anyway wondering about the gluten free flour swap, it worked just fine! I made a batch of gluten free too. They didn't rise as much as the normal flour batch but they were just as tasty!
★★★★★
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Ren
I'm so glad I only made a half batch of these... because I ate the lot in less than a day. Whoops! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
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Elaine
Hello. Wondering about recommendation for GF flour. I’ve got every kind just want to know what’s best.
I’m also curious if you solved the mysterious problem only a few people are having with taste/baking soda?
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Brittany
Hi Elaine! I'm no expert on using GF flours but in my limited experience a 1 to 1 ratio all purpose gluten free flour is your best bet. I would recommend trying Bob's Red Mill, King Arthur, or Cup4Cup. And yes, the baking soda issue has been solved! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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Ann
I used pecan oil in place of the vegan butter (which I believe often has coconut oil in it which I can't eat. I have many food sensitivities.) They came out FANTASTIC! Totally delicious!!! I saw no need to refrigerate them before rolling, since the fat I was using wasn't going to firm back up in the fridge anyway.
★★★★★
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Glenn
Wow! You hit it out of the park with these cookies. Enjoying my first batch with my family on Valentine's Day.
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Maya
I made these last night, and the texture was pretty good but they tasted pretty terrible. I couldn't really taste any spices and the whole thing was just musty tasting. I followed the recipe to a t, and I had all of the right ingredients so I'm not sure what went wrong 🙁 worth a try though!
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Lauren
Did you have covid induced taste alteration maybe??
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Allison
They really are perfect! So pretty, pillowy and chewy. In case anyone's wondering, I was out of ground ginger so I substituted approx. 1 1/2 Tablespoon of fresh grated ginger. It worked fine!
★★★★★
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kathy
Just made these, and they are so good! Even got a "these are the best cookies ever" out of my daughter:) I used coconut oil and they turned out great. My only suggestion would be to double or triple the recipe.
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Angelia Freeman
First try at a vegan cook and they are fabulous! I coconut oil instead of butter and added a flax egg and 2Tbl water. One cookie is perfect to satisfy a sweet tooth.
★★★★★
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Stéphy
I really enjoyed these and that was even if I was missing a few ingredients at hand such as vanilla and cardamon! I omitted rolling the cookies in sugar and they were still plenty sweet and since I only had 1/4 cup of butter left, I subbed the reminder with 1/4 cup of yogourt. Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
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Shade
I have made this recipe so many times and the beautiful cookies turn out every time!
I bring them when I go and visit my friends and family and they are always pleased!★★★★★
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Denton Cook
Best vegan cookies ever. I will try to make with applesauce instead of butter. Thanks for the recipe
★★★★★
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Brittany
Yay! Thank you very much Denton! I'm glad you enjoyed them 🙂
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Cheryl
A delicious and healthier kind of cookie---beautiful texture and flavor 😊
★★★★★
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Allie
Mine had a terrible bitter baking soda flavor as well, don’t know why it didn’t work for me!
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Sabrina L Williams
Excellent!
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Melissa
Yep, these are perfect! I did half applesauce & half coconut oil and reduced the baking soda to 3/4 tsp for high altitude. Dipped just the tops in the decorating sugar. So yummy and soft and chewy!
★★★★★
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Amara
I'm confused. I saw the 2 1/2 tsp of baking soda in the recipe and thought, "this can't be right, that seems like a lot of baking soda. But everyone said they're great, so I guess I'll go with it." Well, sure enough, all I can taste is the baking soda. They're actually pretty gross. I went back to double check that I read it correctly and I did. Otherwise they baked up beautifully, but I find the baking soda taste makes them inedible. Sorry for the negativity, but I'm quite disappointed.
★
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Brittany
Hi Amara, I'm very sorry the recipe was a flop for you. It is interesting that so many people really enjoyed the recipe, but I have had another commenter mention that the cookies tasted very salty. I imagine that would have been the baking soda flavour. There's a good chance that the strong spices and molasses are masking an overpowering baking soda flavour for many people. I'm going to re test this recipe to double check it and adjust the amount of baking soda. I apologize for the inconvenience, having a recipe turn out badly is really disheartening. I appreciate your comment, and at the very least, it'll help others to not share your experience. Thank you for give the recipe a try and for commenting.
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Melissa
I am wondering.... if I make these and then freeze them for
Christmas, will they still be nice and chewy when thawed?Reply
Cathy
Super easy and super YUMMY! I used coconut oil and no cardamon. I added cloves and allspice instead. My non-vegan husband loved them!
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Brittany
Thanks so much Cathy! I'm glad you and your husband enjoyed them 🙂
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Amanda
I made these for a Christmas dessert yesterday, and they were fantastic! Crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. I used coconut oil instead of the butter, and it worked perfectly. Thanks for sharing!!!
★★★★★
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Brittany
Thanks so much Amanda! I'm so glad you enjoyed them. Thank you for trying the recipe and taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
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Judy
Just made these as a surprise for my daughter, who’s vegan. I didn’t have vegan butter or vanilla (yikes) so I substituted margarine and maple syrup. They taste great, really soft with nice balance of spices. Super easy to make.
Now I have to stop eating them before she gets home from work. LOL.★★★★★
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Melissa
I subbed half vegan butter half coconut oil and coconut sugar and added a couple tablespoons of almond milk for moisture.
They turned out great!!
Thank you!!★★★★★
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Brittany
So glad you enjoyed them Melissa! Thank you for commenting and rating the recipe, I really appreciate it! 🙂
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diane
These are fabulous, and my husband says "taste just like his moms" now that's a compliment. hahaha I used applesauce in place of the butter and left out the cardomon, a spice I dont much care for, but used clove in its place. I keeper recipe,
★★★★★
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Brittany
Thank you so much Diane! I was trying to recreate my mom's molasses cookies, so I'm so glad to hear that 🙂 Thanks for commenting and rating the recipe, I really appreciate it!!
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rajal sharma
hi can i use normal butter instead of vegan
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Stefanie
Just made these, and they were delicious! I substituted Zulka Morena Pure cane sugar for the brown sugar, and used it for the rolling, as well. After pressing the cookies onto the baking sheet, I decided to spoon a tsp or so of jam into the center. I baked them about 12-14 minutes and they came out great, especially after refrigerated for a firmer fruit center! Thanks for the recipe, it’s been added to my ‘tried & true’ board!!
★★★★★
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Sylvia
These were delicious! Highly recommend.
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Mary-Anne LaMarre
I made these to make my house smell yummy during the blizzard. This is my go-to recipe for comfort cookies. Perfect in every way. Thank you!
★★★★★
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Michaela
Fantastic recipe. Turned out exactly as described - chewy on the inside with a lovely crackle and balanced spice flavor. I have tried many recipes that boast a perfect crackle and they have never delivered. This is a recipe I will keep forever. Delicious!
★★★★★
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Jen
So disappointed. I wasted a lot of time and about 10 bucks making these and to quote my husband, "These are the worst cookies you've ever made."
They are SO salty, like so salty that I have to throw them away. I've never seen a recipe call for so much baking soda before, I guess that's the cause. Not sure why I'm the only one experiencing this problem.
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Mary-Anne LaMarre
Jen, perhaps you made a mistake when measuring the baking soda? I've made these a dozen times and no one has ever made a comment about tasting salt. So sorry!
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Jessica O
I don't have vegan butter, can I sue olive oil instead?
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Brittany
I wouldn't... I'd use coconut oil or vegetable shortening instead! If you do try it with olive oil I'd love to know how it turns out!
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victoria
I used olive oil, which I think would have been fine, but I added in 1 tbsp water because it looked a little dry. These cookies taste great for me came out pretty flat because of it.
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Kayla Slater
I made these cookies for my work Christmas party and they turned out great!! Very excited to share this recipe for my vegan and dairy-free coworkers and friends!! Thanks for sharing!!
★★★★
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Brittany
Yay! I'm so glad to hear that Kayla! Thanks for trying the recipe and taking the time to comment! ♥
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Zelda Reben
These are literally my favorite cookies ever. AMAZING. My oven usually cooks them longer at 12-14 min, but they always come out perfectly.
★★★★★
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Brittany
Yay! Thanks so much Zelda! I'm so glad you like it!
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Jessica O
I am new to being Vegan. So I was wondering could you use olive oil instead of the vegan butter?
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Brittany
I wouldn't! You're best bet is to use another oil that's semi-solid/soft at room temperature, not liquid. If you need to use something other than vegan butter I'd go with coconut oil or vegetable shortening instead. If using coconut oil I'd use a little bit less than 1/2 cup and add a tiny bit of non-dairy milk to make up for the difference.
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Victoria
It looks like it's possible in some cases to sub oil for butter when baking. Specifically, this articles says that if the recipe calls for melted butter -- as this recipe does-- it should work. https://www.southernliving.com/fats/butter/substitute-butter-for-oil. Here's another article that says how to do the conversion: https://www.livestrong.com/article/442739-how-to-replace-butter-for-olive-oil/ It seems from the comments that this is a pretty forgiving recipe, so I'm going to give it a go and will consider adding a flax egg if necessary (as per other comments)
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victoria
Oh, also I went ahead and used olive oil because I saw somewhere that it is a good 1:1 substitution in recipes that call for melted butter. In other recipes that call for creaming together butter and other ingredients, it should not be used.
★★★★★
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Lauren
Hello!
Is this best with dried or fresh ginger?Thanks!
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Brittany
Dried!
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Kelly
These are fantastic! Chewy, soft, and not too sweet. Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
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Brittany
Thank you so much Kelly, I really appreciate your feedback! 🙂
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Tina
I made these last night and they're fantastic! They have a rich, bold flavor and were so easy to throw together. I used a little cookie scoop and ended up with 36 2-inch diameter cookies - wonderfully chewy - plus one double sized fatty which was *extra* soft. Since making these was an example of what I call "stress baking," --that is, I didn't need 37 cookies lying around the house; I just needed to bake something... for wellness 🙂 --I brought them with me to the cafe where I study (medical student) and offered them to all the regulars I see there. They were a huge hit! I even gave a stack of them to a homeless man who asked for donations. He took the cookies in his hands and said with wonder, "Oh, they're all... *bends them to display softness and chewiness."" He said they were really good! Doubt he's vegan, haha. I'm really impressed with the warm, homey, autumnal flavor of these cookies, and it was really delightful the way they brought my eccentric little cafe community together. I'll definitely be making these again.
★★★★★
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Brittany
Thank you for taking the time to post a comment Tina! I really really appreciate it. And your stories about these cookies absolutely made my morning!! Thank you for trying the recipe and sharing them with your community. You're the best!! ♥
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Ben
These are cookies are fantabulous! #greatShare
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X
Is there any particular reason why you use vegan butter instead of oil?
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Brittany
Yes! Vegan butter is "solid" at room temperature, making it a better replacement for butter than most oils. Vegan butter is also similar to butter in its flavour and nutritional profiles. Vegetable shortening or coconut oil (for best results you don't want to substitute coconut oil 1:1 for vegan butter/butter) are also solid at room temperature so they can be used as substitutions with some adjustments.
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Adrian
Hi Brittany - Found sticks of vegan butter at the store, and bought salted AND unsalted. Which is best to use for this recipe? Thanks!
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Lisa d
Turned out beautifully
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Lili
Hi! Do you think these could be made with white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour? Thanks so much! They look delicious!
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gab gab
These are fantastic. Followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious. I ate like all of them in one sitting!
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Aly
Made these with gluten free flour and applesauce in place of the melted butter, worked perfectly! dough was sticky but made sure to stick it back in the refrigerator each time a batch went into the oven so it helped keep it firm enough to roll. chewy, soft and made the whole house smell good lol! delicious recipe!
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Brittany
YAY! That's wonderful to hear, I'm so glad they worked out for you with your substitutions. What kind of gluten free flour did you use? Thanks for commenting Aly!
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Eileen
do you think I could I use gluten free all purpose flour instead of regular flour? thx!
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Brittany
I haven't tried it myself but you could give it a try with 1:1 GF baking flour. I'd just start with a little less flour than I called for in the recipe.
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Alexandra
Hello! these look so yummy, is there anything i could use in place of the melted vegan butter? such as coconut oil? thanks!
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Brittany
You can try coconut oil! I'd use about 1/3 cup coconut oil and add 1 tbsp + 1 tsp of water to ensure the cookies aren't greasy. I hope that helps!
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Alexandra
Okay, thank you so much! I will see how it goes! (:
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Brittany
😀 Good luck!
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Erica
Perfect! My batch was a tiny bit dry so I added a flax egg. Will definitely make again. They were a hit at the office cookie party!
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Brittany
Yay! Thank you!
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Heather
I already love pretty much every cookie but I think this has become my favorite. I had leftover blackstrap molasses from a different recipe so I decided to make these and they were the BEST. Also, I was surprised at how quick they were to make. The first time I made them, I thought it was weird that there was no salt in the recipe, so I added some, and...it was a mistake. Hahahaha so there's definitely a reason you didn't put in salt, I think the salt just strengthened the molasses flavor and made them a bit too bitter. I still liked them a lot, but I just made them again with no salt lol and they're perfect. I can't believe I never knew how much I loved molasses. Thank you Brittany!
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Brittany
YAY! Thanks so much Heather 🙂 I too thought any cookie recipe would need a little salt and originally tested the recipe with some but I quickly realized that the molasses and leavening agents provide plenty of sodium in this recipe. Thanks for commenting, I'm glad you love molasses!! 😀
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Hannah
These were the first vegan cookies I've ever made, super easy to make and love their melt-in-your-mouth texture. I used blackstrap molasses as it was all I had on hand so they ended up tasting very molasses-ey and a bit too strong for some people, still really good though.
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Brittany
Thanks so much Hannah! I think blackstrap is best for people who LOVE molasses but I'm glad you still enjoyed these cookies! 😀
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Vicky
Delicious! Perfect amount of sugar and touch of spice. I haven't binged on cookies in a while- but couldn't help myself😊
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Brittany
Haha, thank Vicky! I'm so glad you enjoyed these 😀
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Grace
Great recipe! I didn't have any vegan butter so I used coconut oil which led to a lot of trouble binding (couldn't even consider it a dough, more like greasy brown flour) But! I ended up adding a chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seed + 3 tbsp warm water) and that really made a difference!! They did need longer in the oven, but the texture turned out alright and the flavor was AMAZING.
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Brittany
Thanks for commenting Grace! I'm so glad you were able to adapt this recipe to suit your needs. Thank you for including your subs so others can use them too. 🙂
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Carrie
Wow! These are so good and easy to put together! My 3 year old helped mix them up and then she went ahead and ate them all. Thanks for sharing. This one is a keeper!
★★★★★
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Brittany
Wonderful! Making cookies as a kid is so fun, thanks for trying out my recipe 😀
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Amanda Clark
These are great!! The spices are perfectly balanced and they whipped up so quickly!
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Brittany
Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed them 😀
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Dorit Coish
I made these cookies today. I had two cookie sheets (same brand) in the oven and one sheet of cookies cracked on top and the other one didn't. Any idea why this would have happened?
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Brittany
Hmm... Interesting! Was one pan on a higher rack? I'm thinking one sheet didn't get hot quickly enough for the crust to cook BEFORE they started to rise and break the crust.
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Alissa
These were awesome! My mother in law actually burst into tears because her mother used to make her molasses cookies and "nobody else likes molasses cookies!" so she hadn't had them in years. Easy recipe, turned out great!
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Brittany
Oh my goodness, what a wonderful comment!! Thank you so much for inviting this recipe into your home for the holidays, that's so wonderful!
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Kat
Hi! These look absolutely delicious!! Is it possible to replace the vegan butter with apple sauce for an oil free version?
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Brittany
Hi Kat! I haven't tried that substitution so I'm really not sure. Please let me know if you give it a try and how it works out!
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Maggie
Hi! I am looking to make these and give them out as christmas treats. Would they be better to freeze the dough and then defrost as needed or to freeze the baked cookies?
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Kerry Lee Haas
Did you try the applesauce instead of oil, Kat? I'm a no oil vegan too and was wondering if it would work. Thanks!
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Sommer
I made these with applesauce and they came out perfectly! I also subbed coconut sugar for the brown sugar as I follow a non-refined sugar diet as well! No problems with the substitutions at all! They came out lightly sweetened with the coconut sugar and were full of flavor!
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Brittany
Thanks for you help Sommer!
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Sharon Magnin
I tried it and the cookies were a little bit tough. Flavor was good though.
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Ashlee Becker
Should the texture be crunchy or a bit chewy in the center?
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Brittany
I only cook them long enough for them to be chewy but you can cook them longer for crunchy cookies!
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courtney
Oh man!!! These are sooooo good. I made these tonight for dessert and my in laws LOVED them...so did I 🙂 I am in Darwin, Australia and put the dough in the fridge first to chill, then I noticed it was getting sticky while making the balls, so stuck it in the freezer while some cooked and just worked quickly. (The room temperature was about 33 degrees). I can't wait to make more and serve them at Christmas! Perfect amount of spice and flavour and deliciousness.
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Brittany
Thanks you SO much Courtney! I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂 If the dough gets warm the fat will liquefy and make the dough sticky so freezing it for a little while is exactly the right thing to do. Thanks for commenting!
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Maria
My teenage daughters are both vegan and looooove these cookies
They've become a staple requestReply
Mallory
The flavor is great. I substituted cardamom with cloves because I didn’t have any.
Only note is that they took way longer to cook. I put them in for twelve minutes and they came out undercooked. Maybe there’s something off with my oven?Reply
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