These vegan molasses cookies are soft and chewy and spiced with cinnamon, ginger and molasses. The ideal holiday cookie!
These vegan molasses cookies are wonderfully soft and chewy and packed with delicious spices. It will remind you of a ginger cookie, while at the same time being completely different.
The molasses flavor is subtle, but distinctive, and combined with brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg creates a magical holiday cookie.
They’re super simple to make, don’t require any chilling of dough or any extra steps, so you can have a batch of warm fresh baked cookies in front of you in an easy breezy 30 minutes.
I hope that sounds tempting! Because I’ve just about tempted myself to stop writing this and go whip up another batch right now.
Let’s just say, these cookies are always a big hit in our house. I’ll definitely be making these many more times and certainly for Christmas.
And if you love Christmas baking then you’ll love our vegan snowball cookies, vegan butter cookies, vegan gingerbread loaf and vegan gingerbread cookies.
How To Make Vegan Molasses Cookies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add vegan butter and light brown sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add molasses and vanilla and mix in. Add all purpose flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt and mix in with a spoon (don’t use your electric mixer for this part) until crumbly.
- Add non-dairy milk, only as much as needed to get it to a consistency that can be easily rolled into balls.
- Break off pieces of the dough and roll into balls. Roll the balls in sugar. Place them on a parchment lined baking tray. Flatten with a fork.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool and firm up directly on the baking tray.
The Best Molasses
A dark molasses is going to be best for these cookies. It should say unsulphured on the label.
Grandma’s unsulphured molasses is a good brand that I’ve used before.
If you don’t have that brand in your country, just use any brand that is dark in color and says ‘unsulphured’ somewhere on the label. It should work fine.
Storing and Freezing
Keep your cookies stored in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 4 days. They can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container as well for up to a week. Let them come to room temperature before serving.
They are also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Vegan Brown Sugar Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Vegan Butter (170g)
- ¾ cup Light Brown Sugar (150g)
- ¼ cup Unsulphured Molasses (60ml)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour (280g)
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 ¼ tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- ¼ cup White Granulated Sugar (50g) For rolling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add vegan butter and light brown sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add molasses and vanilla and mix in. Add all purpose flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt and mix in with a spoon (don’t use your electric mixer for this part) until crumbly.
- Add soy milk (or another non-dairy milk), only as much as needed to get it to a consistency that can be easily rolled into balls. If your vegan butter is a very soft variety then you may not need to add any non-dairy milk at all.
- Break off pieces of the dough and roll into balls. Roll the balls in sugar. Place them on your parchment lined baking tray. Aim to get 20 cookies from the batch. Flatten with a fork before baking.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool and firm up directly on the baking tray.
Video
Notes
- Molasses: Use unsulphured molasses. Grandma’s molasses works great.
- Storing: Keep your cookies stored in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 4 days. They can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container as well for up to a week. Let them come to room temperature before serving.
- Freezing: They are also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
- This recipe was first published in November 2018. It has been slightly updated with extra tips but the recipe itself is unchanged.
Can I use fresh ginger? If so how much in place of ground. Thank you!
I made these using a gluten free vegan flour blend for an event that had both vegan and gluten free attendees. I baked them in mini muffin tins after mushing about 1/2 tsp ginger chips in the center. Had rave reviews! Making them for another public event for a gluten free vegan offering to those who want or need it.
That’s great Joey! Thanks for your awesome review!
I made these with vegan margarine. I had a similar experience as another reviewer that the dough was quite sticky. I added more flour until I could roll it into balls, but the balls were quite misshapen. After baking them the cookies were fairly round. Still, they tasted great! I got 27 cookies out of it. Next time I’ll probably double the spices for a stronger flavor. My family loved it! Definitely making more batches of this during the holidays. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
Hello,
I was wondering should I roll them in sugar if I”m going to be making a royal icing for the top?
I feel like that might be too much sugar.
Hi Megan, I think you could leave out that step if you’re frosting them. All the best! 🙂
Love these molasses cookies! I subbed coconut oil, coconut sugar, and used gluten-free flours of brown rice and millet (1/2 of each). Baked them 3-4 minutes longer (14-15 mins) and they turned out amazing! A slight crunch on the outside and a nice softness on the inside. YUMM! The flavors pop! Next time I may follow the guidance of another baker’s comments and double the spices to add even more pizazz. This will be a great vegan, GF treat to give away to my neighbors and service providers for Christmas. Thank you for the recipe! Next up is the Ginger Snaps. 🙂
So happy to hear they were a success! Thanks so much for sharing your adjustments! 🙂
Made these last night because I had a craving. Ate one cookie and gave the rest away<3. These are my fave! Thank you, Alison!
Thanks for the great review Bradley!
Hi there! Could I use coconut oil instead of vegan butter? Soy allergy!
Hi Sarah, yes you can!
These cookies are Delicious!!! We skip the step of rolling in sugar at the end and add 1.5 cups of raisins instead. Also have doubled all the spices except the ginger so loads of flavor but not too sweet – mmmm! Always get rave reviews (when there are any to share) – thanks for another Great Recipe!
That sounds wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing Jane!
I have always loved molasses cookies and was excited when I saw this.
So I used vegetable spread instead of vegan butter and they didnt get crumbly and so I couldnt roll them into balls, since they stuck to my hands and even gloves. I kept adding flour but was afraid they wouldn’t turn out right so used a cookie scooper and rolled them in sugar best I could, since it was sticking to the scooper too. Obviously no milk needed. Maybe less butter or more flour next time if I use the vege spread again.
It was quite the nightmare, but I have to say it was TOTALLY worth it!! They were huge, chewy and heavenly! I ended up with about 25 cookies which was a bonus. I brought some to my Mom and she couldn’t stop eating them!! SOO much better than store bought!!
Thank you for another winner!
yay! So glad they turned out good! Thanks for the awesome review!