Delicious crinkly, soft and chewy vegan molasses cookies that are packed with festive flavor. Spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and molasses, they're made completely eggless with no butter!
These cookies will stay soft and chewy for days and are perfect for gifting seeing as they are stored at room temperature. You could even bake them alongside some vegan gingerbread cookies and create cookie gift boxes for family and friends!
What to expect from these molasses cookies
- Made without butter, using cashew butter. This not only makes these cookies slightly healthier, but it also lends a delicious deep-roasted cashew flavor to these biscuits!
- Easy to make
- Makes crinkly, soft, and chewy cookies
- Flavorsome and full of warming winter spices
- Eggless and dairy-free and made without flax egg
- Great for special occasions such as Thanksgiving/Christmas/holidays
- Make a great Christmas gift
Ingredient notes
- Cashew butter: As briefly mentioned above, this recipe uses cashew butter in place of stand/vegan butter! Not only does this keep these cookies oil-free, but the cashew butter also bakes into a lovely roasted cashew flavor which comes through so perfectly along with the cinnamon flavor of these cookies.
- Soft brown sugar: The cookie dough is sweetened with sot brown sugar giving them a delicious caramel flavor and color. You can also use coconut sugar in place of regular sugar if you'd prefer.
- Molasses: The star of this recipe is molasses as it gives a deep, caramel, almost aniseed flavor to the biscuits. If you're not a fan of molasses, try using maple syrup in place of it.
- Aquafaba: This is the liquid from a can of chickpeas! It is commonly used as a substitute for eggs, which is why it's included in this cookie recipe.
- Vanilla extract: A touch of vanilla adds flavor and a mild aroma to the cookies.
- Plain flour: Regular flour works best for these cookies, although you could also use spelt flour, I have not tried using gluten-free flour to make these. Let me know in the comments section if you do and how they go for you!
- Baking soda: This is the leavening agent for this recipe, as it releases carbon dioxide when baked creating a soft cookie.
- Spices: We can't have ginger molasses cookies without a healthy dose of spices. Of course, you can add more or less to the cookie dough depending on your personal taste.
- Salt: If you're a long-time reader of ATD you'll know that I like to add a touch of salt to all of my dessert recipes. Not only does it help to balance the sweetness, but it also acts as a flavor enhancer.
- Cane sugar/demerara sugar: Granulated sugar (brown or white) is mixed with ground cinnamon which the cookies are then rolled in. This helps to give them a crisp, crunchy outer shell.
How to make this recipe (with step-by-step images)
(Full ingredient quantities and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post)
Make the cookie dough
First, cream together the wet ingredients with the sugar (in this case cashew butter, molasses, aquafaba, vanilla, and soft brown sugar).
In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt) and stir to make sure everything is mixed evenly.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl/mixer along with the wet ingredients and mix until they form a dough. This is a sticky dough, so you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook if you have one. If you're not using a stand mixer, be prepared to get your hands in there and knead everything together until the ingredients come together to form a dough.
Cover the dough with some cling film and chill.
Cinnamon sugar coating
For the coating, mix together sugar and ground cinnamon. Roll the chilled cookie dough into 12 balls and coat them in the sugar mixture before popping them onto a baking tray.
Use the back of the spoon to press the cookies down so that they are slightly flattened before baking.
Once baked, allow the vegan molasses cookies to sit on the baking tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Customizations
- Cinnamon molasses cookies: Ginger, although incredibly tasty, is a very punchy strong flavour and let's face it, it's not for everyone. Feel free to swap out the ground ginger with additional ground cinnamon in this recipe.
- Coconut sugar: For a lower refined sugar you can use coconut sugar in place of soft brown sugar and the cane sugar coating. If using coconut sugar, do note that your cookies won't spread quite as much as with soft brown sugar. I've tested these biscuits with both and the use of cane sugar makes a huge difference in helping the cookies to spread out and get crinkly.
- Nut-free: If you're looking to avoid nuts, you can swap out the cashew butter out for tahini.
- Cashew-free: I've tried these molasses cookies with both peanut butter and tahini which were both delicious, but bear in mind that whatever butter you use will have a strong effect on the end flavor of your cookies. So if you're not a tahini fan, I wouldn't recommend going that route.
Storage instructions
These cookies will be slightly firm/crunchy once freshly baked and will soften after the first day. They will last in a sealed container for up to a week.
Tips for making these molasses cookies perfectly
Pan-bang your cookies
If you prefer thinner flat and crinkly cookies use the pan-banging method from The Vanilla Bean Blog.
Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. Then remove from the oven and bang the baking tray on your work surface (pan-bang). Then place back in the oven to bake for another 2 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and pan-bang them again.
Chill the cookie dough
To make the best ever molasses cookies, make sure you chill the cookie dough for at least an hour prior to baking. You can keep the dough in the fridge overnight if you want!
Evenly measure out your cookie dough
For the evenest cookies, use digital kitchen scales to measure out your individual cookie dough balls.
More vegan cookies
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Description
Ingredients
- ½ cup (128 g) cashew butter
- ⅔ cup (106 g) soft brown sugar, or coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup (112 g) molasses
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) aquafaba
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125 g) plain flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon (15 g) ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Garnish
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated cane sugar, or demerara sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Add the cashew butter, soft brown sugar, molasses, aquafaba, and vanilla extract to a stand mixer or large bowl and whisk for a couple of minutes until all the ingredients have been mixed throughly.
- In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl/mixer along with the wet ingredients and mix until they form a dough. If you're not using a stand mixer, use your hands to bring the ingredients together to form a dough. Cover the dough with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F).
- Mix together the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Once the cookie dough has been chilled, divide the dough into 12 sections and roll them into balls with your hands. Roll the cookies in the cinnamon sugar and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the cookies.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Allow the cookies to sit on the baking tray for 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Storage
- These cookies will be slightly firm/crunchy once freshly baked and will soften after the first day. They will last in a sealed container for up to a week.
Nutrition
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