Soft Molasses Cookies

There are several kinds of molasses on the grocery store shelf, but which one is best for molasses cookies? Choices include light, cooking, unsulphured and blackstrap. Each style is a by-product of the sugar making process and they lend different flavors to baked goods. If you’d like a cookie with a lighter, sweeter flavor, cooking molasses is a good choice. Go with blackstrap molasses for a more robust flavor. If you’re not sure, unsulphured molasses is a great all-purpose choice.

This hearty cookie can stand up to a lot–freezing included. To save some of your molasses cookies for later, simply place cooled cookies in a plastic storage bag or airtight container and pop them in the freezer. Then when the cookie craving strikes, just defrost and enjoy.

While both would technically work, there are reasons for using shortening versus butter when mixing certain types of cookie dough. Shortening has a higher melting point, so cookies will hold their shape longer in the oven before the fat melts in the dough (and shortening doesn’t release any steam like butter) resulting in moist, chewy cookies–the ideal texture for soft molasses cookies. Butter melts more quickly and releases some steam so the cookies would be crisper and spread more, and have a distinctly buttery flavor. Some recipes even use a combination of the two fats.