Soft and Chewy Spiced Sourdough Molasses Cookies
These flavorful sourdough molasses cookies feature warm spices, caramelly molasses, and tangy sourdough. Make these soft, chewy cookies during the holiday season for a delightful treat worthy of any party or get-together. Happy baking!
Sourdough Tip
If you’re new to sourdough, make sure to check out my tips on How to make Sourdough Starter More Active.
What You’ll Like About Sourdough Molasses Cookies:
- This is a great recipe to use with either active sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard. Either will work because this recipe doesn’t rely on the starter to help the cookies rise. Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies are another of my favorite sourdough discard recipes.
- This favorite cookie recipe uses simple ingredients and can be ready for the oven in less than 20 minutes which means you can whip it up for after school snacks or last minute treats for so much fun!
- You have the option to ferment the sourdough cookie dough if you need to due to gluten sensitivity, or if you would like the health benefits. Scroll down for the long-ferment instructions.
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Ingredients for Sourdough Ginger Molasses Cookies:
Wet Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar (white or a mix of white and brown sugar)
¾ cup sourdough discard or active starter
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
Dry Ingredients:
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
One teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp salt
What you need to know about molasses
For a strong molasses flavor, choose a dark molasses but make sure it is unsulphured. For a lighter flavor, choose a light molasses. Blackstrap molasses is another type of molasses, but it is very bitter and will make your cookies inedible.
Sulphured molasses has been treated with sulphur dioxide as a preservative. This not only makes the molasses less sweet, but it gives it a chemical flavor. Unsulphured molasses is more natural and a better choice for healthy cooking and baking.
Tools You May Need:
Cookie scoop or small ice cream scoop
Stand mixer with paddle attachment
Non-stick ceramic rimmed baking sheet
How to Make Sourdough Molasses Cookies:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. To the butter mixture, add the unfed sourdough starter, molasses, and egg. Mix again at medium speed until the mixture is smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you mix.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the ingredients in the electric mixer and mix just until incorporated.
Using a cookie dough scoop, measure out 2 tablespoons of dough at a time and drop each dough ball 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes on the middle oven rack until the edges of the cookies are set. Remove from the oven and cool cookies on the baking tray for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. The cookies will continue to bake on the sheet pan until transferred to the rack.
Storage:
Store baked cookies in an airtight container or on a plate covered with plastic wrap for up to 5 days at room temperature. If you can’t eat your cookies fast enough, you can freeze the leftover cookies in ziploc bags.
You can also freeze the dough for a great way to make sourdough cookies later. To do this, transfer dough to an airtighter container and place in freezer. When ready to bake, thaw dough in refrigerator or on countertop until soft enough to scoop.
Long-Fermented Sourdough Chewy Molasses Cookies:
If you would like to long ferment these sourdough cookies for the health benefits, simply follow the steps above up to the point where you have added all of the ingredients to the stand mixer bowl and have mixed the dough just until everything is incorporated. Transfer the dough to an airtight container and place into the refrigerator to allow the dough to ferment for up to 3 days. The longer you allow the dough to ferment, the tangier your cookies will taste. Once you have fermented your dough, remove from the refrigerator and continue the steps as outlined above.
More Sourdough Cookie Recipes:
- Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
- Pumpkin Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Perfect Sourdough Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs
- Spiced Sourdough Snickerdoodle Cookies
Soft & Chewy Spiced Sourdough Molasses Cookies
These flavorful sourdough molasses cookies feature warm spices, caramelly molasses, and tangy sourdough. Make these soft, chewy cookies during the holiday season for a delightful treat worthy of any party or get-together. Happy baking!
Ingredients
- Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup sourdough discard
- ½ cup unsulphured molasses
- 1 large egg
- Dry Ingredients:
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. To the butter mixture, add the unfed sourdough starter, molasses, and egg. Mix again at medium speed until the mixture is smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you mix.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the ingredients in the electric mixer and mix just until incorporated.
- Using a cookie dough scoop, measure out 2 tablespoons of dough at a time and drop each dough ball 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes on the middle oven rack until the edges of the cookies are set. Remove from the oven and cool cookies on the baking tray for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. The cookies will continue to bake on the sheet pan until transferred to the rack.
Notes
- This is a great recipe to use with either active sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard. Either will work because this recipe doesn’t rely on the starter to help the cookies rise.
- You have the option to ferment the sourdough cookie dough if you need to due to gluten sensitivity, or if you would like the health benefits. Scroll down for the long-ferment instructions.
- Store baked cookies in an airtight container or on a plate covered with plastic wrap for up to 5 days at room temperature. If you can’t eat your cookies fast enough, you can freeze the leftover cookies in ziploc bags.