This recipe for soft and chewy Bourbon Molasses Cookies is perfect for the holiday season! Made with brown sugar and festive spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and even a little black pepper! But it’s the bourbon and fresh orange zest that really make these cookies stand out from the rest!
Molasses Cookies
With Christmas just a few weeks away, I wanted to pop in and quickly share my recipe for chewy molasses cookies with you! These cookies are so festive and perfect for holiday celebrations or cookie parties. They taste just like the ginger molasses cookies we all know and love, but even better! Because they have a subtle bourbon flavor that’s to die for. I made a batch for a cookie swap last weekend and EVERYONE wanted the recipe. Even the women who don’t typically have bourbon in their home said they would buy a bottle just to make these cookies. That’s when I knew I needed to share them with you!!
Molasses Cookie Recipe
Even if you’re not a huge fan of bourbon, I encourage you to give these molasses cookies a try!
Because the bourbon isn’t overpowering and it actually gives the cookies a subtle caramel flavor. It’s so DELICIOUS! Oh, and don’t worry about getting buzzed off of these cookies. There’s only 3 tablespoons of bourbon in the recipe and most of the alcohol bakes out while the cookies are in the oven! Unfortunately I don’t have any suggestions for substituting the bourbon, so if you can’t consume it, I suggest making my soft and chewy gingersnaps instead.
Do I need to Chill the Dough?
Please note, the cookie dough for this recipe needs to chill for at least 4 hours!
Like most recipes for molasses cookies, this recipe requires you chill your dough. This is important to know in advance so you can plan ahead time wise. But don’t let the chill time get you down! Because this cookie dough can be chilled for up to 72 hours. And scooped and frozen for up to 2 months! Just add an extra minute or two onto the bake time when baking from a frozen state.
These soft and chewy bourbon molasses cookies are sure to make your holiday season extra sweet! Enjoy!
More Cookie Recipes:
If you try this recipe for Bourbon Molasses Cookies, let me know! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your kitchen creations makes our day.
Bourbon Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons ground ginger
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 TINY pinch finely ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 and 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup molasses (not blackstrap variety)
- 3 Tablespoons bourbon
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (for rolling the cookie dough)
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, black pepper, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Add in the vanilla and orange zest and beat until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in the molasses and bourbon and beat until combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredients and beat until it’s evenly incorporated.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, and up to 3 days.
When ready to bake:
- Preheat oven to 350 (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- Roll the dough into 3 Tablespoon sized balls. Fill a small and shallow bowl with granulated sugar. Roll each ball in the sugar until it's completely coated. Place the sugar coated cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each ball for spreading.
- Bake, one tray at a time, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies have puffed up and have begun to slightly crack on top. (They will crack more as they cool, so don’t over bake!)
- Remove from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack. Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer the cookies to a separate cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie dough.
- Serve cookies warm, or completely cool them and store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Cookies may also be frozen for up to 3 months.
These cookies are so wonderful – I would definitely say they’re bakery quality! The recipe does make 24 cookies if you use the exact measurements and roll them into 3 tbsp balls as directed, however they will take almost double the time to bake than the directions say.
They were still raw in the middle at 10 minutes, so after some experimenting I found that they fully baked at 17/18 minutes in the oven on convection setting. Five stars for flavor, but four stars for the directions because they took much longer to bake than the recipe says.
These ended up being more dome shaped and cake-like than the photos show but I honestly prefer them that way!
I tried these came out super thin. I am wondering about a couple things. Is the oz of butter correct or should it have been 12 tablespoons and the other was the flour…did you use a scoop and sweep or spoon and sweep method. I am a stickler for following a recipe and this one did not work- just trying to troubleshoot on my end. I also chilled for 7 hours as well. Thanks
This is one of the best cookie recipes out there! Make the recipe just as it says (yes! 3 cubes of butter!) The only thing I do differently is scoop the cookies as soon as I make them. I place them right next to each other on a cookie sheet and put them in the fridge like that. With all that butter I find it nearly impossible to use my cookie scoops once it’s already chilled. They’re easy to roll in the sugar or put right in the freezer if you’re not cooking them all right away. Thanks for the killer recipe. Making them today for a New Year’s get together.
Is rum a good substitute for Bourbon I just don’t want to go out and buy a bottle for cookies ☺️
I baked these Bourbon molasses cookies today. They have a nice flavor. I used 2 tablespoon scoops and had to cook them for 11 to 12 minutes each because they were wrong in the middle otherwise. They’re still chewy and gooey And taste wonderful. I make molasses crinkles every Christmas. I prefer the texture, flavor and aesthetic of my molasses crinkle recipe that uses Crisco rather than butter.
The flavour of these did not disappoint, though if I was going to make them again I would use slightly less molasses and more bourbon and orange to really bring those notes out. I knew that this was going to make well over the 2 dozen cookies that is listed in the recipe ( I got to this recipe by asking for smaller batch cookies…) but after making 1/2 ounce sized balls (about the size of an egg) I got well over 8 or 9 dozen ( I stopped counting – but if you only get 2 dozen cookies from this much dough, you are going to be eating MASSIVE cookies). So that means that making them is a bit of a project – it took several hours between making the dough and doing all that baking. Tasty, but a commitment.
I think there is a recipe error. A 3 Tablespoon scoop is an ice cream scoop! They took 14 minutes of baking in a 350F Convection oven. I modified to a 2 Tbsp scoop, 350F Convection Oven for 10 minutes. Much better size. I would increase the pepper to at least 1/4 tsp but I do like a spicy cookie. The orange rind and bourdon blend really well.
I tried twice to make these and neither time did they turn out. I tested my baking soda and the temp of my oven as well as weighed and measured to the exact. They were very inconsistent. I would love any advice. On the very same pan I had some cookies absolutely flat and right next to it one that didn’t spread at all. I am at a loss. I’m not a novice baker but this has me baffled.
Hi Pamela. I’m so sorry these didn’t work out for you! It sounds like the cookie dough was not evenly combined before baking. Because this recipe makes a lot of cookie dough, it’s easy for ingredients to not fully incorporate. I would suggest scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl frequently, and making sure the cookie dough has been well combined before baking.
I made these cookies and shared them with some people who appreciate bourbon and all of them gave very positive remarks. I loved them and will make another batch at Christmas.
Is there no flour in the recipe? Sorry I didn’t see it above the ad. I see it now.