Chewy Chocolate Molasses Cookies

Chewy, chocolatey and perfectly spiced, these chocolate molasses cookies are the perfect addition to your holiday cookie boxes. With a deep chocolate flavor and chewy, fudgy texture with a delicate crunch of granulated sugar on the outside, they are sure to become a fast favorite!

The secret to extra chewy, fudgy cookies that stay soft for days is threefold: brown sugar instead of white, an extra egg yolk, and melted butter instead of creamed—melted butter also means no electric mixer is required (though you can certainly use one if you like!)

Soft, chewy molasses cookies are some of my favorite holiday cookies, but I always lament the lack of chocolate. Personally, I love the combination of gingerbread and chocolate (it’s a combo I’ve used multiple times before with delightful results). So I figured, why not take the perfectly chewy, crinkly molasses cookie and make it chocolate?

The result is nothing short of decadent: an intensely flavored, satisfyingly chewy cookie spiked with sultry molasses flavor, fragrant ginger and cinnamon spices, plus a intense hit of cocoa powder. Oh, and a pinch of instant espresso powder to enhance the bittersweet flavor of the chocolate even more (it’s such a small amount that the cookies don’t actually taste like coffee, I promise, though you can certainly leave it out if you wish).

The recipe is based off my chewy molasses chocolate chip cookies, with just a few changes for a vastly different final product: melted instead of creamed butter (for a more consistent spread and a fudgier texture), all brown sugar, an extra egg yolk (again, we want chewy and fudgy!) and a bit of cocoa powder replacing some of the flour (it’s not a direct 1:1 replacement though, otherwise the cookies will spread too much).

The cookies are rolled in granulated sugar for a crunchy, sparkly finish. I used organic granulated sugar, which has a slightly larger grain size that gave the cookies an almost sparkly appearance. Raw or turbinado sugar would also work, though turbinado can be very coarse (I found it too crunchy, overpowering the lovely fudgy, chewy texture of the cookies).

Want an extra dose of chocolate? Fold some finely chopped chocolate or mini chocolate chips into the dough before chilling, or add a drizzle of melted chocolate over the tops of the cooled cookies (and sprinkles, don’t forget sprinkles!) for an extra special touch.

What’s brilliant about these cookies is, thanks to the stellar hydroscopic properties of both brown sugar and molasses, they stay soft and chewy for days. That’s no exaggeration.

I recommend storing them in an airtight container at cool room temperature or in the fridge where they’ll keep for up to a week.

They also freeze beautifully, somehow coming out of the freezer even chewier than they were before. I like to wrap them up back to back in groups of two, either bagged in cute little treat bags or wrapped in plastic wrap, then placed in a ziptop bag to freeze for up to 3 months. This way you can so easily grab a single serving bag when the craving hits (yes I believe 2 cookies is a single serving, what gives?) Let them sit at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes if you can stand to wait, then dive in and enjoy!

While I have not tried freezing the unbaked dough balls (since the baked cookies keep so beautifully I figured, why bother), but I imagine it’d work just fine. Freeze the shaped and sugar-coated dough balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, then transfer to a zip-top bag once frozen solid.

When baking from frozen I usually recommend decreasing the oven temperature (try 325ºF) for a longer time (maybe 15 minutes? Keep an eye on them as they may need a little more time so the center isn’t underdone).

The secret to soft, chewy, fudgy cookies (as compared to say, soft, cakey cookies) is threefold: melted butter, brown sugar, and an extra egg yolk.

In my testing I inadvertently added two whole eggs to the batter instead of 1 whole and 1 yolk (oops). I didn’t want to waste the ingredients so I baked them up anyway, and the cookies were noticeably puffier, less crinkly on top, and with a much cakier texture. If you like that sort of thing, feel free to use 2 whole eggs in this recipe instead (also up the flour by 2-3 tablespoons).

Melted butter versus creamed butter is also one way to get a fudgier cookie; I also find that cookie dough made with melted butter is more consistent from batch to batch (versus creamed butter cookies which often look completely different from one pan to the next). Melted butter also has the benefit of allowing you to mix the dough entirely by hand with just a whisk and a spatula, no electric mixer required!

Finally, using all brown sugar instead of a white sugar will impart more moisture into the cookies and retain it as well thanks to the hydroscopic nature of brown sugar, resulting in a cookie that stays softer and chewier for much longer without trying out.

Baking science is so cool, isn’t it?

Since the recipe calls for melted butter, you can make this entirely by hand—no electric mixer required!

That said, if you prefer to use an electric mixer you certainly can! When you add the flour just be sure you don’t overmix, stop just when there are no streaks of dry flour remaining. Don’t forget to scrape down the beaters and the bowl a few times too!

The cookie dough calls for a brief chill, just 20 to 30 minutes, until the dough has firmed up just enough that it can be handled without making a sticky mess.

Tip for chilling cookie dough: spread the soft dough evenly up the sides of the bowl, forming a crater of sorts, before covering and refrigerating. This will allow your dough to chill more quickly an evenly than if it were in a big blob in the bottom of the bowl.

If you find your cookies are spreading more than you’d like them to, you can either chill the dough for another 15 to 30 minutes, or mix in another few tablespoons of flour (and even a mere 15-20 grams of flour makes a noticeable difference in the shape and spread of the final cookies).

Also don’t forget the cookie cutter trick: swirl a round cookie cutter (slightly larger than the final cookie size) around the warm cookies immediately after taking them out of the oven. This will tuck in the uneven edges and make for perfectly round cookies (it’ll also salvage cookies that may have spread a bit too much).

Combine brown sugar and molasses in a mixing bowl (use a digital scale to measure the molasses without dirtying a measuring cup!)Add melted butter and whisk until mixture is smooth and there is no longer a slick of butter visible.Add one whole egg and one egg yolk.Whisk eggs into batter until very smooth and emulsified.Add dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, spices and salt) to bowl with wet ingredients.Gently mix in dry ingredients just until fully incorporated and no streaks of dry flour remain (you can also use an electric mixer on low speed if you prefer).Use a spatula to spread dough up the sides of the bowl so it chills more evenly.After chilling, use a medium cookie scoop to portion dough into 30g/2 tablespoon balls.Roll dough into smooth balls between your palms.Roll dough balls in granulated or organic/raw sugar to give them a sparkly finish.Arrange sugar-coated dough balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving 2-3 inches of space between cookies.Right when cookies come out of the oven, swirl a round cookie cutter around the cookie to make the shapes perfectly round.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

All-purpose flour: I used regular unbleached all-purpose flour for these cookies. For cookies like this one a few tablespoons of flour can make a huge difference, so I recommend weighing your flour whenever possible, or if you don’t have a scale, but one (jk jk ok you definitely should have a kitchen scale handy, but if you don’t, the fluff-scoop-sweep method will give you the most accurate results in terms of measuring your flour. DON’T scoop straight from the bag, please!)

Brown sugar: the cookies themselves use all brown sugar for an extra chewy texture and a robust, almost burnt caramel-like flavor. You can use light or dark brown sugar, either works, or even a mix of both (which is what I did out of necessity because I ran out of light brown).

If you don’t have brown sugar, 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon molasses is usually a pretty accurate replacement.

Granulated sugar: coating the balls of dough in granulated sugar before baking results in a delicate crunch and a beautiful crackly appearance on the outside of the cookie. I used an organic granulated sugar, which has a larger grain size than conventional granulated sugar (giving the cookies an almost sparkly appearance). Raw or turbinado sugar would work as well, or just use regular granulated.

Molasses: As far as the molasses goes, I recommend using an unsulphered light or mild molasses, like Grandma’s Original or Brer Rabbit Mild. Dark or robust molasses will work but will impart a darker color and more bitter molasses flavor to the cookies. I do not recommend using blackstrap molasses in this recipe as it will be far too biter.

Egg/egg yolk: using one whole egg plus an egg yolk makes for an extra fudgy, chewy cookie (compared to using two whole eggs which would make the cookie more cake-like).

Espresso powder: the recipe calls for a very small amount of instant espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor (one of my favorite tricks for chocolate desserts!) It’s such a small amount, however, that the cookies don’t have an obvious coffee flavor. Note that instant espresso powder is NOT the same as ground espresso coffee beans, which will not fully dissolve and will impart a gritty texture. Instant coffee powder would work better if you need a replacement, or leave it out entirely if you like (conversely, increase the espresso powder to 1/2 to 1 teaspoon if you DO want a noticeable coffee flavor).