Sourdough Ginger Molasses Cookies

Ginger, spices, and molasses are classic holiday flavors that converge in these easy, soft, and chewy Sourdough Ginger Molasses Cookies. They’re sure to become a favorite Christmas sourdough cookie!

The sourdough molasses cookies are made with ground ginger and other warm spices, sourdough discard, molasses, brown sugar, and rolled in raw sugar. No decorating is needed for these already sparkling cookies!

Molasses and sourdough discard make a chewy and soft cookie that stores well for Christmas cookie boxes and gifting. You can even make or freeze the batter in advance, so you can have sourdough ginger molasses cookies on a whim.

The detailed recipe walks through how to make these easy and quick cookies with all of my ingredient recommendations, baking tips, and photos of each step.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Made with warming spices like ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
• Soft and chewy texture for days.
• No fancy equipment is needed to make them- just a bowl, spatula, and whisk.
• Excellent for shipping in Christmas or holiday cookie boxes.
• You can make the dough ahead and rest it in the refrigerator to bake later (you can even freeze them!).
• Store well and keep for a week.

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🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Ginger Molasses Cookies

• Let the cookie dough rest and chill for at least an hour before baking. This allows the dough to hydrate, lets the flavors meld, and ensures the cookies don’t spread too much. I do this in many sourdough dessert recipes and cookies to increase flavor.
• The key for soft, chewy sourdough molasses cookies is to slightly “underbake” them. They will cook through, but they may appear underbaked when you remove them from the oven.
• Roll the cookies in raw sugar or turbinado/demerara sugar for a sparkly, shiny cookie.
• For crinkly edges and more texture, I pan-bang or slam the cookie pan at 7 minutes during baking. It helps the cookies spread and gives them a wavy outside like in my Sourdough Snickerdoodle Cookies.
• Finally, when you mix the cookie dough, only mix until the flour is hydrated and no more. Overmixing will lead to more gluten development and a less tender cookie. Gluten is great for making sourdough breads, but not soft cookies or pastry like Sourdough Pie Crust or rough puff pastry in Sourdough Pop Tarts.

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🛠 Tools Needed

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make sourdough ginger molasses cookies, but I list my tool recommendations below so you’ll have the most success!

While I don’t call for a stand mixer for this recipe, you can also use one if that’s easier for you.

• Baking scale
  • Ingredients like flour and sourdough starter weigh differently from person to person when measured by volume. For the best results, I recommend using a baking or kitchen scale.
• Whisk & Spatula
• Large cookie scoop (3 TBS, #20 cookie scoop)
  • Optional, but helpful. A cookie scoop will help you portion out even-sized cookies. This recipe makes about 18-20 45g cookies. Alternatively, you can use a large spoon and weigh out the dough.
• Sheet pans lined with parchment paper

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions.

• All-purpose flour
  • If you use whole wheat flour, the cookies will not spread as much, but they will also have a more robust and hearty flavor.
  • Rye flour is particularly nice in spice cookie recipes.
• Baking soda
  • Helps the cookies spread and interacts with the acidity in the sourdough starter, molasses, and brown sugar.
• Salt
• Ground Ginger
  • The key to any good ginger cookie is fresh ground ginger. It’s a spicy, pungent flavor that’s excellent in my Sourdough Zucchini Bread as well.
  • If your spices are over a year old, you may need to replace them if their flavor isn’t strong.
  • You can add more or less ginger to this recipe depending on how spicy you like them.
  • If you love ginger, add some freshly grated ginger to the recipe to mix in some crystallized ginger!
• Cinnamon
  • Most spice cookies include ground cinnamon. It adds a subtle warmth to the background but isn’t prominent like in Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls, Sourdough Graham Crackers, or Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread.
  • Cardamom is a delicious substitute for cinnamon in this recipe with a slight citrusy flavor.
• Cloves
  • Use a small amount of ground cloves to balance the sweetness, as it tends to go a long way.
  • If you want an even spicier cookie, add some ground black pepper, allspice, or nutmeg.
• Molasses
  • Use unsulphered molasses in this recipe, not blackstrap.
  • These cookies have a pronounced molasses flavor like my Sourdough Gingerbread Cake with Cranberries, Sourdough Bran Muffins, or in this Sourdough Anadama Bread.
• Egg
• Dark Brown Sugar
  • Adds more molasses flavor, sweetness, acidity, chewy texture, and helps them spread.
  • Light brown sugar is fine to use too.
• Unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • Melted butter makes for a chewier cookie in this recipe.
• Sourdough discard (or active starter)
  • Sourdough discard is unfed sourdough starter that you can use in sourdough discard recipes. When I feed my starter, I store the discard in the refrigerator so there’s no waste. Learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch and my top sourdough starter tips.
• Vanilla extract
  • Vanilla brings out more depth in these cookies so the molasses and spice flavors shine.
• Raw sugar
  • For rolling the cookies in before baking and creates a slight crunch and sparkly exterior.
  • You can use turbinado or demerara sugars, or substitute with granulated sugar.

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👨‍🍳 How to Make Sourdough Ginger Molasses Cookies

Follow this visual recipe guide as you make these sourdough discard ginger molasses cookies. It includes additional tips and photos to help you throughout the process.

1. Mix the Dry Ingredients

In a large mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.

Set aside as you mix your wet ingredients.

2. Mix the Wet Ingredients

Whisk the molasses, egg, dark brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl, breaking apart any clumps of brown sugar.

Then, pour in the sourdough discard, whisk, and add the melted and cooled butter last.

Whisk together until you have a thick, gooey, and shiny mixture.

3. Mix the Cookie Dough

Dump the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Then, use a spatula to mix the dough together just until the flour is hydrated and no dry spots remain.

It’ll be a sticky and wet dough.

Don’t overmix, or you’ll get a tougher and denser cookie.

4. Chill the Dough

At this point, the batter is too wet to roll out and will spread too much if you bake immediately.

Chilling the batter for an hour will allow the flour to hydrate further, let the flavors meld, make shaping easier, and allow you to bake on your own schedule.

Cover and transfer the bowl of dough to the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour and up to a couple of days in the refrigerator.

5. Portion and Roll in Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC) with a rack in the middle.

Add the raw sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Using a large cookie scoop or spoon, portion out 18-20 large cookies (about 3 TBS or 45g each).

Then, roll the cookie balls in the bowl of sugar and space them a few inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. I can fit 8 on a large baking sheet as they do spread quite a bit.

6. Bake

Bake the cookies one pan at a time in the center rack of the oven for 7 minutes, slam the pan on a counter, and then bake for another 4-5 minutes, finished by another bang when they come out of the oven.

At the end of baking, the edges should be just set slightly and the centers should look a little underbaked. That’s okay! They will continue to bake a bit out of the oven, crack, and give you chewy cookies.

If you prefer crispier cookies, let them bake an additional couple of minutes.

Finally, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

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How to Store

These homemade sourdough molasses cookies store very well due to the moisture content of the molasses, fermented sourdough discard, and dark brown sugar. It makes them perfect for gifting in Christmas or holiday cookie boxes!

Store the sourdough discard ginger molasses cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.

The cookies are excellent for freezing, so you can always make the cookie dough ahead of time and bake straight from frozen. Baking them straight from frozen may add a few more minutes to the cooking time and they may not spread as much.

To freeze, portion the cookie dough in a single layer on a baking sheet with parchment paper until frozen solid. Then, transfer the balls to a freezer safe bag for 3-4 months.

You can choose to thaw overnight in the refrigerator (recommended) or bake straight from frozen.

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❓ FAQs:

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Other Sourdough Winter Recipes You May Enjoy:

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