Canadian Molasses Cookies

Canadian molasses cookies, or ginger crackles, are an old-fashioned spiced molasses cookie recipe that are especially popular in rural Canada. These cookies have a crispy edge and chewy centre, with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, and freeze spectacularly.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

How This Recipe Works

This is a very old-school molasses cookie recipe, for small, fairly thin cookies that have a crisp edge. They're really classic ginger cookies and come together very quickly, with no need for chilling the dough or softening butter first. These are made with shortening or coconut oil.

Like most of the old-fashioned Canadian recipes I share, this recipe comes from my grandmother-in-law, Ileen McCannel. She was a wonderful baker and made these cookies for decades. They're titled Ginger Crackles in her recipe card and they do have a beautiful crackled appearance.

My mother-in-law has very kindly shared many of her handwritten recipes with me and I've retested with modern measurements and methods to share here on the Baked Collective. The recipes are always excellent but you know how true bakers are - it's all bake until done and measure by feel - so we always test to make sure anyone can make them before sharing.

Ingredients You'll Need and Why

It's a great last-minute recipe, because the cookies are made with shortening (coconut oil) instead of butter, so you didn't need to remember to take anything out of the fridge. These are our notes from recipe testing, and notes included in the original recipe card. You can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Flour: this should be all-purpose white flour. We only test with unbleached flour. We haven't tried these cookies with gluten-free alternatives.
• Sugar: plain white granulated sugar. Cane sugar or other unprocessed sugar types will change the texture of the cookies.
• Molasses: this should be fancy molasses, not blackstrap. Unless otherwise specified you should always use fancy molasses for baking.
• Oil: use coconut oil or shortening. The coconut oil can be deodorized or unrefined, depending on whether you mind if the cookies have a slight coconut taste or not.
• Egg: this should be a large egg (57 grams weighed with shell) at room temperature. Using a cold egg can cause the oil to harden.
• Spices: dried ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. We've provided two options for the amount of cloves depending on how strong you like it. Try substituting 1 tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger for the dried if you'd like.
• Baking soda: this was one notable change we made from the original recipe, and that was to reduce the amount of baking soda added. The cookies originally contained 2 teaspoons of baking soda, which gave them a slightly metallic flavour - not all taste-testers noticed this, but we did, and the cookies spread just as well with the reduced amount.

How to Make Molasses Cookies

If you're measuring with cups, you can lightly grease the cup before measuring out the molasses. It's difficult to get it all out otherwise. If you have a kitchen scale, use the gram measurements instead and you'll have much less mess!

Step 1: beat the oil and sugar to combine, then beat in the egg, then the molasses. The mixture should be thick and glossy once the molasses is incorporated. The oil and sugar won't cream like butter and sugar would, but it should gain some volume.

Step 2: add the flour, baking soda, and spices and mix again to combine. Beat on low speed until just mixed, being careful not to over-mix the dough. If mixed too long, the cookies will be tough.

Step 3: roll the dough into small balls, then roll in additional sugar. The added sugar makes for a crisper exterior and more attractive cookies and shouldn't be skipped.

Step 4: bake until the edges are just set. The cookies should still be slightly soft when removed from the oven and will set as they cool.

Expert Tips for the Best Cookies

• Roll in sugar before baking: this crisp sugar exterior adds a lot to these cookies, and it's well worth doing.
• Rest the dough: for thicker, softer cookies, rest the dough at room temperature for 1 hour before baking. We don't recommend refrigerating this dough, as it gets very hard and almost brittle. As written, the cookies should be thin and slightly crisp.
• Don't use blackstrap: if you see a sweet recipe calling for blackstrap molasses, whoever wrote that recipe is not to be trusted. Blackstrap is not for baking.

More Cookie Recipes