If You’re Looking for a New Christmas Cookie Recipe, This Is the One You Should Try

These cookies are as chewy and tasty as can be.

We made more than 50 batches to find the best recipe for an uncommonly soft, chewy cookie with warm, tingling spices. Carl Tremblay/TNS

Our ideal molasses cookie recipe would produce a charmingly crackled and crinkled cookie with an uncommonly moist, chewy interior and a spicy flavor with undertones of dark, bittersweet molasses. To make this molasses cookie recipe a reality, we started with all-purpose flour and used butter rather than shortening for full, rich flavor. The precise right amounts of molasses, brown sugar, vanilla, and spices gave us the flavor we wanted. Taking the cookies out of the oven when they looked underdone gave our molasses cookies the chewiness we required.

Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies

Makes about 22 cookies

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar (about 2 1/2 ounces; 71 grams), plus 1/2 cup for dipping
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (11 1/4 ounces; 319 grams)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar (about 2 1/2 ounces; 71 grams)
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup molasses (about 6 ounces; 170 grams), light or dark

Directions