Desserts
Round ginger and molasses cookies
Plain ginger and molasses cookies with weighed ingredients, chilled dough and two oven batches for 24 cookies.
- Total time
- 159 min
- Servings
- 24
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Cuisine
- European-inspired
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
Wet ingredients
Method
Weigh and organize
Wash your hands and prepare scales, two baking sheets about 40 × 30 cm lined with baking parchment, a mixer, spatula and cooling rack. Weigh 300 g flour, 6 g ginger, 3 g cinnamon, 3 g baking soda, 2 g salt, 100 g butter, 80 g brown sugar and 100 g molasses. Beat the egg in a bowl and weigh 50 g without shell. Leave the butter for about 20 minutes until it yields to pressure without melting; use about 10 of those minutes for weighing and organizing. Keep the egg refrigerated until needed. Never taste raw flour or dough.
Mix the wet ingredients
Beat the softened butter and brown sugar until there are no large lumps. Add the weighed molasses and egg, mix and scrape with the mixer switched off until combined. Allow about 5 minutes in total. Do not add honey, water, vanilla or more egg: this formula and calculation include only the weighed ingredients.
Combine the dry ingredients and dough
Separately combine all the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt, breaking up lumps. Fold into the wet mixture with a spatula until no dry flour remains, without prolonged kneading. Allow about 5 minutes. The dough will be sticky; do not add extra flour. If loose flour remains, scrape and keep combining; any quantity change requires recalculation.
Divide and chill
Divide all the dough into 24 equal portions in about 5 minutes; the initial 644 g correspond to about 26.8 g per portion before baking. With clean hands, form balls, place in a container, cover and refrigerate at 4 °C or below for 60 minutes, until firm. Preheat the conventional oven to 175 °C during the final 15 minutes of chilling. If more chilling is needed, add the actual time.
Flatten without a coating
Put 12 balls on each baking sheet in a 4 × 3 grid. Flatten between small pieces of baking parchment with a flat base into discs about 6 cm wide and 1 cm thick; leave about 3 cm between edges and remove the top paper. Allow about 10 minutes for both sheets. Use no dusting flour, coating sugar or icing. Keep the second sheet refrigerated while the first bakes.
Bake one sheet at a time
Bake the first sheet on the middle rack for about 12 minutes at 175 °C; check at 10. The edges should look firm and slightly darker, with a set center and no wet dough. Remove with oven mitts and bake the second sheet for another 12 minutes; allow about 3 minutes to change sheets. The oven time is 24 minutes and the whole stage 27 minutes. If still raw, bake longer and add the time: a photograph cannot validate doneness.
Cool completely
Leave each batch on its sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer with a spatula to the rack for another 20 minutes, until cold. Cooling the first batch overlaps baking the second; allow a full 25 minutes after the last sheet comes out. Do not close the container while the cookies are hot. The time through the end of cooling is 157 minutes, including overlapping tasks; add any extra cooling or baking.
Serve and store
Allow about 2 minutes to share out the 24 cookies without decorations or included accompaniments. The full time is 159 minutes, with one cookie as the nutritional serving. Once cold, keep in a clean tightly closed container in a cool, dry place; eat within 48 hours. Do not store damp or underbaked cookies or judge safety by smell.
The step photos are illustrative.
Notes
Nutrition facts
One cookie; 24 cookies
- Protein
- 1.6 g
- Carbohydrates
- 16.2 g
- Fat
- 3.7 g
- Saturated fat
- 2.2 g
- Fiber
- 0.4 g
- Sugars
- 6.4 g
- Sodium
- 72.8 mg
Nutrition information estimated from the ingredients (USDA FoodData Central). Brands may vary.
Reference source: USDA FoodData Central — SR Legacy
For general information only; it does not replace advice from a qualified health or nutrition professional.
About this recipe
Round cookies with ground ginger, cinnamon and molasses, without icing. Divide all the dough into 24 portions; chilling, two oven batches and cooling are included in the 159 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Can I replace the molasses with honey?
Not as a direct swap with an identical result. Molasses has different flavor, color and moisture; honey, syrup or highly concentrated molasses require adapted quantities and recalculation. This recipe calculates generic USDA cane molasses.
Why chill the dough rather than add more flour?
Chilling makes the dough easier to handle without dusting flour. The time is 60 minutes at 4 °C or below; extend it if still soft. Extra flour changes the ratio and texture. Never taste raw dough: chilling does not remove raw flour and egg risks.
How many cookies and how much time?
It makes 24 round cookies from about 26.8 g initial dough each and 159 full minutes, including two oven batches and cooling. If size or oven conditions differ, adjust actual baking and total time; store them dry for 48 hours.
