I am in full swing holiday cookie baking mode. My kitchen is stocked with butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. I have a list of (at least) a dozen cookie recipe experiments I want to try. There are Christmas movies playing 24/7 on TV. It is just the best.
Feeling a little nostalgic this weekend I decided to whip up a classic family recipe: Molasses Creams.
Molasses Creams are one of my great-grandma’s recipes. My mom remembers driving down to Iowa as a little girl with her brothers and parents every year to visit family for the holidays. My great-grandma would always send them back home to Minnesota with Molasses Creams wrapped with wax paper in shoeboxes.
Luckily, my mom was able to receive the recipe from my great-grandma before she passed away. They are now a family staple that make it to the “must bake” Christmas cookie list every year.
After you bake them, you’ll see why.
Molasses Creams are soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with cream cheese frosting. They are heavenly.
The molasses cookie dough comes together quickly and simply, but there is some rolling and cookie cutter-ing involved. Watch the movie Elf or sing along to Christmas music while you stamp out cookies and you won’t even mind the little bit of extra time that it takes. Just make sure that you roll your dough out on a well-floured surface. I didn’t and had one heck of a time with all those little circles.
These cookies bake up nice and soft. If you like them a little crunchier keep them in the oven for an additional minute or two. Once they are completely cooled, make them into delicious cookie sandwiches with some cream cheese frosting. Not just regular cream cheese frosting though, ginger cream cheese frosting. It’s amazing.
I hope you try them out and love them as much as my family and I do. Who knows, maybe you’ll even add them to your annual Christmas cookie baking list!
- 5 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 2 eggs
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixture, cream together the brown sugar and shortening until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
- Add the molasses, vinegar, and eggs. Beat until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the dry ingredients until all the flour is incorporated.
- Roll out the dough on a well floured surface until it is ¼-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to stamp out circles.
- Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes (the less you bake them, the softer they will be).
- Let cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting: cream together the cream cheese and butter, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and ginger. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the remaining powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- Add a dollop of frosting to half of the cookies and top with the other half to make a delicious cookie sandwich.
PS- Just a head’s up that December will probably over-index on the baking side of things, rather than the workouts. But then January will be the opposite, so it’s all good.
Have you tried substituting the shortening for butter? I don’t have any on me but I need these cookies in my life…I’m wondering if they would spread too much
Yes, you do need these in your life! And yes, you can definitely use butter instead of shortening! Happy baking 🙂
one last question: is 5 cups of flour a type-o or does this recipe make a huge batch? if so, how many cookies does it make? Thanks in advance, I plan on making them tomorrow!
5 cups is surprisingly not a type-o. I know, it’s a bit shocking. The dough is pretty stiff and doesn’t spread in the oven. This recipe does make about 30-35 small cookie sandwiches. You can half the recipe or use a bigger cookie cutter. Please let me know how they turn out!!
They are delicious!! Thanks for sharing this recipe – I’m sure it’ll become a new favorite in my family as well!
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I need these cookies in my life! Pinned. 🙂
Yes, you do! I hope you make them!
I am craving these and it is only Sept. Mixing bowls here I come