Make our molasses cookie mix for easy and delicious spice cookies at the open of jar.

This simple mix holds the promise of great taste when given as a gift and looks beautiful in its simple canning jar presentation.

Whether you want to have the mix for yourself or use it for a gift, you can whip up ginger molasses cookies easily by having this mix prepared in advance.

Basic Ingredients

There is nothing fancy needed for the mix or for finishing the cookies, basic pantry ingredients combine with spice for flavorful ingredients. This is the amazing thing about this cookie recipe that has easily been around since the early nineteenth century.

And making it yourself means you can skip the or artificial flavors and expense of store bought boxes.

​The recipe was tested with a natural unbleached flour, the cookies might work with a whole wheat flour instead but that’s going to provide a very dense cookie.

You could use light or dark brown sugar in the mix – just go with what’s on hand.

Spice Blend

Because my favorite antique recipe uses a combination of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice that’s what I went with here in this recipe.

However, it seems like every cook has their own unique blend of spices for a molasses cookie in their country kitchens. So go with your favorites and feel free to use more of one or less of another depending on what you or your family personally prefer.

Molasses

Dark molasses provides a very rich flavor to these cookies – I used blackstrap molasses in the recipe photographed. We like that here, however; it can be too bitter for some folks. Use the kind of molasses you most prefer when you get to baking.

Making the Mix

If you’re going to make it and want to do so for gifts, make several batches at once.

Do it in a kind of assembly – put 2 or 3 jars on the counter and add the ingredients to each. Use a canning funnel to help get the ingredients neatly into the jar. Then simply seal up the mix to keep or give away.

Baking the Cookies

There are a few options here for doing the final cookies.

You can roll the dough and cut into shapes. This can be quite fun and obviously be decorated, if desired.

​Another option is to roll the dough into balls between your palms and then place on baking sheets. You can roll the ball in some granulated sugar, if desired, for extra sweetness and crunch. Once the balls are on the sheet, do press them down with your hands to flatten slighly.

We found that you get more moist cookies if they aren’t baked into thin shapes – the thin shapes will provide a much crunchier cookie – go with what you prefer.

Giving the Mix

The finished mix will fit perfecly into a standard wide mouth quart canning jar. You can probably find other containers if you want but there’s no need to buy something fancy.

​A great way to give the mix is to also give a tin of the baked cookies to someone – this way you can entice their taste buds into baking more later.

Combine the mix with other gifts-in-a-jar to give great baking ideas to your loved ones.

How to Store the Mix

The mix should last about 6 months in your jar.

The only thing that can go slightly wrong here is that the brown sugar might get hard. Do your best to make sure to get the lid on as tight as possible to help prent this.

How to Store the Baked Cookies

Put any baked and cooled containers in an airtight container where they should stay fresh for up to 5 days at room temperature.

For longer term storage, place into freezer containers and freeze for up to 6 months.

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Thanks for sharing!