Maple Glazed Molasses Christmas Cookies are chewy and soft, full of spices that taste just like Christmas and last on the counter for days and days, unless of course, you eat them all up. These are our favorite holiday cookies by a long shot. They are made with molasses and four different spices, which when combined bring on all the nostalgia of Christmas and the Holidays.
Advent Cookie Tradition
During Advent we have a Norwegian tradition in our house. Each week we light the corresponding advent candle and my husband recites a Norwegian poem by Inger Hagerup. This is followed by enjoying a cookie and a coffee or tea for the adults. It is one of my favorite things during the holiday season. It is something that we each look forward to and we do our best to make time for. We have these Maple Glazed Molasses Cookies for most of our Sunday advent/cookie breaks.
One way that we make this happen is by having this cookie dough in the fridge during most of the month of December. I will make a big batch, or double batch, and keep any leftover dough in the fridge or freezer. I can then pull it out at any time and make a quick batch of cookies for our Norwegian Advent poem.
Maple Syrup vs Granulated Sugar
In this recipe I added a maple glaze for an extra festive holiday touch. Adding the gold sprinkles makes them shimmer and look extra special for an occasion without too much extra effort. We usually have maple syrup in the house for making granola, so making a maple glaze tends not to be an added expense since we don't have to go out and buy it. However, if you won’t use maple syrup for anything other than for this recipe, it can be pretty expensive, and you can always skip the glaze and roll the cookies in granulated sugar before baking.
Spices and Sprinkles
- I use 1 tsp of each of the four spices to keep things simple. It makes it harder to mix up the quantities, and creates the best combination of spices that taste just like Christmas.
- I bought these gold sparkling sprinkles at a regular grocery store and they make the cookies look extra festive without much extra effort. However, I will often dye regular granulated sugar different colors using regular food dye. If you already have sugar and food dye on hand it’s a lot less expensive and takes only 2 minutes to make.
- I like to use high quality organic cinnamon whenever I'm baking with cinnamon. It makes a big difference in terms of taste. In this recipe, however, cinnamon is only one of four spices, so it is not as crucial, but I still err on the side of high quality organic cinnamon, usually ceylon cinnamon from Whole Foods.
Maple Glaze
- I like to use a short juice glass to mix the maple glaze and dip the cookies. That way the glaze comes up fairly high in the juice glass making it easy to dunk the cookie in half way. If you use a wider bowl the glaze will be shallower and it will be harder to get that half cookie dip going.
- I like to scrape the excess glaze off the bottom of the cookie onto the rim of the juice glass just because I don't need THAT much extra sugar on my cookie. Its the top that you want to look pretty, but thats totally a judgement call.
Other Notes on Chewy Molasses Maple Glazed Christmas Cookies
- These cookies stay soft for days and days, which makes them perfect for mailing to friends around the holidays.
- It doesn’t seem like a lot, but this recipe makes about 30 cookies.
If you make this recipe, I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment down below or tag a photo on instagram!
Looking for more cookie recipes? You might enjoy these:
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Flourless Triple Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Maple Glazed Molasses Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
Molasses Cookies
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup molasses
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp nutmeg
Maple Glaze & Sprinkles
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- festive sprinkles
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together with a beater. Add the egg and molasses and beat to combine. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg, mixing until combined.
- Roll the dough into a log, wrap with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Roll about 1 ½ tablespoons of dough into a ball and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes and no more. Allow to cool slightly, then transfer the cookies to a drying rack.
- To make the glaze, in a small bowl or even a short juice glass, combine the maple syrup and powdered sugar with a spoon. Once the cookies have cooled completely, dip the cookies in the maple glaze and scrape off any excess glaze from the bottom of the cookie on the rim of the bowl/glass. Immediately sprinkle with sprinkles. Leave the cookies on the drying rack with a paper towel underneath to catch any drips of glaze until the glaze has hardened.
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