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These Gluten-Free Molasses Cookies are soft, chewy, and packed with nostalgic flavors! Made with real molasses, extra ginger, and wholesome gluten free ingredients, they’re a healthier twist on the classic molasses cookies you grew up with. No flour or added oils—perfect for holiday baking or any time you crave a comforting treat.
Molasses cookies with a extra zing
As the holidays approach, these ginger molasses cookies are a reminder that you don’t have to choose between indulgence and balance. A few smart swaps—like using gluten-free or flourless options—can make your seasonal treats feel a little lighter while keeping all the flavor you crave.
These ginger cookies are the ultimate blend of warm spices, chewy texture, and that deep, rich molasses flavor. These cookies just feel like a warm hug on a chilly day.
- Serve them fresh from the oven for a soft, chewy bite, or let them cool for a slightly crisp edge.
- They store beautifully, making them ideal for holiday gifting or prepping ahead for gatherings.
- Rolling them in coarse sugar before baking adds a satisfying crunch and a sparkly finish that screams festive.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Almond Butter: Serves as the creamy base, adding richness and a subtle nuttiness.
- Molasses: Provides depth and a signature holiday flavor with its rich, slightly sweet, and tangy profile.
Nutrition Note: Did you know that 5 tablespoons of molasses contains 95% of your daily allowance of iron? This is great for those with anemia or vegans/vegetarians who may not get enough iron in their diet already.
- Ginger, Cinnamon, Clove, and Nutmeg: Ginger might steal the spotlight in these cookies with its bold zing, but the blend of warm spices adds a cozy, festive charm that truly completes the flavor.
- Eggs: Help bind the ingredients and give the cookies their chewy texture.
- Unrefined Sugar: A natural sweetener that balances the flavors without being overly processed.
- Optional Mix-Ins: Add a handful of candied (crystallized) ginger chips or dried cranberries for extra zing and tartness that adds a delightful finish to each bite.
Baking Tips & Substitutions
- Substitutions: Don’t have arrowroot flour? Tapioca flour works as a substitute, though the texture may vary slightly. Similarly, you can swap coconut sugar for brown sugar, but keep in mind that brown sugar is refined. Don’t have eggs? No prob! These molasses cookies are delicious with flax egg as well. Or you can make my cranberry molasses cookies.
- Altitude Baking: If you’re baking at high altitudes, I’ve tested these multiple times (hello, altitude struggles!) and included adjustments in the recipe notes to ensure perfect cookies.
- Texture Variations: Want crispy cookies instead of chewy? These cookies can be baked either way. Check out the notes for instructions on how to achieve your preferred texture.
How to Make Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Start by preheating your oven and getting a baking sheet lined with parchment paper—it’s all about the prep! Mix your dry ingredients (think oat flour, spices, baking soda, and baking powder) in one bowl. In another, stir together the molasses, almond butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
- Next, slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mix. If you’re feeling fancy, fold in some candied ginger chips. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour—it helps with shaping later. Once chilled, roll the dough into little balls, coat them in sugar, and pop them onto the baking sheet.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes for soft, chewy cookies or a couple of minutes longer for a crispier bite. Let them cool for a few minutes before transferring to a rack. Easy, right?
More of Our Favorite
Gluten- free Christmas Cookies
Ginger Molasses Cookies (Gluten-Free)
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 15–17 cookies 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Chewy ginger molasses cookies are delicious gluten free holiday cookies, made with simple ingredients! Easy to make, no oils, dairy free, healthy, and delicious!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 cup gluten-free oat flour (120 grams) or 1 ¼ cup gluten-free rolled oats (see notes)
- ¼ cup arrowroot starch or tapioca flour (30 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
- ½ cup creamy, no-stir almond butter (see notes for nut-free option)
- ¼ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- ¼ cup cane sugar
- ⅓ cup molasses (80 grams)
- 1 egg, at room temperature.
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ to ½ cup sugar or raw sugar for coating
Optional Mix-Ins: Candied ginger chips and/or dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- In a separate bowl, combine molasses, almond butter, and ¼ cup cane sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract, beating until smooth.
- Gradually stir the dry mixture into the wet ingredients until fully incorporated. Fold in any mix-ins, if desired.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 1 day. The longer the chill time, the crispier the cookie.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball, and coat it in the extra sugar. Place the coated dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 minutes for crispier cookies.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.
Notes
- Nut-Free Option: Sunflower seed butter can replace almond butter. However, the cookies may develop a green center due to the reaction with baking soda. This is completely safe to eat and normal.
- Make Oat Flour: Blend 120 grams gluten-free oats in a high-speed blender or food processor until finely ground to make your own oat flour.
- Texture Tip: Chill the dough for optimal shaping and less spreading during baking.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- chill time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: dessert
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 135
- Sugar: 11.7 g
- Sodium: 70.4 mg
- Fat: 5.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.8 g
- Fiber: 1.4 g
- Protein: 3.2 g
- Cholesterol: 11.6 mg
Wow. I made these yesterday and I’m making them again today. I subbed the egg with a flax egg, peanut butter instead of almond butter, maple syrup instead of the coconut sugar, and tapioca instead of the arrowroot, just because that’s what I had available. They came out amazing. I’ll be making these a LOT. Thank you.
Hi, I am dying to try this recipe ? but I am not sure if I use honey instead of sugar. Would it be ok?
Thanks
Hmmm I think it may change cookie texture. A sugar free substitute can be used, like stevia baking sugar (will be more sweet), Swerve, or you could even use raw cane sugar.
If you do end up trying it with honey, lmk how it goes!
I followed the recipe but the mixture was nowhere near a consistency that could be rolled in to a ball, and I even added a third of a cup of almond flour to try and firm it up. I assume this is because I didn’t freeze the mixture. I will try again, because they were delicious.
Oh sorry to hear. Yes, definitely freeze. It helps a ton!! Did you use a different flour?
I used arrowroot starch, but I also used dark brown sugar instead of coconut sugar. I will certainly try this recipe again. I have a silicone truffle mold I could use to freeze the batter in.
Please keep me posted!
These are absolutely delicious cookies! As s cyclist, it is great to find cookie recipes with no flour of any sort and no unrefined sugar (except maybe in the ginger chips). Thank you so much for creating this recipe. I will use the rest of the ginger chips this weekend To make a second batch. They keep very well!
Oh I am so glad! Yes, they are actually great for breakfast too. Hehe! MErry christmas sarah!
I love cookies, especially the simple recipe. I will make them for my family this weekend. When I come across a problem, I will come back.
These are so yummy, made them last week. My hubby asked me to make them again tonight!
Oh yay!! so glad! They are delicious I agree. Haha
LOOKS SO PERFECT GIRLFRIEND.
i’ll pick up two dozen tomorrow 😉
I want a stack!
Oooh, I need to get my hands on some of these!
You can send me off to work with these, and by work I mean juggle the tiny human. Hell I’d feel good about sharing these with her too, even if I don’t actually want to share. At least I know she’d be getting real food ingredients and a shitton of iron.
I would gladly deliver this and coffee (maybe with a shot of bourbon) to you any day! How are you? I miss your face.
So much goodness in these cookies, Linds! And I love the molasses in there… it is SO good for us. So I need to eat more cookies, right? I like your theme for November. We need more of this, especially during the holidays when our time for nurturing can be sucked up by all the things. Delicious work my dear! xo
Nut butters can make seriously amazing cookies without the regular butter. I love that you’re going with the Nurturing November theme. One thing I never get from your blog is restriction but nourishment and excitement about finding ways to fuel the body and mind and soul with such good, delicious food. Bookmarking these to make soon!
Nourishing November… On it!! LOVE ginger! Favorite cookies… Anything molasses/ginger/snickerdoodle 🙂
Is there a sweetener replacement I can use? I love ginger molasses cookies, but am diabetic and I can’t eat any sugar…even palm sugar. I am just learning to cook with sweetener replacements so I am asking first rather than experimenting for myself ;> Thanks! (PS I am following the THM eating plan to help control my diabetes)
totally understand! Are you wanting to replace molasses?
no the palm sugar. Will one of the THM products work? or truvia or pyure or stevia in the raw? These look so yummy..I can have the molasses, for some reason it doesn’t raise my BS levels, but any kind of sugar will…
You can totally use Stevia in the raw! I did that too. Super easy and still tasty. Keep me posted Jackie
Any baked goods are my favorite. Bonus if they include chocolate. 😉
or bourbon. right? 😉
I love ALL cookies. LOL Will you send me a batch of these for my birthday pretty please?
Anything for you!
OMG !!!! You know this is all for me!!!!!!! ?????????????????????????
I shall deliver!
I am in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These look and sound amazing. I love the fact about iron and molasses. Around here people drink Guinness when they need iron. It actually used to be prescribed to pregnant women to keep their iron up. Personally I’ll go with cookies for iron. Gorgeous!
Haha no way! My husband is part irish so he love guinness!
I love everything about these cookies 🙂
and I love you!