Old-Fashioned Amish Molasses Cookies

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This is a recipe that Susan Schlabach from The Home Place shared with all of us.  The Schlabachs are Beachy Amish Mennonite, so their culinary roots are in the Amish church and this Amish molasses cookies recipe is one familiar in Amish settlements.

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• 🍪 Old-Fashioned Amish Molasses Cookies
• 📋 Instructions
• 🍪 More Amish Cookie Recipes
• 🖨️Full Recipe

Molasses is a favorite way to celebrate the Christmas season in Amish kitchens, whether it be through gingerbread cookies, molasses cookies, or in some pies. Nothing quite says Christmas like the smell of molasses cookies lifting from the oven in an Amish home.

In southern Amish settlements, homemade sorghum molasses is a staple in the pantry.  By autumn the sorghum season is done for another year and the fresh molasses find its way into all sorts of baked goods.  If you are not a molasses fan, you'll still like these cookies because they aren't overpowering in their molasses taste. This recipe doesn't call for any vanilla, but you can add a teaspoon vanilla extract if you like for a touch more flavor.

AMISH PRO TIP: Almost every Amish cook I talk to recommends refrigerating cookie dough overnight, or at least a couple of hours, if you can. It just causes the dough to hold together better and you don't get thin runny cookies.

Then you can easily form into balls and drop onto a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet or baking sheet. These molasses cookies are like something mom would make.

What is the difference between sorghum and molasses? A lot of people use these interchangeably, but sorghum is made from cane whereas molasses is made from sugar cane. This may seem like semantics. The processes or making them are similar, but, well, for your purposes, sorghum is usually thinner and drizzled as a topping on pies or cookies. Blackstrap molasses is a sweetener and thickener more commonly used and better suited for baking.

For this recipe, you can use light molasses or dark. I like the darker, richer flavor that dark gives.

Most Amish cooks would just use a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon when mixing this dough. But you can use an electric mixer at medium speed in a medium bowl or, if you are messy, like me, use a large bowl. When the cookies are done baking, cool on wire racks.

🍪 Old-Fashioned Amish Molasses Cookies

• 1 ½ cup butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups molasses
• 12 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoons cloves
• 2 tablespoons ginger

📋 Instructions

1. Cream together.
2. Mix dry ingredients together and add
3. Add to eggs and molasses and beat until fluffy.
4. Mix well.
5. Add flour, salt, baking soda and spices
6. Form balls, roll into granulated sugar; flatten lightly.
7. Bake at 300-325 for 12-15 minutes.
8. Optional: dip half into melted white chocolate.

🍪 More Amish Cookie Recipes

Amish Triple Treat Cookies

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

Funeral Cookies

🖨️Full Recipe