Today’s Old-Fashioned Molasses Oatmeal Cookies are based on another great recipe from Noteworthy. They are big, soft, thick, dark oatmeal cookies stuffed with oats, raisins and nuts.
I was a little hesitant to try these because I love both molasses and oatmeal cookies, but haven’t had the best results when combining the two. These cookies were pretty much what I'd hoped, with the catch being the pecans and raisins are not optional. Since so many people have nut allergies or raisin aversions, I made half of the batter without the fruit and nuts and found the cookies spread and didn't hold their shape as nicely. But with the nuts they were great, and the raisins fit right in as well. In fact, next time I'll be adding even more dried fruit because these cookies would be awesome with dates.
Now if you are disappointed to hear that the cookies aren't the best without raisins and nuts, no worries! You can always make the Colossal Ginger Cookies. However, if you're looking for a good molasses oatmeal cookie, this recipe is worth a try.
Recipe
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 160 grams
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ cup vegetable shortening 98 grams do not substitute butter
- ¾ cup brown sugar 150 grams
- ½ cup molasses 150-160 grams, Brer Rabbit Mild
- 2 large or extra-large eggs
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats old fashioned
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the shortening, brown sugar and molasses until cream. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until light, scraping sides of bowl often.
- On lowest speed, blend in the flour mixture. When flour mixture is fully blended, stir in the oats, raisins and nuts.
- Using a ¼ cup measure or a large cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Anna says
Thank you Eva! Your comment just made my day. Seriously.
Eva says
Delish! First time baking molasses cookies easy to follow recipe as well.i bought a molasses cookie at bakery and loved it so had to try making them found your recipe and I love them better then the one I bought! I love any cookie that has pecans. Glad I found your recipe thank you.
Anna says
Kay, believe me I know the feeling!!! I'm pretty sure the reason it's hard to duplicate bakery cookies is because commercial bakers have access to special ingredients that home bakers do not. For instance, some good commercial cookies contain margarine, but it's not actually the same as what we'd buy at the store. Instead it is Baker's Margarine which has a high melting point like shortening and different buttery type flavors depending on the brand. So the bakery could be using some special margarine or shortening. The way their batters are mixed, the type of ovens all come into play as well.
If you see this, I hope you can come back and say the name of the bakery. Now I would like to try their oatmeal cookie :).
Kay Maynard says
There is a fabulous bakery near me that bakes the best oatmeal, raisin, walnut cookie I've ever eaten. They do not give out the recipe. It is a huge cookie and my husband and I half it and it's enough. I've exhausted every recipe and cannot duplicate them. They are dark brown, chewy, and not too sweet.. I've now realized that they have to have molasses and dark brown sugar in them. For I've read that adding cornstarch to cookie recipes keeps them from spreading too much as these cookies are I/2 inch thick. Your recipe looks good. Can we experiment?
Linda says
Anna, I will try that one next! Thanks for the tip. I have a nice mild molasses that will work.
Anna says
Linda, I love your idea of using dried diced apples! Also, since you appreciate a good molasses cookie I'd like to recommend the chocolate chip cookies with molasses recipe in the link below. It's an old one, and I'd forgotten how good the cookies were until I made a batch this weekend. I recommend using a mild molasses so the cookies will be more like chocolate chip with molasses rather than MOLASSES with chocolate chip. As a bonus, these cookies stay fresh for a day or two longer than regular chocolate chip cookies.
https://www.cookiemadness.net/2010/05/19/chocolate-chip-cookies-with-molasses-2/
Linda Grant says
I will confess I had to make a few changes. Not due to anything that didn't sound right in the recipe but to remove raisins for my raisin-hater and replace them with currants which would have been enough except I didn't have enough currants so added a few dried diced apples. I didn't have toasted pecans and chose not to toast mine but used some great fresh ones from NC that I brought back home with me from a trip there. Other than those changes due to necessity I kept true to the recipe. They were considered a great cookie by those eating them who like molasses but hadn't tried one with oats and pecans and raisins (uh, currants). For someone like me who loves raisins, they would be perfect. But to allow for hating raisins and less stock than needed, it all worked out. HA Thanks for another great recipe!
Sue says
I’ve never heard of molasses oatmeal cookies! At least I don’t think I have!? It seems like a brilliant combo! If I had the stuff on hand to make these I’d already be in the kitchen pulling out the ingredients. I noticed you said not to substitute butter for the shortening. Do you think they’d spread too much?