This is an old recipe handed down from my great-great grandmother and adjusted many times over the years. The version I was originally given by my mother had the cloves and allspice crossed out and the baking soda reduced. I stick to ginger and cinnamon, but I did try using the full amount of baking soda recently and regretted it. I think it tastes better with a little less. It’s a very friendly dough that can be scooped and dropped or add a little more flour, roll out, and cut beautiful cookies for decorating.
I highly recommend letting a stand mixer do the work for these cookies, but don’t double the batch. Your mixer can’t handle it, trust me. 😉 My daughter likes to use a basting brush to sweep away any excess flour before baking to make the cookies picture perfect.
Great-Grandma’s Soft Buttermilk Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 cup of buttermilk (full fat preferred)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3 teaspoons ginger
- 5 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Directions
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Mix in the molasses.
- Blend in the buttermilk.
- Mix together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.
- Stir into the liquid ingredients.
- Chill for a half hour or longer.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Prepare a pan with parchment paper or non-stick cooking spray.
- Scoop out with a cookie scoop and drop onto a dish of granulated sugar then pick up with the back of a spoon.
- Drop off onto the tin then flip over so the sugar is right side up.
- Alternatively – roll out on a floured surface and cut out with floured cookie cutters.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
- Cool and enjoy or decorate with icing.
Melora Johnson's Muse 