Who doesn’t love some good gingerbread cookies?Â
Although it’s such a staple around Christmas, it’s easy to forget just how tooth-breaking hard store bought gingerbread typically is. It may be hearty enough to build a gingerbread house, but I prefer my gingerbread edible. This low sugar chewy gingerbread cookie recipe has you covered!
One of the key ingredients in gingerbread is molasses. I didn’t know much about it prior to making gingerbread so I wanted to learn more about molasses, what it is and it’s nutrient values. If you’re interested in learning about this ingredient too, read my quick rundown below!
Why Molasses?
Most gingerbread recipes call for molasses, it had me wondering what molasses is exactly.
Molasses is the byproduct of processing sugar cane. The sugar cane gets crushed and the juice is extracted, from there the juice is boiled down until it forms sugar crystals, and the leftover juice is molasses.
Molasses Is Healthy???
Yes! It’s weird to think that blackstrap molasses (a.k.a. sugar juice, as learned above), is at all considered healthy.
With limited research, scientists have discovered a link between molasses and several health benefits. Including benefiting your heart health, bone health and increasing antioxidants in your body.*
Interestingly, it’s also shown to contain some vitamins and minerals like manganese, magnesium, copper, vitamin B-6 and more.*
While it shouldn’t be considered a main source of nutrients or taken as a nutrient dense type of food, if you’re going to be eating sugar, might as well be eating sugar with molasses.
*View source here: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318719#nutrition
Substitutes for Molasses
While we now know that it is relatively healthy and used to be a popular pantry item, it’s not something everyone carries at home. If you’re in a bind and need a molasses substitute, here’s some 1:1 ratio substitutes to choose from:
- Maple syrup
- Honey
- Dark corn syrup
Now with the extra knowledge of molasses and health in your back pocket, let’s make these easy chewy and delicious gingerbread cookies!
Low Sugar Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Medium Sauce Pan
- 2 Medium Bowls
- 1 Hand mixer or stand mixer
- 1 Wooden Spoon
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 2 Cookie Sheets
- 1-3 Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter will cook in pan
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar packed
- 3/4 cup Molasses
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Allspice
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 3 1/4 cup Flour
Frosting
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 3-4 tbsp Milk
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat.
- Add brown sugar, molasses, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and allspice. Stir mixture together until well incorporated. Remove from heat.
- Transfer mixture to a medium to large mixing bowl and add the egg and beat it in with the mixture.
- In a separate bowl, add baking powder, soda, and flour and whisk together.
- Add flour to the molasses mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon.
- Divide dough into two equal halves. Over a sheet of plastic wrap, shape dough into a thick large rectangle and wrap each tightly. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350F and prep three-four cookie sheets with parchment paper
- On a floured surface, roll out 1st dough into 1/4 inch thick rectangle with a floured rolling pin
- Cut out shapes with cookie cutter of choice. Place at least an inch apart on cookie sheets.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are browned. Let cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.
- Once cooled, add frosting! Store in air-tight containers at room temperature or freeze.
