Delicious chewy molasses crinkles cookies that are gluten free and dairy free and are packed with perfect holiday spices. This is my favorite blackstrap molasses recipe.

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My favorite Christmas treats are as followed:

1. Molasses crinkles
2. Old-fashioned gingerbread
3. Gingerbread cookies

Yes.

I’m a molasses freak.

It’s a comforting, rich, nostalgic taste to me. 

I prefer it over chocolate every day in December. 

Molasses crinkles hold a special place in my heart because my grandma used to make them. She passed away when I was younger, but this is her recipe.

And they’re my dad’s favorite.

It’s amazing the special memories that surround food, isn’t it?

Gluten Free Molasses Crinkle Cookies

It took some experimenting, but I finally landed on a solid recipe to make these special cookie gluten free and dairy free.

They’re chewy on the inside with a little crunch on the outside.

I think my room in heaven will be filled with these cookies. Here’s hoping, anyway.

What flour makes the best crinkle cookie?

When it comes to gluten free flour, I prefer rice-based flours. They taste the most neutral.

Some flours, like garbanzo bean flour, have a very strong flavor that is quite noticeable to me (and a lot of other people).

I make my own flour blend that you can find the recipe for here. Bonus, it’s way cheaper this way.

If making your own flour is too daunting right now, I recommend following these tips:

• Find a flour that includes higher amounts of whole grains, like rice flour, sorghum flour, or millet flour.
  
  Ingredients are listed with the highest amount of each in order, so you want to see these ingredients listed first.
  
• Find a flour that does NOT contain garbanzo beans.
  
  Garbanzo beans add density and a…well, bean flavor. It tastes “gluten free” in the bad kind of way to many people.

Here are a few pre-made gluten free flour blends I recommend for baking:

• Kind Arthur Gluten Free Flour
• Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Flour
• Pamela’s Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour

What kind of molasses is best?

I’m going to be a total weirdo and say blackstrap molasses is best. 

You can use any kind of molasses, but black strap is my personal favorite. It has additional health benefits, apart from also having the richest taste to me.

It is definitely a more powerful tasting molasses, so if you don’t absolutely love molasses flavor, just go with any molasses like this one you can find in your store.

Want to know the health benefits of blackstrap molasses?
(It helps me feel better about eating these cookies)

Blackstrap molasses can:

1. Ease PMS symptoms that are related to iron and/or magnesium deficiancy, as it is high in both (so yes, molasses cookies have iron in them! Win).
2. Help accelerate skin healing from cuts and acne.
3. Stabilize blood sugar levels.
4. Prevent cancer, thanks to it being a high-antioxidant food.

All I see is more reason to eat more molasses cookies…

Important Tips to make the Perfect Molasses Crinkle Cookies

1. I’m sharing the absolute most secret tip for the best crinkle cookie with you…on the internet. Part of me feels like I shouldn’t, but everyone really should enjoy these cookies at their best, so I’m gonna spill it.
   
   As soon as these cookies come out of the oven, thwap them with spatula.
   
   That’s the scientific term. To thwap.
   
   But seriously, with the back of a metal spatula, lightly smack the top of your cookies to flatten them. This will help them have an amazing chew and retain the moisture. It sounds crazy, but it makes a big difference.
   
2. The next tip is to definitely CHILL your cookie dough. And I mean it! The dough needs to chill for 1 ½ hours. 
   
   If you choose not to chill your dough and rush it, the cookies will still taste delicious, but they won’t crinkle on the outside the same. 
   
3. Roll the dough balls in cane sugar before baking.
   
   This also adds to that incredible crunch on the outside while maintaining a chewy inside. 
   
   It can make or break these cookies, in my opinion. 
   
   No sugar dip, and these definitely feel like they’re missing something.

There you have it. Now let’s get baking the best gluten free Christmas cookie of all time! (ok, in my opinion).