These easy Grinch Cookies are a fun and festive addition to cookie plates at Christmas time. Inspired by How the Grinch Stole Christmas, these soft and chewy sugar cookies are colored green and each given a small red candy heart.
Jump to:
Grinch Sugar Cookies
Whether you relate more to the Whos down in Whoville or the Grinch himself, you’ll have a hard time saying no to these Grinch Christmas Cookies. Both children and adults will fall in love with these cute and delicious Grinch Cookies, inspired by the Christmas classic.
The recipe is based on our Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies, only requiring an additional few drops of green food coloring and a little red candy heart for each cookie. Feel free to try a different soft and chewy cookie as the base, such as our favorite Snickerdoodles, then color and decorate as described below. Add these to a Christmas Cookie Board for a fun way to display your favorite Christmas Cookies.
Ingredients in Grinch Cookies
- Butter - be sure that your butter is soft before making the dough. You can either leave it out overnight at room temperature or place in a microwave-safe container and heat for about 10 seconds at a time just until soft. I like to use unsalted butter but you can also use salted butter and use slightly less additional butter in the dough.
- Sugar - this recipe calls for white granulated sugar.
- Eggs - it’s best to pull your eggs out to room temperature at least 30 minutes before making your dough so that they don’t “shock” the butter.
- Vanilla Extract - pure vanilla extract tastes best.
- Salt - sea salt works great.
- Baking Powder - this helps the cookies to rise in the oven.
- Baking Soda - this reacts with the baking powder to help the cookies rise.
- Flour - this recipe uses all-purpose flour.
- Green Gel Food Coloring - you should be able to find green gel food coloring at most grocery stores. However if you can only find the liquid food coloring, you may just need to adjust the quantity of drops slightly.
- Red Hearts - give each Grinch a small heart using any kind of red heart candies or red heart sprinkles that you can find.
How to Make Grinch Christmas Cookies
- Make the sugar cookie dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, add the butter and sugar. Cream together using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed and scraping between each addition. Then, add the vanilla, salt, and green food coloring and mix just until combined. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda and flour. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
- Optional - chill the dough. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes to 2 hours.
- Scoop cookies. Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, form 2" balls and place the soft drop sugar cookies dough on an ungreased baking sheet about 2" apart.
- Bake. Bake in a preheated oven for 8-9 minutes, or until lightly browned on the edges.
- Add a red candy heart. Remove cookies from the oven and press the small candy heart onto the warm cookie.
- Cool. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Serve. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
With this Grinch Cookie recipe, it’s really not super critical that you chill the dough before baking. If you have the time, it’s never a bad idea!
You can! I suggest using a similar soft and chewy style of cookie with no added mix-ins. You can make the cookie dough and add a few drops of green gel food coloring, then bake and immediately add a small red candy heart as directed. A few other cookie recipes to try are Snickerdoodles, Eggnog Cookies, or Lemon Cookies.
The best way to keep your Grinch Sugar Cookies soft and chewy is to make sure you don’t over-bake them. Keep a close eye on these cookies in the oven and pull them just as they begin to show a little color around the edges. Also, be sure and measure accurately. The ratio of flour to butter and eggs is super important to keeping a good soft and chewy balance.
If you have trouble getting the candies to stick on the cookies, try “gluing” them using a dab of melted chocolate. Allow them to cool and set up before serving or storing. If you happened to have frosting or icing around, that would also work.
Storing and Freezing
- Room Temperature: store baked cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Fridge: store unbaked cookie dough in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking. Either transfer to an airtight container or place plastic wrap over the dough directly in the bowl.
- Freezer: you can freeze both the baked cookies and the unbaked cookie dough. As long as it is stored in an airtight container or freezer bags, they will last for up to 2 months.
- To Bake from Frozen: you can pull frozen dough balls from the freezer and bake directly in a preheated oven, adding an extra couple of minutes to the baking time.
Grinch Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter room temperature
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 large Eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 3 drops Green Gel Food Coloring
- Red Heart Candies or Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar and cream together using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed and scraping between each addition. Next add the vanilla, salt, and green food coloring, and mix just until combined.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
- Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, form 1" dough balls and place on an ungreased baking sheet (or baking sheets lined with parchment paper) about 2" apart.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 8-9 minutes, or until lightly golden on the edges.
- Remove cookies from the oven and press the small candy heart onto the warm cookie. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve immediately or store in a an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Nutrition
More of the Best Christmas Cookie Recipes
- Candy Cane Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Best Gingerbread Men Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
- White Chocolate Dipped Oreos
- Christmas Linzer Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
- Andes Mint Cookies
- Mint Chocolate Dipped Oreos
- Soft Molasses Cookies
- Gingerbread Men Cookies
- More Best Cookie Recipes
- More Christmas Recipes
If you’ve tried this recipe, please rate it and leave a comment on this post. I love hearing feedback from you! It helps me and other readers too. If you love Pinterest, feel free to leave a comment and photo there too. Also, if you like to share, use the hashtag #thecarefreekitchen on Instagram and tag me @thecarefreekitchen so I can find you and give your post some love. You can also find me on Facebook at The Carefree Kitchen. Thank you!!
These Grinch Sugar Cookies are an adorable soft and chewy Christmas cookie that everyone loves. Based on the Christmas classic, each green sugar cookie has a tiny red candy heart attached.
Leave a Reply