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These Grinch Cookies are inspired by Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! They are chewy sugar cookies that have been colored green and adorned with a red heart! These are based on my popular Easy Sugar Cookies and are sure to be a hit!
If you’ve been following along the last few weeks as I shared lots and lots of Christmas cookies, then today will be a sad day because this is the final of the 10 Christmas cookies! So many great recipes and I’ve linked to them (and more) at the bottom of this post.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas was one of my very favorite Christmas movies as a kid. I still get a little nostalgic when I see it on tv and can’t wait to share it with the boys at some point. While I’m not sure that I fully appreciated the message of the movie as a kid, I certainly do as an adult.
If you live under a rock and have never see it (how is that even possible?!?!), here’s a spoiler. How does the Grinch steal Christmas? He doesn’t! He tries. But he’s unsuccessful because all the people in Whoville still celebrate Christmas anyway – even though the Grinch stole all the decorations and presents. The Whos know Christmas isn’t really about the material stuff, but so much more.
For our family, Christmas is all about the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ, and while that story doesn’t exactly go there, it certainly reminds me of that. It’s a great message either way and a super cute children’s book/movie.
So if you’re a fan like I am, why not bake some cookies to feast on while you enjoy the movie! Or share them with friends or put them out for Santa. Whatever.
These cookies are basically the same thing as my favorite easy sugar cookie recipe. It doesn’t require any chilling, the cookie dough is super easy to make and they make wonderfully soft and chewy sugar cookies in no time!
I ramped these up with some green gel icing color and a red heart – 3 sizes too small – in honor of the Grinch. As far as the coloring goes, you definitely want to use the gel color. Regular food coloring will require quite a bit more to get the same shade of green and that much added liquid will end up thinning out your cookies.
And good news for us bakers – I recently saw gel icing colors in the grocery store on the baking isle. Won’t that make life easier?!
I hope you enjoy these super simple, yet festive Christmas cookies! A fun new tradition to go along with the book and movie!
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- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 7 minutes
- Total Time: 37 minutes
- Yield: 32-34 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Grinch Cookies are inspired by Dr. Suess’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! They are chewy sugar cookies that have been colored green and adorned with a red heart!
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups (358g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp (233g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp (28g) brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Green gel icing color
- Red heart sprinkles
- 1–2 oz white chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough is well combined. It will be thick and shouldn’t be sticky. Do not over mix. Once it’s well combined, use a rubber spatula to help it come together to form a more cohesive ball.
- Color the cookie dough with some green gel icing color. The less the better. You don’t want to add too much more moisture or your cookies will spread too much.
- Create 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough. Gently roll into balls. At this point, you can refrigerate the cookie dough, or just bake them. If you refrigerate them for an hour or more, your cookies will be a little thicker. If you bake them without refrigerating, they will be a little thinner.
- When you’re ready to bake the cookies, set the balls on the baking sheet. At this point, you can add a red heart sprinkle to the top of the cookie dough ball if you like. You could also waiting and attach them after baking if you want to be able to place them in a particular spot.
- Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. The cookies will spread and the centers will look soft, but should look done. Remove just before the edges begin to turn golden. Don’t over bake. The cookies will be a little puffy when you take them out of the oven but will fall a bit as they cool.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- If you didn’t add the heart sprinkle prior to baking, melt the white chocolate and use a generous dot of white chocolate to attache the heart to the cookie. Allow to dry.
Notes
The sugar amounts are important for these cookies. If you chose to use all granulated sugar, rather than a little brown sugar, the cookie won’t spread quite as much and will be a little thicker and a little less soft.
Be sure to measure the flour accurately. The best way is by weight with a food scale, but if you don’t have one, give your flour a stir, then scoop it out with a measuring scoop. Do not pack it into the measuring cup.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 119
- Sugar: 7.2 g
- Sodium: 75.7 mg
- Fat: 6.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 15 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 20.1 mg
Hi Lindsay! I just made these for the first time and they’re adorable! Thank you for the recipe. I just had a quick question – I put the 2 tbsp of granulated sugar into the dough. Was I supposed to reserve this to roll them instead? They turned out fine, but just for the next time I make them. Thanks!
Hello with the granulated sugar amount do one 1cup go in the dough and the other 2tsp remain in a bowl used to roll the dough in after mixing?
No, all of that sugar should go in the cookie and additional sugar should be used for rollling.
I did something wrong, my cookies didn’t drop. They were still soft and very yummy but they stayed puffy.
It sounds like you probably added a little too much flour. Even an extra tablespoon or two can cause them to not spread properly. I do recommend a food scale, but without one, be sure to use the spoon and level method.
I tagged you on Instagram. I made these for St Patrick’s Day! Adorable and a very good recipe. Thank you.
What a great idea! Somehow I missed it on Instagram. I get a lot of notifications so it can be easy to miss them. I wish I had seen them!
I made these cookies and they turned out perfect.
So glad to hear that!
Hi! do you think they would have the green gel at a Walmart? or a Shaws? I’ve looked everywhere but I cant seem to Find the green gel icing for the colored cookies
I’m not familiar with Shaws, but typically Walmart would have it. Lately I find they are out of a lot of things though. You could also try Michaels or Hobby Lobby.
They were still to soft after8mins cooling..disappointed
My cookies were also still too soft after 8 minutes and the longer I baked them the less green the bottom was. I wonder what I did wrong.
Cookies typically stay soft until they have cooled completely. If they looked done, I should be fine.
My 14 yr old daughter made these. Great recipe! They are so fun and tasty. The cookies were perfect. I’m also a mom of twin boys who enjoyed their sister’s baking.
When do you add the white chocolate? With the dry ingredients?
It’s used for attaching the heart sprinkles.
I made this last year and plan on making them again this year- they are so delicious & a great idea! Thank you!
Mine were a bit thicker could it be from over mixed dough?
Hi Lindsay, my grandson and I finally had the chance to make these grinch cookies I’ve been promising him since Christmas time. We stumbled upon the recipe and I promised we’d make them. Well it was wonderful and very easy to make. Thank you fo much for all the wonderful recipes you share with concise instructions. Hey weren’t just pretty but delicious. Mine spread nicely but didn’t flatten out like yours but that’s my fault because I didn’t check my ingredients before I started and didn’t have enough all-purpose flour and ended up mixing bread flour with it. Other than that, perfect. I will certainly make them again, wish I could share a picture of them with you👍🏾
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Lindsay, I’ve been following your baking blog for years—way before the twins were born. I celebrated with you when you announced you were pregnant and again when they were born. How precious they are!! You are a blessing on the internet and I wanted to say thank you for this post, for sharing your love and honor of Christ—-the meaning behind all the sparkles and presents and baking. And for sharing the Grinch whose heart grew when he too figured out the real meaning of Christmas. Blessings to you and your beautiful family. Merry Christmas, Cate
Cate – Thank you for being such a long time reader and celebrating along with me with all those milestones. It means so much! And thank you for your kind words about my site and this post. It’s so nice to know you enjoy it! Merry Christmas!
These are delicious and so fun and easy to make! My kids and I made them today and I loved I didn’t have to chill the dough!! Love your recipes!! I think we will watch the Grinch tonight and snack on these…it’s seriously hard to eat just one!
Awesome! So glad to hear that! Thanks Charity!
Would it be possible to substitute food colouring for the gel? Could almond flour be used and if so, how to change the other ingredients?
I really don’t recommend food coloring. You have to use a good bit more to get a full green color and that additional liquid will thin out your cookies. I have not tried almond flour or really worked with it ever, so it’s hard for me to say. But I would think it would make quite a difference to the cookies.
A little girl I babysit occasionally is absolutely obsessed with the Grinch right now, and tells me how mean and nasty he is every time I see her 😀 I ought to make these cookies for her. Ha ha!
Ha! That would be fun! I bet she’d love it.