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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 gel food coloring. Regular food coloring will require quite a bit more to get the same shade of green and that much added liquid will thin out your cookies. I recommend using electric green gel or a combination of green gel and a little yellow gel to get the right shade.
And good news for us bakers – I recently saw gel icing colors in the grocery store on the baking aisle. Won’t that make life easier?! Speaking of easy, I like to use a cookie scoop to form the dough balls. I love using a scoop so that the cookies are all uniform and bake evenly.
Yes! This cookie dough freezes really well for up to 3 months. You can freeze and bake them two different ways.
- Thaw and bake. You can wrap the disc of dough in a double layer of plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Remove the frozen dough from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator to thaw. Then follow the directions in the recipe card and bake as directed.
- Bake from frozen. Use your cookie scoop to make cookie dough balls. Place them into a freezer safe container and use parchment paper to separate the dough balls. When you are ready to bake, remove the frozen dough balls from the freezer and bake as directed in the recipe card, adding 1-2 minutes to the baking time. You’ll notice that the cookies brown a little more around the edges and spread a little less.
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, about 2-3 minutes. You should be able to see the change in color happen to 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. I like to use this cookie scoop or you can gently roll the dough 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 can also wait to attach the hearts 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 attach the heart to the cookie. Allow to dry.
Notes
Sugar: 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.
Flour: 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.
Food Coloring: When coloring the cookies, be sure to use highly concentrated gel food coloring. To get the right shade, use electric green gel or a combination of green gel and a little yellow gel to get the right shade.
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
Do you think I could make this into a grinch cookie cake? Would this dough work for a 10-in springform pan? Thank you!
I would recommend using my sugar cookie cookie cake and coloring it. I make it in a 9 inch pan, but it would work in a 10 inch, it’d just be a little thinner. I hope that helps!
I made a bunch of cookies for the multiple Christmas parties I went to and everyone LOVED these. They were the best cookies I made in the bunch 🙂 Highly recommend this recipe. They stayed soft and chewy for a really long time!
So glad they were a hit!