JELLO SUGAR COOKIES

Jello Sugar Cookies are delicious cookies that can be made with any flavor of jello! This sugar cookie recipe is easy to make in any color and the simple buttercream frosting can be flavored to match. These sugar cookies can be rolled and cut out into shapes or just quickly scooped out into balls.

I absolutely love sugar cookies, but I typically only make them on special occasions (Valentine’s Day and Christmas!), because of the effort involved with chilling the dough and then rolling it out, cutting out the cookies, baking them and then decorating. It’s kind of exhausting! Factor in 5 kids who want to help, and well, let’s just say it takes a lot of energy to attempt this whole process!

I recently came across this recipe for Jello Sugar Cookies and was intrigued. You can use any flavor of Jello that you want and the rest of the ingredients are pretty standard for a sugar cookie recipe. The best part is that you can choose if you want to roll them out and cut shapes or you can just make regular ball-shaped cookies and the frosting is also optional. Since the Jello adds so much flavor and color to the cookies, you honestly don’t really need fancy shapes or frosting and the cookies are delicious (and cute!) just plain. I’ve made the sugar cookies both ways and both were a huge hit.

What ingredients are in Jello Sugar Cookies?

To make Jello Sugar cookies, you will need butter, sugar, eggs flour, baking powder and salt. And a box of Jello in any of your favorite flavors. That’s it! If you want to add frosting, you’ll just need a few basic ingredients. Butter, sour cream, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.

How do you make Jello sugar cookies?

To start making this sugar cookie recipe, you will cream the butter and sugar together with the Jello powder. Next you will add the eggs and mix everything until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix some more. At this point, you can scoop the dough and roll into balls to cook immediately, or you can chill the dough for a couple of hours if you want to roll it out and cut it into shapes.

If you are rolling the dough into balls, I like to scoop the dough out with a cookie scoop. This helps to ensure that all of the balls are the same size and it is just so easy – I’m not sure how I ever made cookies without it. Scoop the dough and then roll it between your hands to make a smooth ball. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet.

Spray the bottom of a flat glass or measuring cup with cooking spray. Place a little bit of sugar onto a plate and then press the prepared measuring cup into the sugar. Press each dough ball down slightly, just until flat. You don’t want to smash them down too much – you still want your cookies to be soft and thick, but pressing them down helps them to bake more evenly and also provides you with a nice flat surface on top for frosting. You will not need to re-spray the measuring cup in between each cookie, but you will want to press it into the sugar in between pressing each cookie ball. Bake for 8-9 minutes at 375°.

How do you make cut out sugar cookies?

Once the dough has chilled for at least 2 hours (you can chill it longer – even overnight), divide it in half. Prepare the surface that you where you will be rolling out the dough. You can prepare the surface in any of these ways:

–Flour. Sprinkle a little bit of flour onto your countertop and make sure that the flour is covering the entire surface where your dough will be rolled out.

–Cooking spray or oil can also be used to coat the surface where you will be rolling your dough out.

–Wax paper. This method is definitely the easiest one to clean up!

Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. The dough is much easier to handle and work with if you have divided it into halves (or even thirds) before rolling it out. The dough should be about 1/4″ thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes in the dough and place the cut out shapes onto a prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 8-9 minutes.

How do you make sugar cookie frosting?

This sugar cookie frosting is made with butter, sour cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and a little bit of milk. I prefer this buttercream frosting on sugar cookies – it pairs so well with a soft and chewy cookie! If you want to flavor the frosting to match the cookie, reserve a tablespoon of the Jello powder before making the cookie dough and then add that reserved amount to the frosting. This adds color and an amazing amount of flavor to the frosting!

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Jello Sugar Cookies

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

8 mins

Total Time

18 mins

 

Jello Sugar Cookies are delicious cookies that can be made with any flavor of jello! This sugar cookie recipe is easy to make in any color and the simple buttercream frosting can be flavored to match. You can choose if you want regular shaped cookies or if you prefer cut out sugar cookies, you can make those instead.  

Yields How Many Dozen Cookies: 36 cookies

Calories: 157 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter softened to room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pkg Jello* 3 oz. box
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

FROSTING

• 1/4 cup butter softened to room temp
• 1 Tbsp sour cream (or plain yogurt)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 Tbsp milk
• 1 Tbsp Jello powder*

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar together for about 2 minutes with an electric mixer.

2. Add Jello and continue to mix for 1-2 minutes. 

3. Add eggs and mix well.

4. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl and then add to the Jello mixture. Mix just until thoroughly combined. 

5. If rolling into ball, scoop the dough out by tablespoons and roll into smooth balls. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Spray the bottom of a measuring cup with cooking spray and then press the measuring cup onto a plate with a thin layer of sugar on it. Press each cookie ball with the bottom of the measuring cup, dipping into the sugar in between each cookie. 

6. If making cut-out cookies, chill the dough for at least 2 hours. Divide in half and roll out each half to about 1/4" thick. Cut out shapes and place on a prepared cookie sheet.

7. Bake cookies at 375° for 8-9 minutes. 

8. Let cool and then add frosting if desired. 

FROSTING:

1. Mix butter, sour cream, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and reserved Jello power with an electric mixer until smooth. Add milk 1/2 Tbsp at a time until the mixture reaches desired consistency. 

Recipe Notes

*If you want to flavor the frosting to match the flavor of the cookies, reserve 1 Tbsp of the jello powder in a separate bowl before making the cookie dough. Add the reserved jello powder to your frosting mixture. Yummy!

Tips for making the best sugar cookies

• Sugar cookie dough is sticky, but once it’s sufficiently chilled, it’s much more workable. Resist the urge to add more flour to the dough before chilling! If you add too much flour, the ratio of wet to dry ingredients is off and the cookies end up drier and more crumbly.
• Do not melt the butter! The butter needs to be softened (at room temperature), but using melted butter will ruin the cookies.
• Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
• Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
• Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan – they will just slide right off in perfect shape!
• Make sure that you don’t roll out the dough too thin before cutting your sugar cookies out. You want the dough to be about 1/4″ thick. If the dough is too thin, your cookies will be crispy and hard and easily breakable, but if the dough is too thick, the cookies may not bake all the way through the middle.
• Make sure not to over bake your cookies.  They may not even look totally done on the tops, but if the bottoms start to brown, I take mine out and they are perfect!

Baby #5 is almost 6 weeks old. These last few weeks have been filled with sleep deprivation, celebrating the holidays and having lots of family visitors – it’s been a huge blur of craziness! But this little baby girl is such a sweetheart and we are loving having in in our home. She loves baths, getting her hair combed and being passed around (fought over) by her 4 older siblings. I’m a little bit sad that time is going by so fast – she is almost out of that newborn stage already!