Grinch sugar cookies are the perfect addition to your next holiday cookie tray. Soft vanilla sugar cookies are topped with green peppermint frosting and a decorative heart.
Sugar cookies are a favorite of mine during the holidays. Every year I make a batch of soft sugar cookies (great with coffee) or cut out sugar cookies for my Christmas cookie tray!
This year, I decided to give my reader-favorite soft frosted Christmas cookies a makeover to create these cute and festive grinch sugar cookies.
This recipe uses the same soft, tender, and thick sugar cookie base made with just seven simple ingredients. They're piped with a sweet vanilla-peppermint buttercream frosting and a simple heart sprinkle. If you enjoy a sweet frosted sugar cookie, you're going to love these!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Butter - I use unsalted butter in my baking, but it can be substituted with salted butter if needed. You'll want to omit the salt listed in the recipe. Make sure your butter is room temperature (about 67 degrees Fahrenheit) when beginning. Cold or melted butter does not work in this recipe.
- Granulated sugar - Adds sweetness and moisture to your dough.
- Large eggs - Eggs need to be room temperature. Set them on the counter 1 hour before baking, or place your whole eggs in a small bowl covered in warm tap water for 15 minutes.
- Extract - Adds vanilla flavor to the dough and frosting. I've also added a small amount of peppermint extract to the frosting, which is optional.
- All-purpose flour - I have only tested this recipe with all-purpose flour. If you have a different flour on hand, I suggest searching for a recipe using your preferred type of flour. Many times it's not an easy 1:1 substitution.
- Baking powder - Helps your cookies rise in the oven. Baking powder cannot be substituted with baking soda - the two react differently with the ingredients listed in the recipe.
- Salt - Enhances the flavor of your cookies and balances the sweetness without making them "salty".
- Heavy cream - Adds creaminess and cuts the sweetness in the frosting without making it runny or too thin to pipe.
- Food coloring - Green liquid or gel food coloring will work in buttercream frosting. I recommend gel food coloring because it has a more concentrated color than liquid.
- Sprinkles - I used the red hearts from these Wilton jumbo heart sprinkles on Amazon, but any red heart sprinkles will work.
Tips and tricks
Room temperature ingredients - It's very important to use room temperature ingredients for a few reasons. Room temperature ingredients incorporate together seamlessly to create a smooth, even dough. An even dough (without flecks of butter or egg) helps create perfect cookies. Creaming together the butter and sugar helps create lift in your cookies when they bake.
Properly measure your flour - This is the #1 most common issue I see in baking. Adding too much flour to any baking recipe will make your dough dry. Cookie dough needs the proper ratio of dry and wet ingredients to work together. To properly measure flour, I highly recommend weighing it with a kitchen scale. This ensures you're adding the correct amount of flour every time. If you don't have a scale, use a spoon to gently add flour into your measuring cup, then level off with a knife. Do not scoop flour directly from a bin. This compacts the flour into the cup and adds up to an extra 25% flour to your recipe. Extra flour = dry, bland cookies.
Do not substitute ingredients - This recipe requires few ingredients, which means each ingredient is very important to the recipe's success. Eggs, butter, and granulated sugar all add moisture to your dough. Substituting or reducing these ingredients will change the texture and moisture of your cookies.
Don't overmix the dough - Once the gluten (flour) has been added to the recipe, take care not to overmix the dough. Overworking the gluten can cause your cookies to turn out tough.
Piping decorations - I used a #18 open star piping tip to decorate my cookies. Any open star tip around #18-#21 will give you a similar result.
Add sprinkles - Add your heart sprinkles while the frosting is wet for best results. Allow your cookies to dry for several hours before storing to allow frosting to crust.
Storage
While this frosting does crust after several hours, the inside remains soft and will indent with pressure. I do not recommend stacking these cookies for best results.
Sugar cookies will keep for up to 5 days in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. To help keep your cookies soft, add a slice of bread to the container and replace it as it gets stale.
Dough or baked and frosted cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months in a tightly sealed, freezer-safe container. To thaw baked cookies, place on the counter top and allow to thaw for about 1 hour.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, sugar cookies can be made a day or two ahead of time and stored until ready to serve. Add a slice of bread to your cookie container to help keep your cookies soft. If you'd like to make them more than a few days ahead of time, baked and frosted cookies can be frozen until ready to serve. To thaw, place on the countertop for 1 hour or more.
If your cookies are dry and also bland, it sounds like too much flour was added. I highly recommend measuring flour by weight instead of using a measuring cup, which can add up to 25% extra flour to a recipe.
This recipe contains the proper ratios of wet to dry ingredients, including plenty of moisture-retaining ingredients, and will not turn out dry or bland if the proper measurements, ingredients, and baking recommendations are followed.
The dough may be coo told (maybe left in the refrigerator too long or frozen), or too much flour was added to the dough. Here are a few ways to deal with dough that won't spread:
- Leave your dough balls on the counter top to warm slightly before baking. Cold dough spreads less and warm dough spreads more.
- Use your hands or the bottom of a flour-dusted glass to press down on the dough balls before baking. This helps your dough balls spread more and creates a flatter top (this is also described in step six of the recipe card).
- If too much flour was added to your dough, you'll want to make sure your cookies aren't also overbaked - this combination results in a dry cookie.
This can happen when your dough is too warm or not enough flour was added to the dough to give it stability.
- Make sure not to skip the step of refrigerating your dough. This not only helps the flavors meld, but also makes the dough easier to roll into balls and helps it spread less in the oven.
- If your dough is still spreading in the oven, try refrigerating the dough balls (directly on the sheet pan if it will fit) for 10 minutes, then transfer directly into the oven.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I do not recommend using a greased cookie sheet. A layer of grease/cooking spray makes cookies (of any kind) spread more in the oven.
These cookies are topped with buttercream frosting, which is a very sweet frosting. Buttercream frosting is popular with home bakers because it's very easy to make with just two main ingredients (butter and sugar) and it doesn't require any cooking. Unfortunately, the frosting relies on confectioner's sugar for sweetness and stability. Adding less sugar will result in a frosting that tastes mostly of butter and is too thin to pipe. Your frosting also won't crust (harden) if you've made it with less sugar. If you'd like a less sweet frosting, I recommend something like ermine frosting instead, which can be dyed with food coloring and piped. You could also spread your buttercream in a thinner layer with a knife instead of piping it.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Grinch Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups (248 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour, *measured properly
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Buttercream frosting
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 ½ cups (284 g) confectioner's sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract, optional
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- green gel food coloring
- heart sprinkles
Instructions
Cookies
- In a large bowl, add room temperature butter and sugar. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about a minute. Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated and fluffy, about a minute.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually stir (or use a mixer on low speed) dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.
- Cover bowl and chill dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Refrigerating allows time for flavors to meld and also creates a firmer dough that's easy to roll into balls.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Remove dough from refrigerator. Scoop dough using a medium 1.5 inch cookie scoop or shape by hand into 1.5 inch balls.
- Place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheet. Gently flatten balls slightly using your hands or the bottom of a glass dusted with flour (to prevent sticking).
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until tops look set and edges barely begin to lightly brown (times will vary based on your own oven and size of cookies). Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting
- In a medium bowl, add room temperature butter, confectioner's sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, peppermint extract, and salt. Whip until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Add more heavy cream as needed to achieve desired consistency.
- Transfer frosting into a piping bag fitted with an open star tip (like an #18-#21 tip) and decorate the tops of your cookies with frosting.
- Add a heart shaped sprinkle to each cookie and allow to air dry for a few hours before storing (frosting will crust on the outside but the inside remains soft, so pressure can cause the frosting to indent).
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- * How to measure flour properly: Use a kitchen scale to measure flour for accurate results every time. If you don't have a kitchen scale, use the spoon and level method. Stir the flour (especially if it's been packed down in a bag/container), then gently spoon into the measuring cup, leveling off the top with a knife. Scooping with a measuring cup compacts flour into the cup and adds up to 25% extra to the recipe, resulting in dry, bland cookies that don't spread properly.
- Dough storage: Cookie dough will keep in refrigerator for 2-3 days, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
- Cookie storage: Cookies will keep for up to 5 days in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. Add a slice of bread to the cookie container to help keep cookies moist. Replace as needed (bread will dry out).
- More tips: Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking cookies, based on reader comments and questions!
I had so much fun creating this recipe! I hope you give it a try and love it as much as I do. If you have a question, check out the post above, which is packed with information about the recipe. Tried the recipe? I'd love to hear your thoughts — leave a comment and a star rating to share your feedback!