These Grinch Cookies are the ultimate holiday cookie. Made with a traditional sugar cookie base and decorated with icing, they’re almost too cute to eat! Perfect for gift-giving or even leaving out for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Grinch Cookies
You can find the Grinch cookie cutters and stamps here or here. You are sure to use them year after year because these cookies will be such a hit!
Grinch Cookie Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
Blend the butter and sugar until light, using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the salt and flour and beat until you get a smooth dough.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼-in. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 1 large or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cut out Grinch shapes and then stamp on the faces. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are just golden brown.
Ingredients Royal Icing:
- 2 ½ cups confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder
- 1/2 cup warm water
- Red, green, and black food coloring gel
In the bowl of your stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat sugar and meringue powder until combined. Add the water and beat on medium until stiff peaks, about 5 minutes. Set aside 1/2 cup of the white icing. Split the remaining icing and color one-half green and the other half red.
Scoop the icing into piping bags with # 1 and # 3 tips. Decorate your Grinch cookies by first outlining the border and face features of Grinch face using green icing. Then fill in the middle with the green icing and repeat the same process for the eyes and hat.
Place ¼ teaspoon of Wilton black food coloring gel on the plate. Using a 1 mm brush, draw the face features and outline the Grinch hat. Be creative! It is fun to do it with kids.
Grinch Cookies
Equipment
- Bowls
- Stand mixer
- Rolling Pin
- Plastic wrap
- Grinch Cookie Cutters and Stamps
- 3 icing bags
- Wilton tip #1 and #3
- Wilton black food coloring gel
- 1 mm paint brush
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- ½ cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
For The Royal Icing:
- 2½ cups confectioner sugar (powdered sugar)
- 2 tbsp meringue powder
- ½ cup warm water
- red, green, and black gel food coloring
Instructions
Cookies
- Mix the butter and sugar until light, using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add the salt and flour and beat until you get a smooth dough.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness ¼-in. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line 1 large or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cut out Grinch shapes and stamp on the faces using the Grinch cookie cutter set. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are just golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating or enjoy plain!
Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat sugar and meringue powder until combined.
- Add the water and beat on medium until stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of white icing and tint the remaining icing with the red food coloring gel. I recommend to add in a drop or two at a time until you get a color you like.
- Scoop the icing into piping bags with # 1 or # 3 tips.
How to Decorate the Cookies
- Decorate your Grinch cookies by first outlining the border and face features of Grinch face using green icing. Then fill in the middle with the green icing, leaving the eyes. Use a toothpick to fill in any gaps by spreading the icing around. Tap the cookie a few times to help the icing settle.
- Fill eyes with the white icing. You can fill nose too if desired or draw it later.
- Now, outline the border of the fur part of the Grinch hat with the white icing and fill in the middle.
- Using red icing, outline and fill the hat.
- Fill the pompom part of the hat with white icing.
- Dry for about 15-20 minutes
- Place 1/8-¼ teaspoon of Wilton black food coloring gel on the plate. Using a 1 mm brush, draw the face features and outline the Grinch hat.
- Dry cookies at room temperature for 6-8 hours until the icing is completely firm.
These are adorable! In the 2 links you shared of the cookie cutters; the first link looks to be the one you used, and I’m curious what size you used in this recipe and photos. The site shared I believe 4 different sizes. Based on your experience, which size did you use and would you go bigger, smaller, or stick with that size? Love your share!
Thank you