Grinch Sugar Cookies are a festive and delicious sugar cookie topped with homemade royal icing.
These Grinch cookies will be the stand-out dessert at your holiday event. A decorated sugar cookie that might make your heart grow three times larger after your first bite.
Grinch Sugar Cookies
Are you a fan of The Grinch? If so, you’re going to love this tutorial on how to make Grinch Sugar Cookies! This recipe will require a bit of time to make, but the effort is worth it!
Learn how to make delicious buttery cookie-cutter sugar cookies and decorate as you would like.
Find more Grinch recipes to try this holiday season:
Grinch Punch Recipe With Ice Cream
What You Will Need For Baking Up Cookies
Butter, Sugar, Egg, Vanilla, Salt, and Flour. These ingredients right here are the items needed for your sugar cookies. Simple ingredients you might already have on hand in your pantry! I highly recommend using real butter, not margarine, which will affect the turnout.
Powdered Sugar, Meringue Powder, Water, and Coloring. These ingredients are what you need for making homemade royal icing. Then pipe and decorate your Grinch cookies!
The meringue powder is sold where you buy cake supplies at grocery stores, order online, or even can be found in the baking aisle.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Decoration: 1h
- Total Time: 1 h 50 minutes
- Servings: 11 large cookies
Ingredients for the sugar cookies:
- ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup ( 200 grams) granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
Ingredients for the Royal Icing:
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons (20 grams) meringue powder
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) warm water
- Red and green food coloring gel (I used Wilton Christmas red and moss green food coloring gel found at the store or online)
Equipment:
- Bowls
- Stand mixer
- Rolling pin
- Grinch cookie cutter
- 3 Icing bags
- Wilton tip #1 and #3
- Wilton black food coloring gel
- 1 mm brush
Directions on making Grinch Sugar Cookies
- Cookies: Beat 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.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼-in (1 cm) on a lightly floured surface. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350 F (175)—line 1 large or 2 small baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cut out Grinch shapes and stamp using the Grinch cookie cutter set (the link below). 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.
- Tint half of the icing with green food coloring gel (add a few drops of gel color and stir until the color is even and streak-free). I recommend adding in a drop or two at a time until you get a color you like.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of white icing and tint the remaining icing with the red food coloring gel.
- Scoop the icing into piping bags with # 1 or # 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, 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 the 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. Be creative! It is fun to do it with kids.
- Dry cookies at room temperature for 6-8 hours until the icing is completely firm.
Helpful Tips For Making Sugar Cookies
- Cover your icing with a wet paper towel in between uses to prevent the icing from drying.
- Dip your cookie cutter in flour before pressing it into the cookie dough to prevent sticking.
- Refrigerating the cookie dough is essential, so the cookies don’t spread as they bake.
- Place cookies in a single layer, then place wax paper between stacking to prevent messing up the design.
- Gel food coloring is excellent for coloring icing for a clean well-mixed look.
How to Store Sugar Cookies
Room Temperature: Your sugar cookies can store at room temperature for several days. It is crucial to place your sugar cookies in a single layer. Then place wax paper between each layer to prevent messing up the design of the cookies.
Freezing: You can freeze any cookies you don’t plan to eat right away. Place in a single row with wax paper if you stack. Freeze for 2-3 months, and thaw on the counter when you are ready to eat some.
What is Meringue Powder
Meringue powder is simply a meringue crushed up and transformed into a powder. I find this is a wonderful item to use for royal icing that will hold shape and not run when piping onto your cookies.
Is Cream of Tartar And Meringue Powder The Same Thing?
The two are quite different and should not be interchanged in a recipe. Cream of tartar is a stabilizer used to help meringue hold shape, but it is not meringue alone, so it can’t be swapped.
Why Do You Refrigerate Cookie Dough Before Baking
Refrigerating your cookie dough will help it firm up and hold shape as it bakes. You will find refrigerating and working with cold sugar cookie dough is key to keeping that perfectly cut shape of the cookie-cutter intact.
Alternative To Meringue Powder
You can make royal icing with egg whites if you prefer. You can use 2 egg whites you 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to replace the powder mixture. I find the powder is a lot easier to work with for easy perfect icing every time.
These Grinch cookies will be great for a holiday get-together or a Grinch movie-watching night!
You can also make these sugar cookies and give them to teachers, along with a gift card for a Christmas gift idea.
Happy Holidays!
Grinch Sugar Cookies
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Decoration: 1h
Total Time: 1 h 50 minutes
Servings: 11 large cookies
Ingredients
- Ingredients for the sugar cookies:
- ½ cup 113 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup 200 grams granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- Ingredients for the Royal Icing:
- 2 ½ cups confectioners' powdered or icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons 20 grams meringue powder
- 1/2 cup 120 ml warm water
- Red and green food coloring gel I used Wilton Christmas red and moss green food coloring gel that can be found at their store or online
Instructions
- Cookies: Beat 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.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼-in (1 cm) on a lightly floured surface. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350 F (175)—line 1 large or 2 small baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cut out Grinch shapes and stamp using the Grinch cookie cutter set (the link below). 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.
- Tint half of the icing with green food coloring gel (add a few drops of gel color and stir until the color is even and streak-free). I recommend adding in a drop or two at a time until you get a color you like.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of white icing and tint the remaining icing with the red food coloring gel.
- Scoop the icing into piping bags with # 1 or # 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, 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 the 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. Be creative! It is fun to do it with kids.
- Dry cookies at room temperature for 6-8 hours until the icing is completely firm.
Notes
Bowls
Stand mixer
Rolling pin
Grinch cookie cutter
3 Icing bags
Wilton tip #1 and #3
Wilton black food coloring gel
1 mm brush
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