These adorable Grinch sugar cookies look like the snow capped trees at the beginning of the iconic movie! They start with a basic sugar cookie dough, get snow capped with a vanilla glaze, and finished off with a huge heart!
Then add green food coloring and mix until color is even throughout. You can add additional food coloring and mix well until you get just the right Grinch color you want.
neon green food coloring
Chill dough in the refrigerator for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Divide the dough in half and roll it out on a floured surface until it is about 1/4" thick, then use a Christmas tree shaped cookie cutter and cut dough. Repeat until all dough is cut into Christmas trees.
Place cookies on baking sheet about an inch apart and then shape the top of the tree into a little curl.
Bake for 7-9 minutes, until cookies just barely start to brown around the edges. Let them cool for 5 minutes before you move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Decorate:
While the cookies are cooling, make the glaze by mixing 1 cup powdered sugar with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. If it is still too thick you can add 1/2 tsp milk to get the right consistency.
1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Place a drop of glaze on the top of the tree and the tips and allow to harden.
In a microwave safe bowl, melt the red candy melts in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir, then microwave in additional 30 second increments, stirring between each, until completely melted and smooth.
Pour melted candy melts into a ziplock bag, then snip the corner of the bag to make a small hole.
1 cup red candy melts
Use the bag to pipe the small red hearts on the trees, let it cool then serve!
Notes
Keep the dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to roll and cut out your cookies. You can even leave the second half of your dough in the fridge while you’re rolling out the first half. The more you work with it, the softer it becomes making it harder to cut out.Store cookies in an airtight container for up to a week before throwing away or freezing.Freeze the cookies before decorating by placing in a freezer safe airtight container. When you’re ready to serve, just take out of the freezer and allow to come to room temperature. Glaze and decorate cookies just before serving.Ingredient Notes:
Heavy cream – you can use heavy cream, half and half, or your favorite flavored coffee creamer for these cookies. I’ve done both and my personal favorite is heavy cream but all three of them work!
Butter – make sure to use unsalted softened butter. If you don’t have unsalted, cut the salt down by 1/4 tsp to 3/4 tsp.
Food coloring – I used a neon green food coloring. With the neon coloring, it only took a couple of drops to get the right color.
Red candy melts – You could also just use candy hearts added onto the cookies if that’s easier!