This jello cookie recipe is so fun and colorful! The kids will love making these easy jello cookies with only a few simple ingredients.
My kids and I love to bake all types of desserts together! Other favorites include Rolo pretzels, funfetti cake mix cookies and homemade cosmic brownies.
Table of Contents
Easy and Colorful Jello Cookies
These jello cookies are perfect for baking with kids because they’re easy, colorful and double as playdough! Talk about a win-win for cookies :)
Although my famous homemade playdough recipe is still our go-to, the texture of this cookie dough is super soft and squishy. Wash the kid’s hands (and counter of course) and then let the kids imaginations go wild! My kids have so much fun smashing the dough and building BIG towers with all the colors.
Then once they’re done playing, simply roll it into balls, dip them in jello sugar and bake! They taste soft like a sugar cookie, but with a more tart and sweet flavor like my raspberry cookie recipe.
These cookies are also a fun recipe to make during the holidays with the kids. We love to make red and blue versions for 4th of July or red and green jello cookies for Christmas. They are also great for Cinco de Mayo. Simple, festive and delicious!
Favorite Jello Mix Flavors
Below are some of the jello mix flavors that you can use to make these cookies. Feel free to switch it up depending on the time of year or the holiday!
- Red: Strawberry, cherry, watermelon, raspberry, tropical fusion or cranberry
- Orange: Orange, apricot, mango or peach
- Blue: Berry blue
- Green: Lime
- Others: Grape (purple) and lemon or island pineapple (yellow)
How to Make Jello Cookies
Scroll down for the printable recipe.
- Preheat oven and cream butter and sugar together. Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Then blend in egg and vanilla.
- Mix dry ingredients with wet mixture. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cream of tarter in a separate bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Divide into sections. Divide the dough into four sections. Sprinkle two tablespoons of jello mix into each section and then knead until combined. Add food coloring for a more vibrant color.
- Roll into balls. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet about two inches apart. Flatten the dough with the bottom of a cup to allow the cookies to cook evenly.
- Bake and let cool. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove cookies from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!
TIP: For a sweeter cookie, roll your cookie dough balls into the extra jello mix powder or sugar prior to baking.
Baking Tips
Don’t these jello cookies just scream SUMMER?! I love all the bright colors! It was fun to taste all the different flavors too. The kids loved them!
- To enhance the colors, use a couple drops of food coloring in each section.
- You can use sugar-free jello mix if preferred.
- For a sweeter cookie, roll the cookie dough balls into the extra jello powder or sugar prior to baking.
- Use the bottom of a cup or bowl to flatten the cookie dough balls so that they bake evenly.
- You could use a cookie press if preferred. Or even roll the dough out and use cookie cutters.
- Freeze the dough and bake them later! Simply roll the dough into balls and place in a zip top bag in the freezer. Before baking, let them thaw out on a baking sheet.
These festive cookies are so fun to make during the holiday baking season! These Oreo Christmas cookies are another favorite.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
HUNGRY FOR MORE? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all the newest recipes!
Jello Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
- 12 ounces jello mix (4 packages)
- food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cream of tarter. Gradually add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Divide the dough into four sections. Sprinkle two tablespoons of jello mix into each section and then knead the dough until combined. You can add a few drops of food coloring in, if you’d like the color to be more vibrant.
- Roll dough into 1-inch balls. If desired, you may roll the balls into the extra jello powder or sugar for a sweeter cookie. Then place dough onto the baking sheet about two inches apart. Flatten the dough with the bottom of a cup or bowl to allow the cookies to cook evenly.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove cookies from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Categorized as: American, Cookies, Desserts, Holiday Cookies, Kid-Friendly
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
I’m featuring your cookies over at Taking Time To Create tomorrow. I’d love it if you stopped by. :-)
I’m making these today – so excited! Thanks for the recipe – I make Jello molds a lot so this will be something different for me :)
I have these in my oven right now! I made fruit punch, watermelon, peach, and berry blue. I haded just a drop of gel food coloring to enhance the colors. My only question is what did you do with the remaining jello? Just throw it away? Or did you use it for something else?
I saved my jello in snack size ziplock bags. I figure I will make these again soon and it seemed like such a waste to through all that jello out.
These cookies are so pretty and simple, love it.
love this idea and their colors. =) Thanks for sharing
oh they are so pretty!!!!
This are beautiful! I can’t wait to make them with my little guy. :-)
I made these cookies for Mother’s Day, and instead of using a bowl to flatten the cookies, I used a glass with a pretty bottom that looked kind of like a flower. They were a big hit. Thank you for sharing!
How did they taste? I’m curious as I’m thinking of making these in blue, green, red and yellow for a holiday cookie exchange. Thanks!
After finding 12 boxes of jello in the pantry while organizing this weekend, this is going to be perfect!! :)
Yum! Just made these (had some boxes of Jello just up in the cabinet) and turned out great! Thanks!
love the colors! Great photos!
Ok. These are seriously cute. I’ll have to make these with my son this week. Thanks for sharing!
The colors are so fun. They would be awesome for a birthday party!
If I hadn’t just come home from having gallbladder surgery, I would be heading to my kitchen to make these right now. They look so good!
Ooooh these look awesome~ I’m always looking for fun new cookie recipes. The fact that the kiddos can play with it while in progress is a bonus ;)
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing this recipe! So very generous of you and I love how bright the colors are. My grand-daughter is getting to the age of play-dough play and she also loves to “help” bake/cook. This is perfect for our next visit with her. She will have fun, nannie will love seeing her having fun, and eating the cookies will be extra fun.
Since she is gluten intolerant, I have to use gluten free flour in everything we make for her. I have found that Williams Sonoma has a blend called “C4C” which stands for cup for cup. It is by far the best blend I’ve found and it works well in every recipe I’ve used it in. Just like real flour – just substitute like regular flour, and every recipe becomes gluten-free. Just thought other moms might like that info. Since you shared with me…
Hope these taste as good as they look! They sure will be fun to make.
they look great! I do love all the colours you can make!!!
How pretty!! I am in love with all of the colors!!