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
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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.
Hello – My almost three year old and I had a lot of fun making these. For our tastes, however, the cookies were much too sweet. The dough was very soft (made on a hot day in TX) and easy to work with and, using a cookie scoop, easily yielded 12 soft cookies of each of the four colors we chose. They are pretty (mine didn’t “flower”, but are just an even circle). I only rolled the first half in the jello, hoping to lessen the sweetness, but even the second half (non-rolled in jello powder) was too sweet for our liking. But, we had fun. I’m saving them for a group of little boys coming over for a play date – I’m sure they’ll gobble them up.
I’m glad you had fun making these with your three year old! They are pretty sweet to eat, my little ones loved making them though!
Hi Karen! I just used all purpose flour. :)
So happy to find this fun idea. We are having a perry the Platypus bday party so teal and orange cookie will be great! Thanks. Plus the fact the kids can help is even better.
How fun! The kids will love to help make these! :)
Thank you for the idea! I have so many boxes of Jell-O sitting in the cupboard. I am going to be making these for our church Easter party!
Hope they turned out well for your church Easter party! They are definitely a great way to use up Jell-O sitting in the pantry!
Mmm, this look so cute and summery. When they are done are they a crunchy or soft cookie? Silly question…but I quite particular about my cookies. :)
Hi Sarah! They are soft cookies! :)
I only have unsalted butter, would that work?
Yes, it should still work great! :)
JUST finished making a batch with 4 and 2 yr old daughters. Made exactly 4 dozen cookies with 12 of each colour but had accidentally bought pistachio pudding by jello instead of the green jelly powder mix…….turned out SUPERB!!! The very best flavour in the whole batch! I will make these with the girls again, they had a blast playing with the dough, but I’ll use pudding mixes and food colouring as the 36 jello flavoured cookies, while very pretty, to be honest, and with no insult intended as everyone has different taste buds lol….none of my 5 kids liked the ‘artificial’ taste.( they don’t like koolaid either so I should have known lol) (4 year old said cherry tastes gross like medicine lol) thanks for all the work you put into sharing this post, the recipe was VERY accurate for us, exactly 9 minutes and they were soft, fluffy, great texture,non-oily cookies. we had a really great afternoon with huge thanks to you and your recipe:)
I’m glad you had fun making them with your daughters Catherine! I agree that the jello cookie dough is much more fun to play with than to eat! My kids loved eating the cookies after, but everyone is different! I prefer chocolatey cookies! :) I’ll have to try the pudding mixes next time, thanks for the idea!
Hi Kim! These are sweet cookies and I like them, but they are definitely more fun for kids! Kids seem to LOVE them, but I don’t think they would be the best for an adult party! I would probably make a different cookie recipe if there won’t be any kids there! :)
Brilliant IDEA!
Hi Lisa. I’m sorry these cookies didn’t turn out for you. They are definitely more fun for kids to play with than for eating. Also, if you want to get more bright colors, I would add some food coloring to make the colors pop! :)
This is such a fantastic idea, especially for such a gloomy April here in Northern California. I tried them this weekend – tasted just as good as they are cute.
Hi! I just made these and they are wonderful! However, my blue ones didn’t turn out as blue as yours – they were more teal (even after adding a couple drops of food coloring). Any suggestions? I want to make more of the blue ones again when I have my son later this month. Thanks!
Hi Natalie! I used the food color gels (found at jo-ann’s) which seem to make them more brighter. Hope that helps!
Thanks! I’ll try that next time!
my aunt made these cookies for Easter and they were delicious! (:
Yay! So glad you liked them. Such a fun treat for Spring! :D
How many cookies does the recipe yield?
About 24 cookies :)
any chance the dough can be made in advance and/or made into the balls.. and then just thawed and baked. Trying to plan ahead for party preparations…
Hi Ashlee! Yes you could freeze the balls. Just make sure to let them thaw out on the pan before baking them. :)
Thank you for the detailed recipe. Someone who has never baked before could even successfully make them! A good recipe for beginning cooks:-)
So u really love the look to these cookies but can anyone tell me if they have are delicious or taste like the jello flavors? Nothing upsets me more than making cookies only to find out they look great but don’t taste great!!
where I come from jello comes in a rubbery form…must find this powdered jello…arghhh