Easy St Patrick’s Day Cookies
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Looking for an easy and festive treat to celebrate St Patrick’s Day? These St Patrick’s Day Cookies check all the boxes!
These crinkly-topped treats, often called Crinkle Cookies, are a fun and easy dessert made with a simple cake mix. These soft, chewy green cookies are quick to whip up and full of delicious flavor. They’re perfect for class parties, family gatherings, or a festive dessert to cap off the day.
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St Patrick’s Day Cookies Recipe
St Patrick’s Day is one of our favorite holidays to craft and bake for and “lucky” us, the holiday always falls during spring break!
These St Patrick’s Day Cookies instantly brighten up any dessert spread with their beautiful green color and sweet taste. Made with a box of white cake mix, they’re wonderfully simple to bake. Their flavor and texture will steal the show at any St Patrick’s Day celebration. Just whip out a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, and you’ll be done in no time.
Bonus? Fewer ingredients and less mess!
Why You Need to Make these St Patrick’s Day Cookies
- Taste amazing – Everyone loves these St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
- Easy to make – This easy St. Patrick’s Day Crinkle Cookies recipe starts with a box of cake mix. They come together in no time! Mixing and stirring is much easier because there’s no need for ten different ingredients spread out across the counter and uses fewer dishes.
- Kid-friendly: Rolling cookie dough balls in powdered sugar is always a favorite activity for little helpers!
- Festive and fun – These bright green cookies are perfect for a St Patrick’s Day get-together or even a class party.
- Versatile flavor: Add white chocolate chips, mint extract, or even decorate with sprinkles to suit your taste.
A Great Cookie Recipe to Make With Kids
St. Patrick’s day is one of our favorite holidays to craft and bake for. Rainbows, leprechauns, pots of gold, the color green, etc. what could be better?
These are the perfect cookies to make with kids. And the kids’ favorite part?
Rolling the cookie dough balls in powdered sugar before baking! Trust me, it’s almost as exciting as eating the cookies themselves (though I had to stop my little one from licking the sugar off the unbaked dough more than once—those were his, haha)
The cookies are so delicious – soft and chewy, just the way I like them. Plus, they’re easy to adapt for other holidays by switching up the food coloring or cookie shape with shamrock cookie cutters for a festive twist.
St Patrick’s Day Cookies Ingredients + Notes
(Ingredients at a glance, you’ll find the full recipe with ingredient amounts in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.)
- Box of white cake mix | I prefer Betty Crocker cake mix, but any white or vanilla cake mix will work
- Eggs | For best results, the eggs should be room temperature. They make the crinkle cookies chewy and help bind everything together.
- Vegetable oil | Oil gives cookies a tender, chewy texture. You can use other oils like olive or coconut, but they may affect the flavor. Vegetable oil is used instead of butter in cake mix cookies because its pure fat content produces softer, more tender cookies. Unlike butter, oil contains no water, helping the cookies stay soft after cooling and spread evenly on the baking sheet.
- Confectioners sugar | You will roll the cookie balls in sugar before baking.
- Optional (but recommended) | Green food color. For best results, I like to use the Wilton Gel Colors. You can also add white chocolate chips, white chocolate sprinkles, or mint extract for a fun twist.
How to Make these St Patrick’s Day Crinkle Cookies
You’ll love how simple these cookies are to make! Here is a quick overview: (full printable recipe card with instructions is at the bottom of the post.)
- Preheat the oven.
- Mix the ingredients together and chill the dough.
- Using a 2 tbsp cookie scoop, drop the cookie dough into the powdered sugar, and roll into balls, coating the cookie balls with powdered sugar.
- Flatten the cookie balls.
- Bake and cool on a wire rack before serving.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t skip the chilling, the cookies will be difficult to shape into balls and may turn out flatter than desired.
- Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop and immediately drop it into the bowl of sugar before rolling. This will keep your hands from getting too sticky. Once shaped into a ball, give the ball a final roll in the sugar for the best coverage and prettiest result.
- Don’t overbake these St. Patrick’s Day Cookies. They should be very soft when they’re done. If you overbake (while still yummy), they will come out more cake-like.
- Use a silicone mat instead of buttering your pan to keep the bottoms from over-browning.
- Secret tip to keep the powdered sugar from melting away: If you want a heavy coating of powdered sugar on your cookies after baking, this extra step gives amazing results. Roll your cookie dough balls in a bowl of granulated sugar first. Then roll again in the confectioner’s sugar for that heavy finished coat of powdered sugar.
Cookie Variations
The best part about this cookie recipe is that you can use any flavor of cake mix.
- Make lemon cookies using a lemon cake mix.
- Chocolate cake mix for fudgy chocolate crinkle cookies.
- Strawberry Cake Mix Crinkle Cookies for Valentine’s Day.
- Vanilla cake mix plus any flavor extract with your favorite gel food color for a custom cookie.
- Add mint extract, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit or green sprinkles.
- Swirl on some cream cheese frosting, or sandwich them with whipped cream for an extra-special dessert treat.
Storage Suggestions
Store baked cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 3 to 4 days.
To freeze already baked cookies: Let the cookies cool completely. Transfer them into an airtight container or a freezer bag with the air squeezed out. (I love my foodsaver for this.) Place sheets of parchment paper between the layers of cookies. For best results, use within 3 months.
FAQ’s
What Is A Crinkle Cookie?
Crinkle cookies have soft centers with crisp cracked edges. When baking, the tops of the crinkle cookies begin to dry out, resulting in a cracked surface. Coating the cookies with sugar helps draw out moisture from their surface, also accentuates the cracks for a “crinkled effect” These cookies differ from a regular sugar cookie recipe as they use a cake mix as a base, making them softer and chewier.
What makes these cookies different from traditional sugar cookies?
These cookies use white cake mix as a base, making them softer, chewier, and quicker to prepare than sugar cookies, which often require rolling and cutting.
Can These Cookies Be Made Ahead Of Time?
Yes! Measure and roll the cookie dough into balls. Line the cookie dough balls up on a baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen, transfer them to an airtight container or freezer bag. The raw dough can be frozen for up to three months.
Can You Make Cake Mix Cookies With Cool Whip?
Yes, a reader shared an old cake mix cookie hack with me. You can substitute one of the eggs and oil for an 8-oz container of Cool Whip. I tried it, and they were great!
Why Are My Cookies Flat?
A couple of reasons you might have flat cookies.
- Did you skip the chilling time? Cold cookie batter has less of a chance to flatten when cooking.
- If baking more than one batch, make sure your cookie sheet has time to cool. A warm cookie sheet will lead to flatter cookies.
- Using melted butter instead of oil will lead to a flatter, crispier cookie.
What happens if I don’t roll the dough in powdered sugar?
Skipping the powdered sugar will leave the cookies without their signature crinkle effect. For best results, roll the dough generously in powdered sugar before baking.
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Want more green/St. Paddy’s Day recipes? Be sure to check these out!
- Pinch Proof Rice Krispy Treats
- Green Eggs and Ham Recipe (mini frittatas)
- Mint Chocolate Fudge Recipe
- Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie Recipe
Recommended tools
- Cookie Scoop (for evenly shaped cookies)
- Cookie sheet (Use a cookie sheets that is a light in color. Dark pans absorb more heat and can cause your cookies to overbake.)
- Silicone baking mat
Tried this St Patrick’s Day Cookie recipe?
Print
Easy St Patrick’s Day Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 22 to 24 cookies 1x
- Category: desserts
- Method: oven
Description
This Easy St Patrick’s Day Crinkle Cookie Recipe is a great baking recipe to do with kids! The festive and fun holiday cookies are made using a boxed cake mix so they couldn’t be easier to make.
Ingredients
- 1 box of white cake mix
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- Green food color drops or gel
- 1 cup powdered sugar
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Instructions
- Heat oven to 375.
- In a large bowl and mix your white cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and green food coloring until smooth. I recommend using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer for the best consistency. Chill dough for 15 to 30 minutes.
- Use a 2 tbsp cookie scoop, drop the cookie dough into the powdered sugar, and roll into balls coating the cookie balls completely with powdered sugar.
- Place cookies onto a cookie sheet and slightly flatten with the bottom of a glass or cookie cutter.
- Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper, and bake for 7–9 minutes. The edges should just start to brown.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to cooling racks before serving.
Notes
To keep the powdered sugar from melting away during the baking process, you can roll the chilled dough in granulated sugar first and then a second time in confectioners sugar.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 99
- Fat: 1
- Carbohydrates: 21
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 2
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