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Easy St Patrick’s Day Cookies

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.

St Patrick's Day Crinkle cookie recipe

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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!

st patrick's day cookies

Why You Need to Make these St Patrick’s Day Cookies

  • Taste amazingEveryone loves these St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
  • Easy to makeThis 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.
st patrick's day cookies

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.)

  1. Preheat the oven.
  2. Mix the ingredients together and chill the dough.
  3. 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.
  4. Flatten the cookie balls.
  5. Bake and cool on a wire rack before serving.
best st patricks day cookie recipe

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.

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.

  1. Did you skip the chilling time? Cold cookie batter has less of a chance to flatten when cooking.
  2. If baking more than one batch, make sure your cookie sheet has time to cool. A warm cookie sheet will lead to flatter cookies.
  3. 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.

Want more green/St. Paddy’s Day recipes? Be sure to check these out!

Cake mix cookie recipes

Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and/or a review in the comments section below. If you share an image on Instagram or Facebook, be sure to tag me and use #scatteredmomrecipes!

Print
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Easy St Patrick's Day Crinkle Cookie

Easy St Patrick’s Day Cookies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 9 reviews
  • Author: Jamie Sanders
  • 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

Scale
  • 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

  1. Heat oven to 375.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Place cookies onto a cookie sheet and slightly flatten with the bottom of a glass or cookie cutter.
  5. 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.
  6. 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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19 Comments

  1. Turned out just perfect!






  2. Super-easy and great! They didn’t come out as green as I liked, so I brushed the tops with plant butter while they were still hot and now they have a buttery taste on top. Next time might try omitting the powdered sugar since cake mix is plenty sweet and just going with the butter. Thank you for posting 🙂






  3. What happens if I use yellow cake mix instead of white? My husband is diabetic, and they have sugar free yellow cake mix.

    1. Jamie Sanders says:

      Most likely will have a yellow tint to them and the flavor of yellow cake instead of white.

  4. How much food colouring should I use?

    1. Jamie Sanders says:

      It depends on the brand and type. Just add food coloring til you reach your desired color.

  5. The kids absolutely loved these cookies!






  6. I tried it! It came out and oo so so good






  7. I made these. Everyone loved them especially my grandson who is 16 months old and had to have one in each hand.






  8. How many cookies does this recipe make? Anyone try adding chocolate chips?

  9. I’d like to make these but have one question….is the 1 cup powdered only for rolling the cookies in or part of the cookie mix?

    1. Jamie Sanders says:

      It’s just for rolling. You might be able to get away with less if that is what you are wondering….

  10. These were easy and fun to make and everyone loved them!






  11. I used my cookie dough scoop and dusted them with powdered sugar before baking. Didn’t even flatten them as called for in the recipe. They turned out great!

  12. Jojo Sewist says:

    Can also use 1 large container of whipped topping, substitute for eggs and oil. Thanks for posting, I had forgotten about this recipe.

  13. Did colors for easter, they were great. So easy.






  14. Really fun recipe, what a great idea!