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Soft, luscious Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies are easy, and perfect for holiday festivities. Whether it’s for a party, holiday cookie exchange or gifts for the neighbors, these are perfect.
Who doesn’t love food with word gooey or butter in the title! Try these other incredible gooey foods, Ooey Gooey Chex Mix, Ooey Gooey Lemon Coconut Butter Bars and Gooey S’mores Cookies.
Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies
These are not only tempting and fun, the powdered sugar coating makes them extra special. Adding almond and orange extracts makes them taste like Christmas. They are usually a favorite around the holiday dessert table.
Adding the sprinkles to the dough adds color and fun. When you add them afterwards too, it gives a bit of crunch and fun. I love the crunch from the small round sprinkles. They are melt in your mouth amazing. These Gooey Butter Cookies are definitely a cookie recipe you will want to have on hand.
Christmas Cookie Ingredients
Fun and few ingredients to make delicious morsels of goodness.
- Butter: Bring to room temperature
- Cream Cheese: Softened
- Egg: Large not medium
- Almond and Orange Extract: Perfect Christmas flavorings
- White Cake Mix: The secret to making it easy
- Sprinkles: Make it festive and fun
- Powdered Sugar: Creates the dusting of snow look and flavor
Making Gooey Butter Cookies
Super easy to put together.
- Cream: In a medium bowl cream together butter and cream cheese. Add the egg, almond extract and orange extract and mix till combined.
- Add: Add the white Cake Mix and mix until combined.
- Stir: Stir in ¼ cup of sprinkles
- Refrigerate: cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours.
- Roll: Place powdered sugar in one bowl and remaining ¼ cup of sprinkles in another bowl. Using a 1 inch cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into a ball. Sprinkle with a few extra sprinkles and roll in powdered sugar and completely cover the dough.
- Bake: Place on a greased cookie sheet, bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Tips and Variations Gooey Butter Cookies
- Flavor: The amount of extract gives a hint of flavor, so you can use any flavor you’d like lemon, coconut, vanilla, peppermint etc. You can also just use the decadent flavor of the cake mix.
- Sprinkles: You can use any different colors of sprinkles to create the colors you’d like.
- Type of Sprinkles: Jimmies in the batter don’t seem to dissolve. Other sprinkles that don’t dissolve will work too. Use any other type of sprinkle on the outside.
- Cake Mix: You can different type of cake mix to create different color and flavors, you really get creative with the cake mix and extracts.
- Bake: Don’t over bake them, otherwise they won’t be soft and gooey.
Storing Christmas Butter Cookies
- Store: Gooey butter cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Dough: Roll the dough out and freeze on a cookie sheet for half an hour before transferring to an airtight freezer bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and bake as directed.
- Freeze: Freeze completely cooled cookies in an airtight freezer bag or container for up to 3 months. thaw and roll in powdered sugar.
More Holiday Cookie Ideas
Everyone needs a good holiday cookie recipe go to, try these out.
- Double Chocolate Peppermint Cake
- Perfect Gingerbread Cookies
- Gingerbread Sugar Cookies Bars
- Christmas Cornflake Wreaths
- Best Christmas Crack Recipe
Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 c. unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract opt.
- 1/2 tsp. orange extract opt.
- 1 pkg. white cake mix
- 1/2 c. sprinkles divided
- 1/2 c. powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add the egg, almond extract and orange extract and mix until combined. Add the white cake mix and mix until combined. Stir in ¼ cup of sprinkles. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to 24 hours. The longer the dough chills, the less sticky it will be.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place powdered sugar in one bowl and the remaining ¼ cup of sprinkles in another bowl. Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into a ball. Sprinkle with a few extra sprinkles and roll in powdered sugar, completely covering the dough ball. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for two minutes before removing to wire rack. Makes around 42 small cookies.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Serves: 42
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
I love cookies like these, can’t wait to try! They certainly look delicious 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
I just made these but skipped the extracts/sprinkles/ and powdered sugar part (lol). But they were one of the best cookies I’ve ever tasted! So yummy and I like how it was less sweet than most cookies. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Do these need to stay refrigerated since they have cream cheese in them?
Did you refrigerate your cookies??? Also can they be frozen?
Do our think these would work with a gluten free cake mix?
Yes! Made them tonight with a gluten free cake mix and they were a big hit!
Yes. I used Pilsbury funfettie cake mix and they were delicious. Fixin to try some with chocolate devils food cake mix.
Jenn, how long will these cookies keep?
I just made these & the bottoms burned due to the powdered sugar & ruined 2 good cookie sheets and set off my smoke alarm. ?? Warning – use parchment paper!!!
I’m wondering if you can substitute a different flavor for the orange (dang picky boys!)? Like maybe Cherry? Or double that almond? Have you tried anything else? These sound utterly delicious, though!
I made these per the recipe. You can’t even tell they have Orange In Them. They taste like almond cookies.
I made these with extra almond instead of the orange and they were delicious!
Used same amount of vanilla extract as the almond. My grandson asked if I got them at the bakery that he loves.
Can you use a cookie press for these?
Unless a second baking will salvage these cookies I will never make them again. They didn’t look done at ten minutes s i gave them two more. They were still mushy and under baked. Like eating raw cookie dough
I just made the batter and it is really crumbly, like sugar cookies. Yours looks smooth. Any idea what I did wrong? These are a pretty simple looking cookie, and I am (usually) a proficient baker.
Took mine out of the oven a few minutes ago. I wish I would have only rolled them in the sprinkles rather than mixing them into the batter. By mixing them into the batter, it turned the batter a purplish color. I did roll them in additional sprinkles before baking to hopefully make the color not as noticeable. After baking, the color was more of a light brown. I shook some additional powdered sugar onto the top of them after taking them out of the oven and they look better. They taste good and definitely love the 2 flavorings
WOW! Super easy, and they taste amazing. I followed the recipe and they came out perfect! I will be using this recipe again for my work cookie exchange!
I just made these and they are so yummy! I followed the advice from Stacey and rolled the cookie dough into the sprinkles and the powdered sugar rather than putting 1/2 of the sprinkles in the batter and I’m so glad I did. They came out perfect and none of the color bled into the cookie dough. Also, I only used the almond extract and I added 1 heaping teaspoon of sugar into the cookie dough because I wanted the cookies just a tad bit sweeter and they are perfect for us. These cookies are easy to make and definitely a keeper on my Christmas cookie list. Thank you for sharing, Alyssa!
I think these are great and fun, especially to do with the kids! Instead of orange extract, I replaced with pure vanilla extract. (DO NOT USE IMITATION EXTRACTS!) I do not have a small cookie super so I had to eyeball the one inch size. I think you should just be familiar with your oven because I had to cook mine for about 2 to 3 minutes longer than what the recipe calls. Always remember though they will set up after they have cooled. However, 10 minutes of baking they never set. Moist, fun, and tasty!
I can’t wait to make these. Thank you!
First Christmas trying these and made them twice, once with only Almond extract, the second with both. Would recommend both. These cookies are so soft and yummy and stay soft for days. Highly recommend them. Use all colored sprinkles for anytime of year, I sure will.
These are great! First tried them last year, everything just as described but added a teaspoon of coconut oil, dash of cinnamon, and the zest of one orange. Family loved them. Gonna play with a lemon cake version and see what I can create. Still making originals again too..thank you for making me look good…!!
Just to follow up… I made these with lemon cake mix, adding in the grated rind of one lemon, one tsp lemon juice and a dash of cinnamon. Huge hit! Tonight trying spice cake mix and cherry cake mix. Also, I made them originally in Arizona and 10 min was perfect. This year we live in Washington state, and due to the humidity it look 20 minutes for each batch.
Divided the dough into 4, then added different flavor extracts to each. I had vanilla, lemon, strawberry, and orange.
Perfect!
Thanks
Just made these today and I loved them. Thanks for the recipe!
My daghters and I are having a cookie bake weekend and this is one of the cookies I am going to try! we always have so much fun baking and eating cookies
Do these need to stay in refridgerator? If so how do u keep them from sticking to each other In a tray?
No, they do not need to but they may last longer if they are in there for a day or two before needing them. I like to use parchment paper in-between the rows.
These cooked so much better on a regular cookie sheet and not stoneware. They wouldn’t set on the stoneware. No matter how long I cooked them. Perfect on the cook sheet.
Really like your recipes, very much, but I have trouble seeing your page. The colors make it difficult to read the very small fonts. If you could change the theme of the page and enlarge the fonts, it would be so much easier to read and enjoy! Bolder and brighter colors may help, too. Thank you.
If you don’t have the box of white cake mix what would the measurements of the dry ingredients be? I have them all separate. Would love to make these gooey butter cookies.
My family loves these cookies . These are really simple to make.
Can you make these cookies sugar free because I am diabetic and they look so good I would love to try
HMM! That sounds like a great idea! I have not tried it yet but you are welcome to use Splenda or an alternative sugar to make it to your liking. Hope that helps! Let me know how they taste! Thanks for following along with me! XOXO
can you use anise extract instead?
Yes, that sounds great! Let me know what you think! XOXO
Can you freeze the dough?
Yes, of course! That sounds great! Let me know how it goes! XOXO
10 mins at 350° is not even close to what I needed. I bumped my temp to 365° and it took 18 minutes. They taste wonderful!
The recipe was great but very hard to read because the pop up ads constantly have it moving around. So trying to read and write down ingredients that you need is very frustrating!!
Can I use a silicone mat for baking these instead of a greased cookie sheet?
Yes, that sounds great! They are the best mats! Thanks for following along with me! XOXO
Made these with only almond extract (no orange). Easy and quite good. Would probably cut down on almond extract next time as the flavor is strong for some.
Very good recipe. I have made these cookies often this year. It is always a crowd pleaser.
Our family’s absolute favorite ?
I have colored sugar crystals (not sprinkles). Will those work? Thanks!
Yes, that will be great!
Just made these cookies. I only used pure vanilla and just rolled the dough in sprinkles then sugar. I needed 12 minutes to bake. Maybe next time I will make smaller balls. I will definitely make these again probably double batch
These cookies are so delicious. I made these for a holiday party the Christmas before last and they were a hit. My family also enjoys these cookies as well.
I discovered your recipe several years ago. I never deviate from the recipe except I only use the long sprinkles, never the small round ones. I change up the color of sprinkles depending on what I’m making them for. I use a standard cookie sheet with parchment paper. Every batch has turned out perfect every time. It is my go-to cookie recipe and everyone in my family requests them for every holiday, party, or randomly.
Anyone try this with peppermint extract?
I first tried this recipe a few years ago for a cookie exchange event and they turned out great! Ever since they have been a family and friend favorite. Such an easy recipe. The only thing I’ve changed is to omit the sprinkles entirely since I rarely have sprinkles on hand. I always bake at 350F for 9-11 minutes and they turn out perfectly (I wait til they get just the slightest golden color on the top), if you want a firmer/crispier cookie then leave in another couple minutes. I have not had any issues with the cookies sticking to the cookie sheet but I’m sure parchment paper would work great. Still soft when they come out of the oven but become firmer with sitting on the baking sheet for a couple minutes. Definitely recommend!