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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 1/4 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 1/4 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
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Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon almond extract, optional
- ½ teaspoon orange extract, optional
- 1 (13.25-ounce) box white cake mix
- ½ cup holiday sprinkles, divided
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Beat the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Add the egg, almond extract, and orange extract and mix until combined.
- Add the cake mix and mix with the hand mixer until fully combined. Stir in ¼ cup of the sprinkles by hand. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
- Once the dough has finished chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a 1-inch cookie scoop to scoop the dough before rolling it into uniform balls. Sprinkle a few sprinkles on the cookie ball before rolling in the powfered sugar until completely coated.
- Place the dough on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between each.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, until the edges have set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for two minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a cooling rack.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Very good recipe. I have made these cookies often this year. It is always a crowd pleaser.
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.
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
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!!
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!
I agree! Mine take WAY longer than 10 minutes to bake. I don’t make them any bigger than the recipe calls for. But, they are so worth it! Delicious!
Can you freeze the dough?
Yes, of course! That sounds great! Let me know how it goes! XOXO
can you use anise extract instead?
Yes, that sounds great! Let me know what you think! XOXO
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
My family loves these cookies . These are really simple to make.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Just made these today and I loved them. Thanks for the recipe!
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