I still love Jell-O cookies! I love the flavor, I love that they are colorful and I love that everyone else seems to love them, too. I changed the recipe a little for the Merry Christmas Jell-O Cookies. Since I am approaching the 100K pin-mark and I thought I would try mixing things up a bit in honor of Valentine’s Day. There are a few extra steps to the process, but it was totally worth it to have such cheery Valentine’s Day treats!
When I make Jell-O cookies, I normally do the raspberry, lemon, lime and orange, but I’d thought I’d change out the lemon for grape this time. This is what I got after adding the grape Jell-O…
…obviously not much color in here! More like yucky! So I added some purple gel coloring from AmeriColor to make it more vibrant…
…what can I say! Sorry for the fuzzy picture.
Normally, I roll the cookie dough into balls and then in sugar, flatten them with a flat-bottomed bowl and then sprinkle them with chunky colored sugar, the way I did in the original post. Then I thought how cute these would be cut-out in the shape of hearts. The dough is very soft when you first make it, so I thought I would refrigerate the dough first, like I do with my Aunt Margy’s Sugar Cookie Dough that we use for cut-out cookies. I did try to cut and bake them without chilling first, but it was marginally successful, so I made all four batches of dough and then put it away in the refrigerator until the next day.
This dough isn’t really designed for rolling, so I followed the normal process, but with chilled dough. Roll the dough into balls – you will have to adjust the size of the ball depending on the size of your heart cookie cutter. But don’t worry about making them a little too big – just put the excess back into the bowl and you can re-roll it. Next, roll the dough ball into plain sugar and put it on your cookie sheet.
Using the bottom of a bowl (Corelle bowls are flat and the one I like to use), flatten the ball.
Use a cookie cutter…
…wiggle it a little to separate it, and remove the excess dough from the outer edge of the cutter.
If you see any excess bits around the cookie cutter, wipe it away before removing the cookie cutter, otherwise you might not have a clean edge for the cookie. I didn’t notice this being an issue as much when the dough was well chilled. Next, sprinkle the cookies with chunky colored sugar.
Don’t forget that this recipe only needs to bake for 6 minutes – no longer!
For reference, the cookies bake almost exactly the same size as they are cut – they just rise!
One thing I have learned about making the Jell-O cookies is to make small experiments. With the Christmas Jell-O Cookies, I added lemon extract. When I was at Home Goods (can I say how much I love that store?) I found something called Lemon Bakery Emulsion.
It says that it is prefered by bakers…I’m a baker! The difference has to do with extracts having an alcohol base, while emulsions are flavorful oils mixed with water with the aid of emulsifiers like vegetable gum. Emulsions are stronger than extract, so you can use less. I did use a full teaspoon. This time around I used both, two had extract and two had emulsion…honestly, it is hard to tell which is which. But it was fun to try something different.
Okay…these cookies make me smile!
Who wouldn’t like to get a box of these? This little box found their way to Lizzie’s place today…do you think she’ll share with James? I think I love these little heart Jell-O cookies even just a little more than the ones in my original post…I love, love, love these cookies!
I wonder how long it will take to get 100K pins for these? What do you think?
Tags: colorful heart cookies, heart cookies, Jell-O Cookies, sugar cookies, Valentine's Day Cookies
Can you tell me where the actual recipe for Jello Cookies is? I’ve been wandering around your website for an hour and can’t seem to find it. I’d really like to make these valentines ones. Thank you.
I am so sorry that I missed you question. There is a link in the first paragraph that goes to the Merry Christmas Jell-O Cookies. I had mixed it up a bit by using all butter and something else, but the link to the recipe is right there. Good luck!
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Shared this with my daughter and we are going to make Halloween cookies for our special trick or treaters. Will be using pumpkin cut out and we will be doing x-mas trees for the holidays.
Awesome idea! I might have to copy you!
Haven’t read any other comments, but here’s what I would do: after cutting out with the heart cookie cutter, leave the cutter on the cookie & sprinkle with the bigger sugar first & then remove cutter. This saves on some of the sugar & doesn’t make as much of a mess on the cookie sheet for the next batch. 😊
You’re right. I finally figured that one…it just took me a while. Thanks for the tip!
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Baking some right now! We rolled a handful in sugar then stuffed it in the spritz cookie gun. They’re delicious and my 5 year old gets to help 🙂
Does anyone know where I can find Baking Emulsion?
I have found it at places like TJ Max and Marshalls, and I believe the have it at Michaels…gotta love it when you can use a coupon!
Can you substitute the lemon bakery emulsion with anything else?
The original recipe calls for vanilla extract. I found that I like the lemon emulsion instead, but you could also use lemon extract…or vanilla! The Jell-O flavoring is pretty strong so I don’t feel like you have to use a flavored extract, but in experimenting, I liked the results.
Is this recipe per color/per packet? Or do you make it and then mix the jello in deprecate bowls?
Yes…the recipe is one color/flavor of jello for one batch. You add the sugar and jello and cream it with the butter. If I am only needing a few cookies, I only make one color. But one batch is not usually enough!
Is this recipe for the 4 packages of jello divided on the dough or per color
Sorry for the delay! I made one batch of each color. I use the whole 3 oz. package of Jell-o (if I have a restaurant size bag or a 6 oz. box, I use 4 oz., or 1/2 cup…one flavor per batch.
[…] they don’t look like much, especially compared to Helen’s. (I found the recipe on her blog.) But they tasted great. And they were a lot of work, which is why […]
Hi Helen,
How long can these Jello cookies be stored? I’m planning to make them for my daughter’s birthday. Can I bake them a week in advance – would they keep in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, or should I refrigerate them? Thanks in advance for your advice!
These cookies don’t usually last around our house that long, but in an air-tight container they should be okay. Put parchment paper in between the layers of cookies to keep the crumbs from the bottom from getting into the sugar on the top. They sure are cute…one of these days I’m going to make flower shapes!
I made these last night for my daughter’s class today…I made a couple little adjustments…I didn’t need so many cookies do the first batch of dough I split in half then added the jello mix to each half…I also omitted the sugar from the recipe except for rolling it just before pressing them and cutting them…with the sweetness of the jello mix (I used the sugar free kind) and just rolling it in the sugar towards the end PLUS the crystal sugar on top was sweetness enough…the kids absolutely loved them!
They certainly are sweet cookies. I’m glad to hear that the omitted sugar and the sugar-free Jell-O worked…that’s good to know!
Interestn. Ill b makn w/my 4yr. old daughter soon. Thanks!
I hope you did and you two had fun! Love these cookies!
This is such a great idea! I never though of jell-o cookies but I bet they taste amazing. Might try them for my office bake-off.
I do love these cookies…so light and fruity. Check out this link where I finally tried coloring my own sugar crystals – I used the sugar on Lemon Jell-O cookies…delicious! https://justhelen.net/2013/03/lemon-jell-o-gem-cookies/
How many packets of jello make 1/2 cup?
Sorry for the delay…I haven’t been getting comments in my emails. That’s a great question, and the only way I know is because I was making so many Jell-O cookies that I decided to buy it in bigger packages – 24 oz at Costco Business, so I opened a small box and measured it. Somewhere along the line, I decided that I liked the flavor to be a little stronger, so I upped the Jell-O measurement a bit. It is more than a small box (3 oz.) and less that a large box of Jell-O (6 oz.). I want to say that it’s 4 oz, but that would be too easy!