Description
Delightfully festive Halloween Crinkle Cookies with vibrant colors, soft texture, and fun monster eye candies. These easy-to-make cookies use a vanilla cake mix base, are rolled in icing sugar, and baked to a perfect crackled finish—ideal for spooky holiday celebrations.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 1 box vanilla cake mix
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- food coloring gel in orange, black, and purple
Coating and Decoration
- 2 cups icing sugar, for rolling and dusting
- monster eye candies
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Set your oven to 350°F (175°C) and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
- Make Dough: In a mixing bowl, beat together the vanilla cake mix, vegetable oil, eggs, and desired amounts of orange, black, and purple food coloring gel until evenly combined and smooth.
- Chill Dough: Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes to firm it up, which helps maintain shape while baking.
- Form Cookies: Scoop a tablespoon of chilled dough and roll it into a ball; then gently roll the ball in icing sugar ensuring an even coating.
- Freeze Cookies: Place the sugar-coated dough balls onto a tray and freeze for 10 to 15 minutes to further solidify their shape before baking.
- Arrange and Decorate: Transfer frozen dough balls to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Press a monster eye candy into the center of each cookie gently but firmly.
- Chill Again: Place the prepared baking sheet with cookies back into the refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill again for even baking.
- Bake: Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 8 minutes, or until the surfaces crack but the centers remain soft.
- Cool: Allow cookies to cool on the baking pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Chill dough twice — Cold dough holds its shape better and creates the signature crackled surface.
- Use gel food coloring — Gels add vivid color without adding extra moisture that could affect texture.
- Roll dough balls gently in icing sugar to keep a nice coating without smudging colors.
- Don’t overbake — Remove cookies right when they develop cracks to keep them soft and chewy inside.
- If you want extra vivid colors, divide dough into separate bowls and color each before chilling.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150 kcal
- Sugar: 12 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 20 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Cholesterol: 15 mg
