candy corn cookies;
These festive candy corn cookies are tiny, little poppable sugar cookies flavored gently with orange zest. So yummy, layered with vibrant colors of white, orange, and yellow so that they look just like your Halloween candy corn. (But in my opinion, they taste even better!)
There’s nothing so polarizing as candy corn. People seem to either love or hate it. I feel like there is no in-between, no ambivalence. I actually fall on the “hate candy corn” spectrum when it comes to flavor and texture. No offense to anyone who likes it, it’s a classic Halloween flavor, and always fun to see the colorful “corn” show up on shelves. It means Halloween is near! But these candy corn cookies only take their color inspiration from candy corn. Not as much the flavor of the original candy corn candy.
I took the original recipe for candy corn cookies from the land o lakes website, but I cut it in half and tweaked the recipe a bit. The original recipe makes 15 dozen cookies which is so many cookies! So pairing down the recipe a bit made for a more reasonable number of cookies in my opinion. And they turned out great!
The flavor here is a classic sugar cookie flavored just slightly with orange zest and orange juice for a mild orange flavor. It adds a brightness that makes these little cookies so poppable…betcha can’t eat just one! You can actually see the flecks of orange zest in the cookie dough itself
Use a kitchen scale to separate the dough into equal portions and take the guesswork out!
secret to success
It’s the same orange sugar cookie dough in all three layers of the candy corn cookies. You separate the dough into 3 equal portions, and then color each portion. I like to use my kitchen scale to separate the dough into equal portions. It doesn’t have to be exact, but I find it takes the guesswork out of making the layers even.
When it comes to food coloring, I used gel food coloring for my candy corn cookies. If you get the traditional 4 colors of food coloring (yellow, red, green, blue) you can make your own orange color. The white is simply the cookie dough, so no food coloring required. The yellow is easy–just add yellow food coloring and mix until even. Add more for a more vibrant color. I start with mixing the yellow dough. Then I move onto the orange to make sure the red doesn’t stain the yellow dough.
Start by coloring the yellow dough. Once you move to the orange, you’ll be using red and yellow and that will keep the red from staining your pretty yellow color.
secret to success
Orange is the tricky color because you need to mix yellow and red. Or if you can find a specific orange food coloring you may be able to take the guesswork out of mixing your own colors. You need a surprisingly little amount of red coloring to make orange, so be cautious about adding more. It’s easy to add more, harder to take it out.
You need a surprisngly little amount of red coloring paired with yellow to make orange. Be stingy, since it’s easier to add more and you don’t want to end up with a red or pink color.
Secret to success
You don’t want a red or pink cookie dough for your candy corn cookies. Definitely consult your food coloring packaging because they often come with suggestions of how to mix certain colors and it may give you a place to start for mixing your own orange color.
secrets to success;
Want all the best tips and tricks to make this recipe a success? Check out the blog post above to find out more!
more recipes;
Need more delicious cookie recipes? Look no further!
- Halloween mash cookies are a chocolate cookie with pumpkin spice chips, macadamia nuts, and white chocolate chips. Deelish!
- Winter is fast approaching, and these winter blizzard cookies are perfect for a snow day when you need a freshly baked warm cookie to greet you after playing in the snow!
- If you love soft, sweet cookies then I can’t recommend these soft toffee cookies enough! The perfect pillowy cookies with crunchy toffee bits for extra texture.
- Salted caramel chip chocolate cookies are a personal favorite. Take a chocolate cookie base and add fun chocolate chips. If you can’t find salted caramel, swap them out for vanilla funfetti or other chocolate chips. Checkout my definitive ranking of 5 chocolate chip flavors for some other options you may find in your grocery store
- For a festive fall holiday cookie that literally melts away in your mouth and only takes two ingredients, make these spice cake crinkle cookies.
candy corn cookies;
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup sugar divided
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp orange juice
- 2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- yellow food coloring
- orange food coloring (alt. yellow & red food coloring)
Instructions
- Cream together ½ cup sugar with ½ cup butter until soft and fluffy.
- Add in 1 egg, 2 Tbsp orange juice, orange zest, and salt. Continue beating until well mixed.
- Add 2 cups flour and ¼ tsp baking soda; beat at low speed until well mixed.
- Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Set aside one portion as the white dough. Add yellow food coloring to the second portion and work the dough until evenly colored. Add orange (or yellow with a few drops of red) food coloring to the third portion and work the dough until evenly colored.
- Shape each portion of dough into a rectangle roughly ¾" thick and press into a 4"x6" loaf pan. Layer the white dough, then the orange, and top with the yellow dough.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and with a sharp knife, Cut into ¼" slices crosswise, so you have slices with all 3 layers. Cut each slice into wedges, by alternating diagonal lines. Use your fingers or hands to press dough together if it comes apart or help shape the cookies.
- Place each cookie 1" apart on a baking sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are browned.
1 Comments
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October 22, 2023 at 11:05 pm
[…] your food coloring and get to making these candy corn cookies, festively colored to look like your favorite (or least favorite) Halloween candy. Rest assured, […]