These candy corn sugar cookies are a fun and festive way to help you celebrate Halloween! They look great and taste amazing. They’re a classic twist on your typical Halloween cookies.
Candy Corn Cookies
Why did I decide to make sugar cookies that look like candy corn? It seems that all of my favorite candy is holiday themed, among them is candy corn, even though this is an unpopular opinion.
Rich in honey and sugar I can only withstand a few bites. They also happen to be iconic to Halloween and fall even though they are available year round.
But these cookies only resemble the look of candy corn, not the taste. I figured if I needed something less sweet, that I could create all the festive nature with less sugar!
The taste is a traditional vanilla flavored sugar cookie without being super sweet. If you want honey, substitute a tablespoon or so of honey for sugar. You can also flavor your sugar cookies with almond or other extracts.
Why You’ll Love These Candy Corn Cookies
Whether making for a Halloween party or just craving warm cookies, these cookies will be one of your new favorite things.
- Great way to make a festive treat – With a little food coloring and a simple sugar cookie dough, this is the perfect recipe to make an easy and fun treat for any occasion.
- Pantry ingredients – You more than likely have almost all of these ingredients on hand. Fewer trips to the grocery store!
- Candy corn in cookie form – Even if you aren’t a candy corn fan, you can join in the festive treat without the taste of sweet candy corn!
Ingredients
You only need a handful of simple ingredients to make this fun treat. Most of which you probably already have in your pantry!
- Butter – I always prefer to use to use unsalted butter when baking so that I can control the amount of salt that goes into the recipe. Make sure it is softened, but not melted.
- Sugar – Just plain granulated sugar is all you need to make these candy corn cookies.
- Eggs – Room temperature eggs are better. It allows them to be incorporated into the cookie dough easier.
- Vanilla – When it’s the main flavor, I prefer to use a good quality vanilla extract when baking.
- Salt – If you used salted butter, you can omit this ingredient all together.
- Flour – All purpose flour is what you need for this candy corn cookies recipe.
- Baking soda – Adding baking soda to cookies gives them chewy cookies.
- Food coloring – I used both red and yellow food coloring. But you can use orange and yellow if you have them. Gel will give the most robust flavor, but liquid drops can also be used.
How to Make Candy Corn Cookies
Having a stand mixer, or at the very least a handheld electric mixer, to make sure the food coloring is equally distributed throughout the dough. It will also save your arms from being super sore from mixing!
- Make dough. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well. Sift together dry ingredients. Slowly add to cookie dough until fully blended. Dough will be dense.
- Color dough. Divide dough into three and then color with food coloring. Mix well to avoid streaking. All food colors are different; you might tweak the amount of drops to achieve the perfect candy corn orange coloring. Use the same bowl, to save on the dishes. The last one will be white, or slightly off white because it is nearly impossible to get fully white cookie dough.
- Layer dough. Line loaf pan with heavy duty plastic wrap or parchment paper. Now you will layer the dough. Mash the yellow dough down into the bottom of the pan. Next add the orange dough and repeat. Lastly, add the white dough. Cover and refrigerate to set the dough.
- Slice dough. Remove dough from refrigerator and gently pull the lining, with dough, out from the bread pan. You will have a cookie dough loaf. Slice the loaf into 1/4 inch slices.
- Cut into shapes. Cut the slice into wedges, the shape of candy corn. You will most likely discard (or sample) a small amount of dough from either end. I won’t tell…
- Add to cookie sheet. Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart. The dough will expand slightly and you don’t want your corn sticking together!
- Bake until cookies look slightly undercooked. Do not allow them to brown. Remove and allow to cool for several minutes on the baking sheet. If needed, trim the edges of the cookies before transferring to a cooling rack.
Variations
There are plenty of ways you can make these candy corn cookies your own!
- Real candy corn – You can add real candy corn pieces to these cookies.
- White chocolate chips – Mix some chips into the cookie dough to make white chocolate candy corn cookies!
- Icing – You can certainly add icing on top of the cookies. While the icing is still wet, you could even add pieces of candy corn too. Double whammy!
Storage and Freezing
Storage: You can store any leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. A chewy candy corn cookie makes a great treat whenever you want to enjoy them.
Freezing: These cookies also freeze really well. Placed cookies in a freezer bag and you can enjoy them any time of year.
More Easy Desserts for Halloween
No Bake Ghost Cookie Recipe
Rice Krispie Treat Haunted House
Candy Corn Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups vegetable shortening
- 3 cups sugar
- 6 eggs
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 7 1/2 cups flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 teaspoons fine sea salt
- red and yellow food coloring
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together the shortening and sugar for 2-3 minutes until the sugar starts to dissolve. Add the eggs and vanilla, blend well.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Slowly blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a dough forms.
- Line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Line horizontally and vertically.
- Divide the dough into 3 even sections. Press one section of dough into the bottom of the loaf pan, pressing down with the bottom of a measuring cup to make it has flat as possible.
- Add the next section of the dough to the stand mixing or mixing bowl. Add equal drops of yellow and red food coloring until it achieves the right color of orange. Press that dough into the loaf pan.
- Add the last section of dough to the mixer, adding only a few drops of yellow food coloring until it reaches the correct color, then press it evenly into the loaf pan. The dough will be to the top, if not slightly over. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 4-24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400°F and line an insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Invert the dough and gently pull the cookie dough out of the loaf pan and slice into 1/2 inch slabs. Cut diagonally into triangles. Cookies are small, this is normal and why the recipe makes so many.
- Arrange on the prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until they start to puff up and might lightly brown along the edges.
- Remove and using a pastry cutter or 2 other flat metal surfaces, reshape any uneven sides into straight lines.
- Allow to cool before removing to a wire cooling rack.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, keeping unused dough in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Frost if desired.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it went in the comments or star ratings.
Thanks so much for linking this cute cookies up to our Spooktacular Halloween link party. I’ve been wanting to try these forever and now I can 🙂
Michelle
You are very welcome!