Name: The best Jello Sugar Cookies - so easy and colorful!
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup Butter (softened); 1/2 cup crisco shortening; 1 cup sugar; 3 ounce package Jell-O gelatin (any flavor); 2 whole Eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon Salt; 1 cup sugar ( for rolling dough in); 24-36 Hershey's Kisses (if you are going to do the Hug Cookies)

Jump to Recipe

this post is under construction

This sugar cookie recipe has been in our family since I can remember. It’s one of my moms favorite cookies. This cookie recipe is so easy, and fun and colorful! A traditional sugar cookie with the addition of jello for color and flavor. Lemon and strawberry are our favorites but you could use any jello flavor your heart desires.

Why I love these sugar cookies so much

I grew up on these cookies. Jell-O Sugar Cookies are chewy, and sweet. The Jell-O adds a special fruity twist, and they’re a lovely color too! This sugar cookie recip is my Mom’s recipe….I searched high and low on the world wide web (I love saying that it makes me giggle.) and I found nary a recipe that is exactly like my Momma’s. She has been making these cookies long before there even was a world wide web! So I am making the bold claim that this is “The” OG Jell-O Sugar Cookie recipe! I love it. When I make these cookies I feel like a little girl again.

Recipe update February 2026 since I first posted this recipe 14 years ago it has mades it’s way around. You can find many variations. I’m still saying my moms is the best!

Gather these ingredients

butter
Crisco shortening
granulated sugar
3 ounce packet jello flavored gelatin
eggs
vanilla
flour
baking powder salt

How to make Jello sugar cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add 1/2 cup butter softened, 1/2 cup shortening, 3 ounce package Strawberry Jell-O (or any flavor you choose.

Cream together until combined about 4-5 minutes. Take time to give the bowl a scrape.

Add 2 large eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Mix on medium-high for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Measure out 2 1/2 cups of flour add 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt to flour. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.

I always use my small melon baller to scoop cookie dough. Growing up my mom just used a table spoon to scoop out the dough and rolled the dough into a ball in the palm of her hand.

This is an average sized Jell-O Sugar Cookie. Not that there is anything normal or average about these scrumptious cookies, but you know what I mean!

Fill a small bowl with sugar, approximately 1 cup. Roll the cookie dough ball in the sugar.

Place sugared dough ball on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Now have a seat, especially you Mom, because I have painstakingly developed 2 new versions of my Mom’s original Jell-O Sugar Cookie. It was gruelling let me tell you. Alot of blood sweat and tears went into the process.

#1. Using a teaspoon or just your fingers to pluck out a small ball of dough about the size of a bouncy ball roll this in sugar and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.

#2 Place dough on a well floured surface, roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out hearts with cookie cutters. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on pan. You want to take them out before they appear brown around the edges. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet.

Jell-O Sugar Cookies should look like this on the bottom. If you over bake them they will not be as purdy, nor as chewy. The above cookie shape and size is how I made them when I was a little whipper snapper. It’s easy and they are chewy, fruity, and scrumptious if you want to get fancy and add a little something special, well then hang on to your hat Hombre because here are the two new variations I developed (tee hee)!

While the smaller balls are still warm but not hot push a Hershey’s Hug down into the cookie. And then pause for the clouds to part and the angel to sing because this is a very beautiful thing.

Well then there are these beauties. I could be wrong but I never ever remember rolling this dough out and using it as a dough for cut out cookies.

I have to say it was the best dough I have ever used for cut out cookies. I didn’t even bother to chill it first. I just rolled it right out, cut them, and baked them. They held their shape well during baking and were chewy not crumbly afterward. This is a test for dough becasuse I am the worlds worst cut out cookie baker. I stink at it! Especially the decorating part. Another reason why these cookies are amazing, because Jell-O Sugar Cookies are so flavorful you don’t need to frost them or decorate them, just a little sprinkle of sugar and they are perfect!

So how are you celebrating Valentines Day?  Do you get your Loves 
cards, or gifts?  Do you go out for dinner, or do you make a special 
romantic dinner?

Tip & Variations

I used Strawberry Jell-O for these Valentines Sugar Cookies. You could use raspberry or cherry. But my favorite is making them with lemon or lime Jell-O and then adding some zest from the citrus in the dough and in with the sugar when rolling them. The sweet and sour tickles your taste buds!

I sincerely hope you make these cookies for the Loves of your life.

Happy Valentines Day!
XOXOXO

Sheila