I’m coming in hot with a new festive recipe! The inspiration this time is How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). My Grinch cookies are super easy to whip up and make an incredibly fun and festive activity for families – or any fan of this hilarious adaptation.

“MAX! Get my cloak.”

Contents

• The Bake
• Top Tips
• The Recipe
• The Film
• Recipe Card

The Bake

Festive baking should mean nothing but fun. Simple recipes like my Grinch Christmas cookies help to make that theory fact. 

You can check out my other Christmas movie themed recipes like my Arthur Christmas reindeer slipper brownies, my Home Alone cheese pizza and my Elf snow globe macarons all under the Christmas section of Flavour of the Film!

Remember that sequence during the film that involves Cindy Lou investigating The Grinch’s past?

She interviews the ladies that raised him and we get to see a few flashbacks as a result. 

One said flashback involves them offering him Christmas cookies on a Santa plate. Naturally, The Grinch takes a chunk out of the Santa plate instead.

These are the exact cookies (biscuits to my fellow Brits) that inspired this recipe! I even used my Good Omens sugar cookies recipe for the biscuit dough base.

To decorate, a water and icing sugar mix in green and red, then some lovely Christmas sprinkles.

They really are that simple. Plus, these Grinch cookies are supposed to look homemade, so they don’t need to be super duper neat. No piping bags or tips in sight, friends.

Top Tips

• The dough for these Grinch cookies doesn’t even need to be chilled before baking – that’s how quick they are! But, you can definitely chill it if you’re making the biscuits ahead. Just be sure to wrap the dough up in clingfilm/beeswax paper if planning to chill for more than a few hours.
• Christmas sprinkles can be found in most supermarkets or online – the kind seen in the film are mostly red and green sprinkles so anything else is a bonus.
• These biscuits are meant to look homemade! Perfection is a myth, so just enjoy the baking experience.
• If your cookie dough is looking a little too soft, sprinkle more flour onto your work surface and briefly knead it in until it feels sturdier (not dry or crumbly!).
• You’ll need to bring the dough back together and roll out again repeatedly, but avoid overworking the dough as much as possible. An overworked biscuit dough can lead to tough biscuits!

I had so much fun making these Christmas cookies. They look like they’ve jumped straight out of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. A Whoville baker would be proud! Whether you’re making these as a fun and festive solo activity or as part of a joy-filled afternoon with loved ones, I hope you have as much fun as I did. They make a brilliant movie night treat, wouldn’t you say?

Happy baking, happy eating!

The Recipe

Ingredients

The Grinch cookies:

• 115g [4 oz] unsalted butter
• 100g [½ cup] golden caster sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g [1 cup + 2 tbsp] plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of sea salt

Decoration:

• 12 tbsp icing [powdered] sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• Green food colouring
• Red food colouring
• Christmas sprinkles
• Silver and/or gold edible glitter

Serves: 24

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Chilling time: 10 minutes (optional)

Baking time: 8 – 10 minutes

Decorating time: 20 minutes

Method

The Grinch Christmas cookies:

1. Prepare two baking trays by lining them with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat in well.
4. Sieve in the flour and baking powder. Add the salt and beat in until a dough has formed.
5. If the mix seems more soft than dough-like, add more flour gradually, 1 tbsp at a time. Do this until a firmer dough has formed.
6. Tip out onto a clean and floured surface and bring together into a disc. Flour a rolling pin and use this to roll the dough out until around ½ cm in thickness. 
7. Using a standard sized round cookie cutter, cut out 24 biscuits and lay in rows of 4 (across) by 3 (down) on each tray. You will need to bring the dough together and roll back out again a couple of times to do this.

Baking:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan.
2. Once up to temperature, place your trays on the middle shelves and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until golden. They will continue to bake on the tray so don’t be tempted to bake for longer!
3. Once baked, leave to cool on the trays completely.
4. While your cookies are cooling, begin preparing your decorations.

Decoration:

1. Split the sugar into two bowls (6 in each). Add 1½ tbsp water and mix it into one bowl of sugar to create a thick paste. Do the same with the other.
2. Add a few drops of green food colouring to one bowl and mix it in until smooth. Adjust the strength of the colour if necessary.
3. Repeat with the other bowl, adding the red food colouring instead.
4. Once your Grinch cookies are completely cool, begin spooning the icing mix onto your biscuits. There is no rhyme or reason with this part: just have fun! I recommend starting small and using the spoon to spread the icing to avoid it running off the biscuits too much.
5. Finish with the Christmas sprinkles and edible glitter as you spoon on the icing. If you have other pairs of hands helping out, you could do a Christmas factory line!
6. Once decorated, allow the biscuits to set for *as long as you can* before enjoying. Allow to set until solid (around 5 hours) before piling on top of each other to store in an airtight container.

These super easy Grinch Christmas cookies are perfect for a movie night snack or themed party. They take mere minutes to whip up and are ideal for baking with loved ones. Cookies like these are best enjoyed on the day, but will last for 4+ days if stored in an airtight container – just be aware that they will likely soften over time, but will remain delicious. Enjoy!

The Film

I mentioned in my 2024 Christmas movie bingo that this specific adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a fan favourite and it’s worth noting again in this dedicated recipe post.

Memories of watching this movie on my best friend’s phone with instant ramen and Ferrero Rocher chocolates during one of our first evenings in Japan glisten in my eyes, let me tell you.

There are a number of reasons as to why I think How the Grinch Stole Christmas continues to be a holiday favourite twenty-four years following its release. Dry humour; an unexpectedly  relatable character in The Grinch, the colour palette, the message.

For a film that’s adapted from a Dr. Seuss children’s story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas arguably gets funnier as viewers get older.

There is a fair balance of jokes for both younger viewers and grown adults in this movie, which contributes significantly to its seemingly timeless popularity. This balance was not achieved smoothly: various reports discuss how the amount of more mature jokes were kept in for one reason or another.

The car keys in the bowl during the Christmas party springs to mind here…

Nevertheless, plenty of us enjoy these jokes as older audience members. Dr. Seuss’s wife had veto power over the final script so if she allowed them, I will too.

Jim Carrey’s characterisation of this isolated fellow is also responsible for the love this movie receives.

His ability to disappear into a character is famous. It’s the way he makes us feel like we understand The Grinch that really draws audiences in year after year. Especially when you’re aware of the lengths that were taken for the hair & makeup.

Reacting to situations in a way most of us either have done in the past or still do now means we see ourselves in him in an unexpected way, earning laughs aplenty. 

The line “6:30 pm. Dinner with me. I can’t cancel that again.” was reportedly improvised by Carrey. Just brilliant.

Hollywood royalty Ron Howard called the directing shots on this project.

As mentioned above, the film is adapted from the Dr. Seuss story of the same name, originally published in 1957. Responsible for the adaptation’s screenplay were Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. 

Starring as the Whovians of Whoville were the likes of Taylor Momsen; Molly Shannon, Bill Irwin, Christine Baranski, Jeffrey Tambor, Clint Howard, Rance Howard, Jeremy Howard, T.J. Thyne and more.

Playing the young version of The Grinch was Josh Ryan Evans and British acting royalty Sir Anthony Hopkins gave his voice as the narrator. The gorgeous canine friend that performed as Max was the very talented Kelley.

I also have to give a special mention to the artists responsible for the set design, props, hair & makeup and costumes. They are all iconic.

Once you’ve seen this film, it’s a hard one to forget.

However you celebrate this time of year, I hope these Grinch inspired cookies play a fun part in one of your festive movie nights!

Recipe Card