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Santa’s Favorite Cookies are soft brown sugar pudding cookies, stuffed with Christmas colored M&M’s and festive sprinkles. I mean, I can only assume these are Santa’s Favorite Cookies. They sure as heck are some of mine!
Okay, so I gotta say. I’m kind of in the mood for Christmas now. Even as recent as a few days ago I was completely bah humbug, but now…now I’m excited for the lights and the music, the family and the parties, and the shopping.
(And the cookies…don’t ever forget the cookies!)
I think my shift in thinking really started a few days before Thanksgiving. Kohls started their online Black Friday sale early and I bought a bunch of stuff for $100. Something about buying all the expensive things and realizing they only cost you about $10 a piece really got me in the mood for the holidays.
I know, shopping got me in the Christmas spirit; somewhere in the North Pole Santa is rolling his eyes.
Speaking of Santa, I happen to know that these are his favorite cookies. I mean, why wouldn’t they be? They’re brown sugar pudding cookies filled with bright firecracker Christmas sprinkles and holiday M&Ms.
Santa’s favorite cookies – well, they are my favorite cookies…why shouldn’t they be his?
This cookie recipe is such an easy one, and it’s totally foolproof. I am so in love with pudding cookies, obviously. You can make so many flavor combinations: chocolate, butterscotch, coconut, lemon. If they make a pudding mix for that flavor, you can make that flavor cookie.
For this pudding cookie recipe, I used all brown sugar, which is the same as the one I made for the 4th of July. I knew I had to replicate that cookie for Christmas because second to red, white, and blue, red and green is my favorite color combo.
(Besides teal and teal, that is.)
The cookie dough mixes together easily, with butter and brown sugar and vanilla pudding mix. Brown sugar and pudding mix by themselves yield super soft and pillowy cookies, but when used together? It’s like a soft cookie to the extreme. And they stay soft for days – no stale cookies here!
(Santa’s favorite cookies would NOT be stale cookies!)
Leave these on a plate with a tall glass of milk or eggnog and Santa will be sure to stop and stay awhile. (If the cookies last that long, that is!)
What are your favorite Christmas cookies??
A few notes about the recipe for Santa’s Favorite Cookies:
- The dough requires chilling, so be sure to plan for that.
- Be sure to use instant pudding mix, not cook-n-serve. You just need one of the small boxes, which is about 3.4 ounces, depending on the brand.
- Get creative – use any flavor pudding mix. Have a craving for butterscotch? Use butterscotch pudding mix. Or coconut. Or chocolate. Or banana…you get my drift.
- Beware: these go down easily. If you want to save them for Santa, be sure to hide some in the freezer. 🙂
Enjoy!
Santa's Favorite Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 3.4 ounces box Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix (not sugar free)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup red and green sprinkles or any colors
- 3/4 cup Christmas M&Ms or any color of M&M
Instructions
- Note: This dough requires chilling.
- Cream butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (You can also use a hand mixer.) Mix in egg and vanilla until smooth. Add pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined. Mix in flour, then stir in sprinkles and M&Ms.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment or a silpat baking mat. There’s no need to space them out, you’re going to chill them. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking mats. Place chilled cookie dough balls 2” apart on cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze for up to one month.
Recipe Video
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Click here to see more of my Christmas cookie recipes!
More pudding cookie recipes to love:
Triple Dark Chocolate Pudding Cookies
Butterscotch Molasses Pudding Cookies
White Chocolate Peppermint Blossom Pudding Cookies
Sweets from friends:
White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Pudding Cookies by Something Swanky
Chocolate Chunk Peppermint Pudding Cookies by Chef in Training
Biscoff S’mores Pudding Cookies, by Inside BruCrew Life
Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pudding Cookies by Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen
Last Updated on May 20, 2020
Are you suppose actually make the pudding before adding it to the mix or do you just add the dry mixture?
Do you have to press balls down?
You shouldn’t have to – I like them thick so they stay doughy in the center! But if you want a flatter cookie, then yes you can.
These cookies are adorable. They’ve definitely got me feeling festive.
May be a dumb question, but when you say “chill,” do you mean in the fridge or the freezer?
The refrigerator is fine, but if you’re in a rush you can totally use the freezer, but not for as long.
I was just about to look for a sugar cookie recipe to make with my daughter. Would these work to use with cookie cutters or are they too soft from the pudding? Either way, I think I am going to have to make them.
Thanks!
Hi Jen! These aren’t suitable for rolling/cutting with cookie cutters. It’s more of a chocolate chip cookie dough and wouldn’t hold it’s shape. If you want cutouts, this is my favorite recipe: https://www.crazyforcrust.com/2014/12/cut-out-sugar-cookies/ Either way, enjoy!
Thanks so much! I’ll definitely check out the recipe you sent. Now I can’t decide which pudding cookies to make after looking at all of the recipes!
2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie, is that correct? thanks
Yes, but you can make them bigger or smaller. Baking time would be affected in that case.
I made these and made them 1 tablespoon size and they were perfect and yummy!! Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!
I cannot leave this web site alone…..Love everything on it…just wanted to know if I could make carrot cheesecake cupcakes in to a cake instead…would love feedback,,, Thank you Pam
I don’t see why not! It’s probably more than a 9″ round but less than a 9×13, so you might have to play with the pan size a little. Let me know if you try it out how it works!
I’m making these now and having a problem. I baked them for 15 minutes already, they are still not spreading out and are not getting brown. I’ve never had trouble with any type of cookie before. Should they rest on the counter after the chilling, before the baking?
I baked them for 16-17 minutes. They are very good, but glad I tried it before Saturday when I have to swap 12 dozen, now I can plan it out.
I always under bake mine because we like them that way. Glad you liked them!
I just put mine straight into the oven. Once they come out of the oven they’ll fall a bit, just from moving the pan.
from cookie picture , it looks like you maybe added m&m’s to the top of cookies, did you? And if you did, was it after they come out of the oven?
Thank You
I add them to make them look prettier for the pictures, but it’s not required. I just add a few on top before they bake but after I’ve scooped the dough!
Hi! These look delicious! One question, for the sprinkles do you use the long shaped ones or the crunchy sugar crystal sprinkles. Thanks can’t wait to make these!
I think it’s best to use the “jimmies” if you have them, but the nonpareils would work if you don’t have the longer shaped ones!
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