These adorable watermelon cookies start with a simple sugar cookie dough that’s dotted with mini chocolate chips and rolled in a colored glaze to resemble your favorite juicy summer fruit!
Why this recipe works
Watermelon cookies are a fun and colorful dessert for summer picnics and cookouts. A sweet sugar cookie base is dipped and rolled in tinted glaze while a few mini chocolate chips resemble the seeds of a watermelon. Though these cookies don’t taste like watermelon, they do look like cute miniature slices. They never last long on the dessert table, that’s for sure!
Ingredients you will need
Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable version at the end of this post.
Ingredient Info and Substitution Suggestions
COOKIE – Flour, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract are what you will need to make the classic sugar cookie dough. A touch of red food coloring will tint the dough a subtle pink color to mimic watermelon.
GLAZE – The glaze is a simple combination of powdered sugar, milk, and food coloring. I prefer to use paste gel food coloring as the colors are more vibrant, but liquid food coloring will also do the trick – you may just need to use a bit more to achieve a bright color.
How to Make Watermelon Cookies
These step by step photos and instructions are here to help you visualize how to make this recipe. You can Jump to Recipe to get the printable version of this recipe, complete with measurements and instructions at the bottom.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Add butter slices, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and red food coloring to your mixer’s bowl. Beat on medium speed until incorporated. Don’t be concerned if there are small lumps of butter still visible. Turn mixer down to low and gradually add flour mixture. Mix until incorporated and no traces of flour are left. Gather all the dough together using a sturdy rubber spatula.
- Remove cookie dough from bowl and separate into two batches. Place one batch between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4″ thick. Repeat with the other batch. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and have insulated baking sheets ready.
- Remove one batch of rolled dough from the refrigerator. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter.
- Use a dough scraper or a sharp knife to cut each circle in half. Place the halves on the baking sheet, about 1″ apart.
- Gently press miniature semi-sweet morsels into each semicircle.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes, checking after 6 minutes (mine were perfect in 7 minutes). Cookies will be slightly puffed but not browned. Do not allow cookies to get too brown or you’ll have dry crumbly. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes. Remove to wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
- For each batch of cookie dough, after cutting out the circles, gather the scraps together and reroll them, place back in the refrigerator. Repeat until all dough has been used.
Glazing the Watermelon Cookies
- In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients to form a glaze. You may add drops of milk to thin glaze if it is too thick.
- Cover counter with wax paper and place cooling racks over the wax paper to catch drips. To decorate the cookies, roll the round end of the cookie in the glaze and allow excess to drip off into bowl.
- Place watermelon cookies on cooling racks, excess glaze will drip through onto the wax paper. Wait for glaze to set before moving the cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions & Expert Tips
These cookies only look like watermelon slices, they do not taste like them. If you want to experiment, they make watermelon extract that you can easily substitute the vanilla for – though I have not tried it myself!
Yes, you can easily prepare the cookies, glaze included, a day or two in advance and store them in an air-tight container at room temperature until ready to serve.
You can freeze the cookie dough for future use. Simply wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and place it inside a gallon-sized zipper bag. Freeze for up to 2 months. Let the dough soften a bit until it’s pliable and begin rolling it out between parchment paper to cut shapes from.
Store your watermelon cookies in an air-tight container kept at room temperature for 3-4 days.
Serving Suggestions
If there’s one fruit that screams sweet summertime, it’s watermelon. Serve these cute watermelon cookies at potlucks or whip them together for a family baking session with the kids. Pair with a tall glass of cold milk and enjoy!
More Related Recipes
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Watermelon Cookies
IMPORTANT – There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Print It Rate ItIngredients
Sugar Cookie Dough
- 3 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2 tablespoon slices
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 drops red food coloring
Plus
- 1 cup miniature semi sweet morsels
Glaze
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar sifted
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- green paste food coloring OR 15-20 drops green food coloring
Things You’ll Need
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
Before You Begin
- *Note: Insulated baking sheets are best for baking sugar cookies. If you only have regular cookie sheets, line them with parchment or a silicon baking mat.
- This recipe should yield anywhere from 36-52 cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutter.
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Add butter slices, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and red food coloring to your mixer's bowl. Beat on medium speed until incorporated. Don't be concerned if there are small lumps of butter still visible.
- Turn mixer down to low and gradually add flour mixture. Mix until incorporated and no traces of flour are left. Gather all the dough together using a sturdy rubber spatula.
- Remove dough from bowl and separate into two batches. Place one batch between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4" thick. Repeat with the other batch. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and have insulated baking sheets ready.
- Remove one batch of rolled dough from the refrigerator. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter.
- Use a dough scraper or a sharp knife to cut each circle in half. Place the halves on the baking sheet, about 1" apart.
- Gently press miniature semi sweet morsels into each semicircle.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes, checking after 6 minutes (mine were perfect in 7 minutes). Cookies will be slightly puffed but not browned. Do not allow cookies to get too brown or you'll have dry crumbly cookies. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes. Remove to wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
- For each batch of cookie dough, after cutting out the circles, gather the scraps together and reroll them, place back in the refrigerator. Repeat until all dough has been used.
For the Glaze
- In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients to form a glaze. You may add drops of milk to thin glaze if it is too thick.
- Cover counter with wax paper and place cooling racks over the wax paper to catch drips. To decorate the cookies, roll the round end of the cookie in the glaze, allow excess to drip off into bowl.
- Place cookies on cooling racks, excess glaze will drip through onto the wax paper. Wait for glaze to set before moving the cookies.
Expert Tips & FAQs
- Store your watermelon cookies in an air-tight container kept at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Freezing – You can freeze the cookie dough for future use. Simply wrap the dough balls in plastic wrap and place it inside a gallon-sized zipper bag. Freeze for up to 2 months. Let the dough soften a bit until it’s pliable and begin rolling it out between parchment paper to cut shapes from.
Nutrition
This post originally appeared here on May 29, 2010 and has since been updated with new photos and expert tips.
Amanda Davis
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Margot @ Coffee & Vanilla says
They are wonderful!! My daughter is in love with watermelon recently so she will be happy when I will show it to her… Couple of days ago we painted her toes in watermelon design for her birthday.
I featured link to this recipe as Article of The Week, hope you don’t mind: http://www.coffeeandvanilla.com/links/featured-articles/
Amanda says
Thanks so much for the feature Margot!
olivia says
these are soooo cute. i bet they taste as good as they look! yum!!! i cant wait to try them!!!
Miss cuisine says
It's great ! I put forward on my French blog with a link to this article.
Megan's Cookin' says
Amanda, I finally made these and I lived them Such a fun and festive cookie. Many thanks for the recipe and the inspiration!
Anonymous says
What a great idea. You are so creative in everything you do.
Betty
Cindy deRosier says
Adorable!!! I'll definitely be making these.
Punky says
Those cookies look pretty bomb. I don't normally bake but I'd like to make those.
mer@lifeat7000feet says
We made these yesterday and my girlies LOVED how they turned out! Great, great idea…and very yummy too!
mimilovesall8 says
I love the look of the cookies and can't wait to try them! I followed your blog because I love to cook also and your blog is so cute.
I just started my own blogspot and am looking for followers also. So maybe you would like to come by and look at my blog.
Thanks and I'll be back, A.Anderson
mimilovesall8.blogspot.com
Amanda says
Thanks for all your great comments everyone!
Joan says
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the cookies! They were fun to make with my niece!
Jerri says
Hi. I'm featuring your post this week for my Friday Favorites! Come by and get my featured button if you'd like!
Culinary Cory says
These cookies are just TOO CUTE! I love how there's not worry about spitting the seeds. :)
Sarah Caron says
Those are adorable! What a fun and creative cookie — my kids would adore these.
MessyMissy says
So darn cute. I will definitely have to try my hand at these!!!
threeundertwo says
These look so much fun. I'm going to have my daughters help me make some. Now I'm curious about watermelon extract too. Thanks lof linking up to Finished for Friday.
Karen says
These are so cute! I was going to make some cookies for my Dad for Father's Day and I think these are the ones!