If Buddy the Elf made Christmas cookies, they’d taste like these: a sugar rush of candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup!
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I have to admit I’m really not a fan of winter, but one thing I do look forward to is Christmas being around the corner—mainly because that means I get an excuse to watch ELF, one of my favourite all-time movies (and which tbh I would feel a bit weird watching any time between January and October). These ridiculous (-ly delicious) cookies are based on two iconic scenes from the movie: the one where Buddy educates his reluctant host family about the four Elf food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup, and the one where he makes a grotesquely sweet spaghetti for breakfast topped with M&Ms and Pop Tarts. This recipe includes all four food groups, as well as the M&Ms, Pop Tarts, and marshmallows from his breakfast spaghetti—I’m sure Buddy would approve!
This was my very first video on my YouTube channel, and now it’s finally on my blog—I hope you enjoy it! If you try this recipe out, please leave a comment below and let me know how they turned out and what you thought of the recipe.
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Contents
Why You’ll Love ELF Food Group Cookies
- They’re easy to make! If you can make chocolate chip cookies, you can make these.
- They’re easy to customize. If you don’t like any of the mix-ins you can leave them out or sub in something else you like better—they won’t be quite the same homage to Buddy the Elf, but they’ll still be delicious!
- They make the perfect Christmas gift! They’re quick, easy, and fairly inexpensive to make—whip up a few batches of giant cookies and you’ll have enough gifts to cross all of your friends and neighbours off your gift list. Plus, I’m a huge believer of giving handmade and consumable gifts at the holidays—I don’t know about you, but we have way too much stuff, and a gift I can treasure for being handmade by someone I care about…and then quickly stuff in my cakehole to dispose of is my favourite kind of gift! You could make giant cookies and pack them one at a time in a food-safe cellophane or paper bag with a nice sticker and bow, or make small cookies and pile them in a cookie tin for snacking on.
Tips for Success
- Cream the butter and sugar thoroughly. If you’re the type of baker who usually rushes through this process, I find it’s helpful to set a timer for 3 minutes and just let the mixer do its job.
- After adding the eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla extract, mix until really light and fluffy. Crank the mixer up to medium-high speed and set a timer for 8 minutes to make sure you don’t shortchange this step. The dough should be several shades lighter and almost the texture of frosting. This step is crucial to achieving the perfect texture and beautiful crackly top.
- Don’t over-mix after adding the dry ingredients. When you combine flour with moisture and then agitate it by mixing or kneading, you create strands of gluten—you don’t want too much, or the cookies will turn out tough instead of chewy and tender. I recommend whisking the dry ingredients together first so they will require minimal mixing after they’re added to the dough, then either mix on the very lowest speed of your mixer or mix in by hand until just combined.
- Freeze the Pop Tarts before mixing them into the dough, so they don’t completely fall apart.
- Save a few M&Ms, candy canes, and candy corns for placing on top of the cookies right after they come out of the oven, to make your cookies look extra pretty! Cookie mix-ins have a way of melting or disappearing into the dough during baking, and this is a great way to make it clear what kind of cookies these are.
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour This kind of flour is ideal because it has a medium gluten content—enough to give the cookies some structure, but not so much that they end up tough (as long as you don’t overmix the dough after adding the flour). Any kind of white all-purpose flour will do—you can use organic if you like, but conventional works just fine. Either bleached or unbleached are OK to use.
- Unsalted butter is ideal because it allows you to control the salt content in the dough. It should be at room temperature to allow the butter, sugar, and eggs to cream together and get nice and fluffy. If all you have on hand is salted butter that’s OK! Just leave out or reduce the salt called for in the recipe to account for the salt already in the butter.
- Dark brown sugar is my favourite choice for this recipe because it packs a lot of colour and deep molasses-y flavour (and I feel like Buddy would approve of that!). If all you have on hand is light brown sugar though, you can absolutely use that instead. The cookies will just be a bit lighter in colour and flavour—and you might prefer that.
- Pure vanilla extract lends a rich, deep, and complex flavour that I love in my baked goods, and which nothing else can quite replicate. But unfortunately it’s pretty expensive, and seems to be getting more and more expensive all the time. Artificial vanilla extract is far more affordable, and with all the other flavours going on in this recipe it will work just fine as a substitution.
- Pure maple syrup, like pure vanilla extract, has the best and most complex flavour and is the best choice if you can get it. If not, a maple-flavoured syrup such as Aunt Jemima’s will work. You have to have some maple syrup in this recipe, or they wouldn’t truly be ELF cookies would they? That said, if you don’t like maple syrup, you can substitute it with a different syrupy ingredient such as molasses or honey—that will change the flavour profile of the cookies, while maintaining the correct overall balance of ingredients.
- M&M’s for the candy food group, as well as a reference to Buddy the Elf’s breakfast. For the best movie accuracy I like using the red and green M&Ms that come out around the holidays, but you can use any M&Ms you like, or feel free Personally, I think these would be amazing with Reese’s Pieces.
- Pop Tarts as a nod to Buddy the Elf’s breakfast. For movie accuracy, use chocolate fudge Pop Tarts—but feel free to use any flavour you like! Definitely freeze them after chopping them into pieces, so they don’t completely fall apart while being mixed into the dough.
- Candy Canes are an important elf food group! You can get them pre-crushed, or buy whole candy canes and chop them into bits. I recommend using traditional peppermint candy canes—novelty flavours might not play very well with everything else going on in the cookie.
- Candy corn is another important elf food group. If you’re not a candy corn fan you can leave these out, but I do find they kind of blend in with everything else and aren’t very noticeable. And if you’re not a fan of candy corn you might have some left over from Halloween—this is the perfect opportunity to use them up!
- Marshmallows are not only a Buddy the Elf breakfast staple, they make an awesome cookie mix-in in their own right! Marshmallows add a delicious chewy and melty texture, and I love how some of them will melt into the middle of the cookie, while some of them will stay on the outside and get nice and caramelized just like on a campfire. I have a few other cookie recipes that use marshmallows as a mix-in, including my S’mores Brownie Cookies and my Storm Chips Cookies.
FAQ
Absolutely! You can either freeze the baked cookies in an airtight container. Though in my opinion it’s even better to freeze the scooped mounds of dough flat on a baking sheet, and once they’re solid transfer them to a freezer bag. Then you can take out as many lumps of dough as you want and bake them straight from the freezer (you may need to add 2-3 minutes to the bake time to compensate for the dough being frozen).
Can I make these gluten-free?
Yes, just substitute the all-purpose flour for a gluten-free flour substitute such as Cup4Cup. Make sure to also substitute gluten-free versions for the Pop Tarts and other mix-ins.
Can I make these dairy-free?
You can substitute the butter for margarine or a vegan butter alternative. Make sure to also choose dairy-free versions for all of the mix-ins that normally contain dairy, such as the M&Ms.
Can I make these vegan?
It wouldn’t be that straightforward to modify this recipe to make it vegan. Instead, I’d recommend using a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that you like as the base, add a little maple syrup to the dough, and find vegan versions of all of the mix-ins.
ELF Cookies
These giant cookies were inspired by everyone's favourite elf, Buddy, from one of my favourite Christmas movies ever. I guess you could make these normal sized, but that wouldn't really be in the Christmas spirit would it? And of course, they include all four important Elf food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and yes…syrup! I made and tested 4 different versions of this recipe to make sure it would be delicious—these are chewy and delicious, with a little bit of bitter complexity from the dark brown sugar and maple syrup. These are a super fun cookie to make for a Christmas cookie swap or gift box—give this recipe a try and let me know how they turned out!
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C) and adjust oven rack to middle. Line three baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.
- Into a medium bowl add the 290 g All-purpose flour, 1 tsp Baking soda, and ½ tsp Salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, measure the 115 g Unsalted butter and 200 g Packed dark brown sugar. With the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar together on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula. You can make these cookies with a hand mixer instead, but the creaming process may take a couple minutes longer.
- Add the 1 Large egg, 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract, and 105 g Pure maple syrup, and mix on medium high speed until very light and fluffy, about 7–8 more minutes. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula at least once during this process.
- Add the flour mixture, and mix on the lowest speed until just combined and no more than 20 seconds. Scrape the bowl.
- Add the 100 g M&M’s candy and chopped frozen 4 Chocolate fudge Pop Tarts, and mix on low speed until just combined, and no more than 10 seconds. Use the rubber spatula to fold through the dough gently to ensure the mix-ins are evenly distributed.
- Use a large cookie scoop or a ⅓ cup measuring cup to make dough balls for giant cookies (or use a regular cookie scoop or a couple tablespoons to make regular sized cookies). Use your thumb to make an indent in the dough ball and insert 5–6 regular Marshmallows for giant cookies, or 2–3 marshmallows for regular cookies. Pinch the ball closed and roll into a smooth ball in your hands.
- For giant cookies, place only 2 balls per cookie sheet. For regular sized cookies place as many as will fit with at least 3” (7.5 cm) of space in between, or about 6–8 cookies per sheet.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 14–16 minutes for giant cookies (or 12–14 minutes for regular sized) until the cookies are puffed, spread, and have just started to darken around the edge. Set a timer, but also pay attention to doneness cues as every oven is different and your baking time could be very different from mine. Turn the baking sheet halfway through to ensure even baking.
- Immediately after taking a sheet out of the oven, carefully press 55 g Candy canes and 18 pieces Candy corn pieces into the tops of the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool for about 10 minutes on the baking sheet, before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Video
Notes
These cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to a month.
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