These Sour Patch Kids Cookies are sour, chewy, and totally over the top in the best way. Filled with a marshmallow to make these cookies extra gooey, and rolled in a dyed citric acid-sugar mix for an extra-sour kick. If your inner child could bake, they would make these cookies first!
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You’re Going to Love These Sour Patch Kids Cookies!
Unlike the (let’s be honest, kind of sad) cookie recipe that used to be on the back of some bags of Sour Patch Kids, this recipe proves that Sour Patch Kids cookies absolutely should be a thing. Here’s why:
- They’re stuffed with a marshmallow to add a gooey chewiness. This helps balance out the sharp sourness of the Sour Patch Kids. The marshmallow stretch you get when you pull a cookie apart is pretty fun, too!
- They’re rolled in a coating of sugar and citric acid, dyed to match the candies. This adds a nice sour crackled crunch to the outside of the cookies that enhances the flavour of the Sour Patch Kids.
- The dough uses lemon zest to amp up the fruity sour flavour of the candy.
Key Ingredients for Making Sour Patch Kids Cookies
- Sour Patch Kids are mixed into the dough and placed on top of the cookies. Use any flavour of Sour Patch Kids you like!
- A marshmallow is stuffed into each cookie to add a delicious gooeyness to the cookies, as well as balance out the sourness of the Sour Patch Kids. If you can get those multi-colour swirled marshmallows, use them! You’ll need to cut them into pieces that are about 1″ (2.5 cm) in size. If not, regular marshmallows cut in half or a couple mini multicolour marshmallows will work great. I’m a huge fan of using marshmallows in cookies, as my Kitchen Sink Cookies recipe will attest!
- It’s a fun recipe to make with kids. They’ll have a blast rolling the cookie dough balls in the colourful citric acid sugar, stuffing the dough balls with marshmallows, and topping them with more Sour Patch Kids candies!
- They make a very unique gift! I can almost guarantee that any lucky person who gets these cookies in a holiday gift box has never had anything like it.
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How to Make Colourful Sour Sugar
This is basically the same stuff used to coat sour candies like Sour Patch Kids. It’s a mix of sugar and citric acid. You can customize the citric acid to your liking and make it as sour or mild as you like, but remember that a little citric acid goes a long way. I find that a proportion of 1 ½ teaspoons of citric acid to 65 grams of granulated sugar works well. Mix up the sugar and citric acid, then divide it up into as many ziploc sandwich bags as you want different colours for your cookies. Add a few drops of gel food colouring to each bag, seal the bags, and squish the sugar around until it’s uniformly coloured. Open the bags up and let them air dry while you make the cookie dough.
Storing & Freezing Sour Patch Kids Cookies
Store these cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also assemble the cookies and freeze them raw on a lined baking sheet until solid (about 2 hours). Transfer the frozen dough balls to a Ziploc bag and freeze for up to 3 months. You can bake the cookies from frozen, just add a minute or two to the bake time.
FAQ
There’s no reason why any sour gummy-like candy wouldn’t work just fine, but I only tested the recipe with Sour Patch Kids.
Just underbake them slightly. Pull them from the oven when they’re spread and puffed, but before the edges start turning brown. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet to cool completely—they’ll continue baking a little bit during this time.
Yes, the cookies will still bake properly they just won’t be as sour.
Nope! You can leave the sour sugar plain if you want these cookies to have less food colouring.
Yes, the cookies will still turn out just fine, but they’ll have less of a fruity flavour.
Any Sour Patch Kids pieces that are on the bottom of the cookie and touching the hot baking sheet might melt, but the rest should just soften.
Yes, just swap out an equal amount of an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend such as Cup4Cup.
Leave a Comment!
Did you make these cookies? I’d love to hear how they turne out! Have any questions? Leave a comment and I would be happy to help.
Sour Patch Kids Cookies
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚ C). Line four baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats. If you only have 2 baking sheets, line two for now, and as the first two batches come out of the oven let the baking sheet cool completely and then remove the baked cookies, and place new cookie dough balls to bake.
- In a small bowl, whisk together 335 g all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, and ¾ teaspoon kosher salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the 65 g (½ cup) of 65 g granulated sugar and 1 ½ teaspoon citric acid. If only colouring with one colour, put the entire amount in one small Ziploc bag and add 1-2 drops of food colouring gel in any colour you like. Squish thoroughly until all of the sugar has evenly taken on the colour. If you want more than one colour, simply divide the sugar mixture into multiple small Ziploc bags and add a different colour to each bag. Pour the sugar mixture out into a separate small bowl for each colour used, to dry out before the cookies are rolled.
- Add 350 g granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the zest of 1 lemon, and massage into the sugar with your fingertips for 1–2 minutes to release the oils from the zest. The sugar should resemble wet sand and smell strongly of lemon.
- Add 227 g unsalted butter to the stand mixer bowl, and with the paddle attachment beat for 2–3 minutes on medium to medium high speed until light and fluffy.
- Add 1 large egg + 1 large yolk and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, and beat for about 1 more minute on medium speed, until smooth and completely combined.
- Add the flour mixture, and mix on the lowest speed just until combined (no more than 20 seconds).
- Add the 100 g sour gummy candy and mini Marshmallows, and mix for no more than 10 seconds. Use a rubber spatula to gently mix through the dough to ensure the mix-ins are evenly distributed.
- Scoop the dough into 1 ½ oz (45 g) portions using a cookie scoop, or use your hands to pinch into portions that look about 2 tablespoons in size each.
- Roll into balls with your hands. Make an indentation in the ball with your thumb, and insert a marshmallow. Pinch the dough ball closed, and roll each ball into the sugar-citric acid mixture. Press one or more of the 22–24 sour gummy candies into the top of each ball. Place 6 cookies on each sheet pan, spacing at least 3 inches apart.
- Bake one pan at a time, rotating halfway through baking. Bake until the sides are set and the tops have cracked, 12–14 minutes.
- Transfer sheet pans to a wire rack, and let the cookies cool on the pans to room temperature. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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