These Elf movie cookies are one of my favorite holiday baking ideas ever! If you love Buddy the Elf, put this recipe on your list for sure. Read on for the tutorial and a link to the tools that you’ll need.


I’m singing! I’m in a store, and I’m SIIIING-IIIIIIIING! Aw, man. IÂ dare you to tell me that Elf doesn’t have the best quotes of any holiday movie ever.
Since this sugar cookie recipe doesn’t use any icing, I wanted to find another way to decorate these yummy cookies. So obviously I turned to the thing that I do best — quote movies.
I’m almost sad to eat these cookies, they’re so fun! And they’re the perfect complement to an Elf-watching holiday party, amiright?
Psst — if you like this cookie recipe, you’re gonna love these:
- The Perfect Persimmon Bread Recipe
- Persimmon Cookies with Chocolate Chips
- Mini Donut Recipe // Baked Pumpkin Spice Mini Donuts
- Chai Spice Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Bean Drizzle
- Christmas Spritz Cookie Recipe (Perfect for Making with Kids!)
- How to Make a 3D Gingerbread Christmas Tree
And be sure to sign up below for our VIP group, where I’ll send more recipes and ideas straight to ya!
Here’s how to make yourself some Elf Movie Cookies.
Elf Movie Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup soft unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional Materials
As you might know, it’s crucial to have a sugar cookie recipe that holds its shape as it bakes. This recipe holds up like a champ!
Make and Color the Dough
- Start by creaming together the sugar, butter, and cream cheese. Once light and fluffy, mix in the egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. Slowly incorporate them into the butter mixture until they’re thoroughly combined.
- Once your dough is made, separate it into as many sections as you’d like different colors of cookie. We separated into four sections. Color each different section of cookie with some food coloring. To create similar colors to ours, use the chart below.
- Drop the coloring onto the ball of dough that you’re working with and knead it until the coloring is evenly spread. Do this with all colors. Once the colors are mixed, lightly flatten each dough ball and wrap it in its own individual plastic wrap. Chill all dough for at least 1 hour; we let ours chill overnight.
Color Chart
- pink = 5 drops neon pink
- red = 20 drops neon pink
- light green = 1 drop neon green, 1 drop neon blue
- dark green = 5 drops neon green
Make the Elf Movie Cookies
- Once the dough is chilled, remove it from the refrigerator about 5 minutes before you plan on rolling it out to soften a bit. Prep your baking pans with a bit of nonstick spray and set your oven to 350. Flour your surface and rolling pin generously. Roll one color of dough out to about 1/4″ thick. Cut out your cookie shapes and place them on the baking sheet. (We strongly recommend putting them on the baking sheet before stamping the letters into them!)
- With your cookies cut out, gather your letters. Stamp the letters onto the cookies either one at a time or by sliding them onto the frame of your imprinting set and stamping all at once. For this project, I found that one letter at a time yielded a better result. One tip: start with whichever letter will be in the center of your cookie and work your way out, so you don’t end up with too much or too little room on the end of your line after you start stamping.
- Stamp out all of your messages and place the cookies in the oven to bake! The recipe calls for 8-12 minutes in the oven but we baked ours for about 6 minutes. Just keep a close eye on them, as they’re pretty delicate and will burn easily.

Serve and Enjoy
Ta-daaaaaa! If your guests don’t absolutely die for these babies, you tell ’em to call me and I’ll straighten them out.
I seriously had to keep slapping Ryan’s hand away as I was taking pictures because he kept trying to sneak one away to eat. (They’re delicious to boot!)
Go get your cookie on! xoxo
P.S. More cookie ideas from our friends for you to check out:
Peppermint Drops from Julie Blanner
Linzer Christmas Cookies from Freutcake
Blood Orange Vanilla Bean Meringues from Paper & Stitch
Cream Wafer Tree Cookies from Inspired by Charm
Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies from The Effortless Chic
Color Dipped Gingerbread Cookies from Studio DIY
Candy Cane Peppermint Bark Fudge from Sugar and Charm



Elf Movie Cookie Recipe
Son of a nutcracker! This Elf movie quote cookie recipe is guaranteed to make you smile.
Ingredients
- 1 stick room temp unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 2 oz cream cheese, room temp
- 1 c sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 c flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- neon food coloring
Instructions
- Start by creaming together the sugar, butter, and cream cheese. Once light and fluffy, mix in the egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. Slowly incorporate them into the butter mixture until they're thoroughly combined.
- Once your dough is made, separate it into as many sections as you'd like different colors of cookie. We separated into four sections. Color each different section of cookie with some food coloring. To create similar colors to ours, use the chart below
- Drop the coloring onto the ball of dough that you're working with and knead it until the coloring is evenly spread. Do this with all colors. Once the colors are mixed, lightly flatten each dough ball and wrap it in its own individual plastic wrap. Chill all dough for at least 1 hour; we let ours chill overnight.
- Once the dough is chilled, remove it from the refrigerator about 5 minutes before you plan on rolling it out to soften a bit. Prep your baking pans with a bit of nonstick spray and set your oven to 350. Flour your surface and rolling pin generously. Roll one color of dough out to about 1/4" thick. Cut out your cookie shapes and place them on the baking sheet. (We strongly recommend putting them on the baking sheet before stamping the letters into them!)
- With your cookies cut out, gather your letters. Stamp the letters onto the cookies either one at a time or by sliding them onto the frame of your imprinting set and stamping all at once. For this project, I found that one letter at a time yielded a better result. One tip: start with whichever letter will be in the center of your cookie and work your way out, so you don't end up with too much or too little room on the end of your line after you start stamping.
- Stamp out all of your messages and place the cookies in the oven to bake! The recipe calls for 8-12 minutes in the oven but we baked ours for about 6 minutes. Just keep a close eye on them, as they're pretty delicate and will burn easily.
Notes
If you'd like to match our exact colors, use the color chart below to color the four quarters of your dough:
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GIRL!!! These are brilliant, I love them!
Chelsea, these are hilarious. Who doesn’t love Elf and quote it all year long? Oh, just me?? I think I would add: “Best way to spread Christmas cheer”
I LOVE THESE COOKIES! The minute I saw them in my feed, I knew they were yours. Adorable adorable.
Love this idea! Elf and cookies are both must-haves during this holiday season!
These are FANTASTIC! I’ll definitely be making some soon.
Elf is my favorite Christmas movie, so these just might be the best cookies. Ever.
xo Michael
Oh how fun!!!! I love this idea!! =)
Chelsea, these are SO GOOD! What a fun idea!!
Elf quotes and adorable cookies? THIS is how you do Christmas cookies right!
You are the coolest! So, so fun.
LOVE this!!! …What kind of stamps did you use? And how big were your cookie cutters?
Hi Kristina! There’s a link to the letter stamps in the materials list. And for the cookies with the words on them I used the largest cookie cutter from the cutters linked in the materials list as well. Thanks!
Oops! I was so excited, I must’ve skipped it! Found the materials list & just ordered them!! Thanks so much!
Awesome! So excited you’re trying it out! Would love to see the finished product — send a photo to [email protected] or post on IG with #thelovelysquad so we can check it out! xo
After reading some of these cookies, I just saw this movie for the first time! I loved it, and the cookie idea!
Ok, these are the most fun cookies EVER! I love this movie! It is one of our favorite holiday movies! FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These are so cute! Also where did you get your tiny bottle brush trees from!
Hi Jess — they’re from Michaels!
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Those are stinking adorable! One of my favorite movies. How could you not smile and have a good time while eating these cookies!