Fans of jelly doughnuts, with their fried, sugary outsides and gooey, fruity insides, know that jelly doughnuts are definitely not care package material. So, I invented Jelly Doughnut Cookies.
These soft, cakey cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar have a surprise jelly center. They look sort of like a jelly doughnut, taste sort of like a jelly doughnut, and stays soft and delicious for over a week.
Why you'll love this recipe
For many Jews, jelly doughnuts are a traditional Chanukah food. The Chanukah story involves a miracle with oil, so traditional Chanukah food includes oil or is prepared in oil. Examples are potato pancakes ,latkes, and jelly doughnuts, sufganiot.
This jelly doughnut look-alike makes a tasty addition to a Chanukah care package (or any care package, really).
Making a soft pillowy vanilla cookie was the easy part. I adapted my recipe for Soft Italian Cookies into a vanilla version.
Figuring out the jelly center of each cookie proved a bit trickier. Regular jam was messy and didn’t end up looking like a pocket of jam at the center of the cookie. After much trial and error with jam stand-ins, the winning ingredient is Lifesavers Gummies (I used wild berries flavor).
I was trying for a molten fruity center. The Lifesavers Gummies melted perfectly. A warm doughnut cookie has a center so gooey it will drip. Once cool, the jelly remains soft but not liquid.
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- In a small bowl, microwave butter until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until combined, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly add dry ingredients until just combined. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour-overnight.
- When dough is chilled and ready to bake: In a small bowl mix together the granulated sugar and cinnamon for the coating. Set aside.
- With a small 1 tablespoon scoop, form golf-ball sized dough balls.
- Tear the dough ball in half and place a Life Saver gummy on one of the torn sides. Put the dough ball halves back together with the Life Saver gummy in the middle.
- Roll the dough back into a ball shape, enclosing the Life Saver in dough. Roll the dough in the cinnamon-sugar to coat.
- Place on a parchment lined baking tray about 2” apart, and bake for 10 minutes.
Storage
These donut cookies are soft and cake-like. They will remain soft for at least 1 week if stored at room temperature in an airtight container. Separate layers of cookies with wax paper to prevent sticking together due to exposed “jelly”.
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Tips
- There may be other brands of gummies that also work, however, I wasn’t successful in finding anything else that melts as well as the Lifesavers.
- To save you trial and error time, I can tell you that Welch’s Fruit Snacks, Dots, Gumdrops/Spice Drops, and Jelly Belly jelly beans don’t melt. They provide a colorful cookie center that remains solid and very chewy.
More Hanukkah treats
Lemon Stars are crunchy, lemon sugar cookies drizzled with a sweet-tart lemon icing. These are a tradition at my house!
Making your own homemade Chocolate Gelt is an easy project for the whole family!
Skip the cookie cutters. Dozens of dreidle shaped Chocolate Espresso Spritz Cookies can be made with a cookie press in very little time. Sandwich these cuties with melted chocolate for a special holiday treat!
These chewy, chocolate Hanukkah Cookies are fudgy and delicious!
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Jelly Doughnut Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 yolk
- 2 ½ tablespoons plain yogurt
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 30 Lifesaver gummies
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Prepare dough
- In a small bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until combined, about 2-3 minutes.
- Mix in the eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla.
- Reduce speed of mixer and slowly add the flour mixture until just combined.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour-overnight.
When dough is chilled and ready to bake
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small mixing bowl mix together the granulated sugar and cinnamon for the coating. Set aside.
- With a small 1 tablespoon scoop, form golf-ball sized dough balls.
- Tear the dough ball in half and place a Life Saver gummy on one of the torn sides.
- Put the dough ball halves back together with the Life Saver gummy in the middle.
- Roll dough back into a ball shape, enclosing the Life Saver in dough.
- Roll the dough in the cinnamon-sugar to coat.
- Place on prepared baking sheets about 2” apart, and bake cookies for 10 minutes.
- Cool completely on cookie tray before storing.
- These cookies are soft and cake-like. They will remain soft for at least 1 week if stored at room temperature in an airtight container. Separate layers of cookies with wax paper to prevent sticking together due to exposed “jelly”.
Notes
Nutrition
First Published: December 7, 2015. Last Updated: November 10, 2021. Updated for additional information, improved photographs, and better reader experience.
Christine Sumowski
Made these yesterday but the life saver gummies didn’t melt at all … the cookie part was good though
Wendy Sondov
I wonder if Life Savers has changed their formulation? This recipe was developed in 2015 and I tried out quite a few gummies and candies before finding that Life Savers gummies worked, but that was quite a while ago. Thank you for letting me know your experience with the recipe. I'm going to put this cookie on my update list and check into the melting center part.
Malkah Livneh
What a fabulous idea! I live in Israel where Life Saver gummies are not available but I will try this out with a few of the local gummies available. Also, thanks for always having Jewish holiday recipes on your site - not many blogs do.
Wendy Sondov
Hi Malkah! Hag Sameach Chanukah! Please know that my thoughts and prayers are with Israel, hoping for a miracle, hoping for peace, praying for the hostages that they may all be home soon. ❤️ I'm delighted that my Jewish holiday recipes are useful to you. The Jewish holidays are the holidays that my family celebrates and I truly enjoy sharing my holiday recipes on the blog for anyone else that might enjoy them. I hope you find an Israeli gummy that will work in this cookie. It depends on what you want the gummy to do: melt completely or stay in it's original chewy form. You could try baking a gummy without the cookie first (on parchment) to see if it melts before rolling all of the cookies. Good luck and happy baking.
Jeremy
I'm just curious - the recipe says 1 large egg + 1 yolk and then underneath another yolk. So is that a total of three yolks and one white??
Wendy Sondov
Sorry about that. The extra yolk below the others is an error that may have happened when this recipe was moved to the current recipe card format. I apologize for the confusion and appreciate your reaching out so that I can correct it.
Jeremy
Awesome! Thanks so much for your reply! The family is excited to enjoy these tomorrow evening 🙂
Ashley
Happy Chanukah Wendy!! These cookies are just SUCH a fun idea! You are so right that the donuts are only really good super fresh - the cookies are so smart! And they of course sound delicious!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Ashley! Chanukah was extra special because I had both of my "kids" home plus my son's girlfriend! We celebrated with cookies! 🙂
Petra @ CrumblesAndKale
What and amazing treat, just love the little surprise in the middle 🙂
The Monday Box
Thank you, Petra! It took a while to figure it out, but a faux jelly doughnut wouldn't be a faux jelly doughnut with out the jelly! 🙂
Reeni
These are so inventive Wendy! A really smart idea! They look delicious - I think I prefer them to a donut! I will happily eat these for a week but I doubt they'd last that long.
The Monday Box
Thanks, Reeni! They are faux jelly doughnuts but fun and tasty cookies. 🙂
Monica
This is such a smart creation! It's so true that donuts are only good same-day and best super fresh and when I read these were cookies that would hold and stay moisture for a week, I was amazed! Love your experimentations that lead to results like this. The Lifesaver Gummies are working some magic here!
The Monday Box
Thanks, Monica! I was trying to come up with a Chanukah recipe that was mailable. This sounded like a fun experiment. Little did I know that my original idea (Jelly Belly jelly beans) wouldn't melt! The hard outer coating keeps those little guys solid. Perhaps that knowledge will come in handy for some future Easter idea!
Tricia @ Saving room for dessert
Wow Wendy - these are brilliant! A lifesaver gummy - who knew!!! I love the way it melted and that these cookies are good for a week - thank you are right - this would be great for a gender reveal party! We had cupcakes with blue and pink filling and they were a big hit. I am sad to say that I made onsie cookies but messed up the icing and since it didn't set up, I had to trash them all. I was in tears since they were going to the party. Anyway - a baker friend made the cupcakes at the last minute for me. I could never do catering! Thanks for the recipe - I love it!
The Monday Box
Oh, Tricia! I would be in tears too! Actually, I am often in tears even when the icing does work. Decorating cut-out cookies is SO time consuming! I can only imagine how devastating it was after all of the time and love you put into those onsie cookies! Luckily, the party was a SMASH anyway. 🙂 Friends to the rescue!