Watermelon Sugar Cookies

Bright, cheerful Watermelon Sugar Cookies are eye-catching, slice-and-bake cookies that look like watermelon slices. Fun and easy to make, these crunchy, sweet treats are perfect cookies for sharing.

Why you'll love this recipe

• These pretty cookies not only look like a slice of watermelon, but have watermelon flavor too.
• Slice-and-bake cookies are easy to make and no further decortating is needed.
• Made with heat resistant ingredients, Watermelon Cookies are the perfect addition to summer care packages, like Seas the Day Care Package with a beach theme.

Hot weather cookie decorating requires a little thought, but it's easy to decorate cute cookies without any royal icing or corn syrup icing that might melt.

Instead of icing summer cookies, I’ve used colored sugar for Gone Fishing Sugar Cookies, colored dough for Rainbow Cookies, and playdoh-like cut-outs for Palm Tree Cookies. 

Watermelon Sugar Cookies are a fun treat that uses all three of those methods for bright, colorful cookies that are sure to make everyone think of summer and the beach.

Ingredients

Instructions

This is an overview of the instructions. Detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.

1. Combine the ingredients to form the cookie dough.
2. Divide dough into three pieces and use food coloring gel to color them leaf green, deep pink, and black.
3. Roll out the green dough into a rectangle.
4. Form the pink dough into a cylinder and roll up the pink cylinder in the green dough.

5. Roll the entire log in green sugar before chilling to firm.
6. When the dough is firm, slice the log.

7. Roll out the black dough and use the tip of a plastic straw as the cookie cutter to cut ovals for watermelon seeds.
8. Gently press the dough “seeds” onto the top of each cookie dough half.
9. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake.

Storage

Store Watermelon Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Tips and variations

• Watermelon flavoring (which smells just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher) is colored pink which makes the cookie dough a very light pink. However, the slight pink tint doesn't effect coloring the green or black dough.
• Read the label of your watermelon flavoring carefully. LorAnn Oils watermelon flavoring is “super-strength” which is 4 times the strength of regular flavoring.
• The watermelon candy smell is stronger than the flavor in the cookies. If your flavoring is not super-strength, double the amount used in the recipe.
• During cool weather, instead of using black dough ovals, the "watermelon seeds" can also be made using mini chocolate chips with the points pressed into the dough.

More recipes for a beach theme

Another fun recipe for a beach theme are crunchy, buttery Almond Sand Dollar Cookies that look just like real sand dollars. A few sliced almonds and cutout holes are such an easy way to decorate these almond flavored cutout cookies.

Bake Fish Decorated Brownies in a cupcake pan for fudgy individual brownies decorated with chocolate candy fish scales.

Orange Creamsicle Bars are a chewy, fruity, sweet treat with lots of bright orange flavor and creamy white chocolate chips.

Try this easy recipe for Coconut White Chocolate Biscotti , crunchy, dunkable cookies with tropical coconut and creamy white chocolate.

Soft, chewy Strawberry Lemonade Bars are pretty and refreshing. These are the perfect treat for lemon lovers.

Read more about heat resistant ingredients and find an index of all of the heat safe recipes on The Monday Box.

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Watermelon Sugar Cookies

Make adorable watermelon cookies with bright color and fun flavor with this easy, slice-and-bake recipe.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Chill time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 50 minutes minutes

Servings: 60

Calories: 65kcal

Author: Wendy Sondov

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ⅔ cup butter flavored vegetable shortening Crisco
• 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons watermelon flavoring OR 1 teaspoon extra strength watermelon flavoring
• Food coloring: pink green, super black
• 4 tablespoons green decorating sugar I used 2 tablespoons light green and 2 tablespoons dark green

Instructions

Prepare dough log

• In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the shortening and sugar.
• Add in eggs, water, and watermelon flavoring. Beat to combine, until smooth.
• Gradually add in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.
• Remove 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the sugar cookie dough and mix with a few drops of green food coloring until completely colored.
• Remove 1 tablespoon of dough and mix with one drop of the super black food coloring. Wrap the black dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
• Mix a few drops of pink food coloring into the remaining dough in the mixer bowl.
• On a sheet of wax paper or parchment, roll the pink dough into a cylinder about 9” long and 1 ¾” thick. Place the log into the center of the paper. Fold the paper over the dough and push a ruler edge or dough scraper against the bottom of the log to remove air pockets and compress the dough. To keep the dough rounded while refrigerating, roll up the dough log in the wax paper/parchment and slip it into a paper towel tube that has been cut down the center lengthwise. Refrigerate.
• Between two sheets of wax paper, roll out the green dough into a 9” x 10” rectangle rectangle (about ¼” thick).
• Remove the pink dough log from the refrigerator, unwrap, and place along the 9” edge of the green rectangle. Roll up the pink log in the green dough.
• Line a jelly roll pan (baking pan with low sides) with wax paper and sprinkle with green sugar. Place the dough log onto the green sugar and roll until coated.
• Re-wrap the dough log in wax paper, place in the paper towel tube, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight to firm.
• Remove the black dough from the fridge. Roll out the dough to ⅛” (very thin) between two sheets of wax paper or parchment. Place in the freezer until firm.

When ready to bake

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
• Remove the dough log from the refrigerator. Unwrap and place on a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut the log into ¼” thick round slices. Cut each round in half. Place the half circles on the prepared baking sheet at least 1” apart.
• Remove the black dough from the freezer. Use the bottom of a plastic straw to cut out oval pieces. Gently use a toothpick to remove the dough piece from the bottom of the straw, if needed. Press three black oval “seeds” onto each cookie .
• Bake for 10-12 minutes. (The cookies will not be browned.)
• Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Notes

• Watermelon flavoring (which smells just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher) is colored pink which makes the cookie dough a very light pink. However, the slight pink tint doesn't effect coloring the green or black dough.
• Read the label of your watermelon flavoring carefully. LorAnn Oils watermelon flavoring is “super-strength” which is 4 times the strength of regular flavoring.
• The watermelon candy smell is stronger than the flavor in the cookies. If your flavoring is not super-strength, double the amount used in the recipe.
• During cool weather, instead of using black dough ovals, the "watermelon seeds" can also be made using mini chocolate chips with the points pressed into the dough.

Packing tips

• Double wrap pairs of cookies, bottoms together, in plastic wrap.
• Place wrapped pairs in columns in an airtight container or freezer weight ziplock bag.

Nutrition

Calories: 65kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 36mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 8IU | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 1mg

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First Published: July 23, 2017. Last Updated: August 9, 2024. Updated for additional information and better reader experience.

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