These Old-Fashioned Gumdrop Cookies are SO good! I decided to try out a recipe that I have had forever- so forever that the recipe uses shortening (don’t worry, I used butter haha) and was surprised how good they are. You DO have to love a good, chewy, jaw breaking cookie, so if you don’t enjoy chewy cookies, maybe try my Peanut Butter Blossom Hershey Kiss Cookies or my ginger cookies, those are Christmas cookie classics!
Gumdrop Cookies
First, I love all gumdrops, but the best gumdrops to use are the Nutty Club Baking Fruitlets (which I find at Save On and Sobey’s here in Edmonton.) They make these cookies so chewy and buttery all at the same time, which means that they are going to be perfect for my Dad at Christmas. That man loves anything that breaks your jaw and is sweet, so I think that I have found another cookie for him to enjoy other than my Chewy Oatmeal Cookies.
You can also use large gumdrops and slice them up into smaller pieces if you can’t find the Nutty Club, they will work just as well, I’m not sure that the smaller ones are readily available in the States for my US readers. What you really DO need to do, is use butter for sure! The buttery vanilla taste and those chewy gumdrops? So good!!!
Posting all of these Christmas cookie recipes for you while they sit in my freezer waiting for Christmas is killing me. Every time I write up one of these Christmas cookies I remember that they are all sitting in my freezer. And then I start remembering how good they were. And then I want one. And remember that I have to wait until Christmas. My willpower is getting weaker and weaker, it’s a good thing that we are only a couple of weeks away from Christmas now!
Sigh.
Happy baking guys!
Love,
Karlynn
Classic Gumdrop Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening/butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped fruit-flavored gumdrops or mini gumdrops
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°.
- Cream the butter or shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, followed by the almond extract.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix well.
- Stir in gumdrops.
- Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, making sure they are 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies until they are golden brown, around 12-15 minutes. Watch them closely to make sure they don’t overbake!
- Cool for 2-3 minutes before removing from the baking pans to wire racks to cool completely
Nutrition
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The Real Person!
The Real Person!
These were great! All of the complaints about dry or crumbly batter are probably due to the way they’re measuring out flour. Likely these people are the type who use their measuring cup to dig out a cup of flour from their bin of highly compacted flour, and then push the flour down to even it out. OK, maybe not that extreme, but that method can lead to as much as 1/3 more than the correct amount. Spoon loose flour (pre-sift flour if need be) into your measuring cup, and use the back of a knife to brush off the overflow, and make it an even cup. OR, even better, don’t measure by volume, and do weight instead. One cup flour = 120g. This recipe calls for 1 3/4C of flour, which is 210g.
Sharon says
Made these a looong time ago. My aunt refused to even try them. Said she didn’t like fruit cake. Tried to convince her that they were gumdrops. But didn’t believe me. 😄
Jenny says
the first time I made these they were wonderful! chewy and addicting. but the second time the dough had a short crust texture. any idea what I did wrong?
nancy kennedy says
was easy enough to do.
i forgot, most recipes with sugar you can decrease the amount of sugar required.
my mixer is 30 years old.still accomodating.
Barbara says
I have an older version of this recipe. It uses 1 tsp of cinnamon, calls for sifted flour, Crisco shortening and actual spice -ette gum drops- not dots gummy candy. Also the dough is formed into a roll and can be frozen to slice and bake later. Mine are not so hard to eat. Alot of people will balk at the spice flavored gumdrops but they are really good in these cookies with the cinnamon. You can change the shortening to butter but I would not recommend it because butter melts faster and the texture of the cookies is ruined.
B says
Dough was extremely crumbly. Added another egg and it solved the problem. Not a fan of almond flavor, so just used vanilla extract. They baked up well and look fantastic! Thanks!
Kati V says
I made these last year and loved them; went back to make them this year and used butter flavored shorting (the only thing I did different this year vs last year) and they were hard and crumbly. I’ll try again because everyone loved them last year was disappointed they were so hard and dough was very crumbly
M Wilson says
They are awful. Hard as a rock. Something is definitely missing from this recipe 🤮 Into the garbage they go
Chelsea says
PERFECT! thank you 🙂 wish I could share a pic, they are so pretty 🤩
Lorna says
Made these this afternoon. Disappointed! The cookies ran, and the gumdrops melted out of the cookie and on the pan. Hardly any gumdrop flavor because they melted out!
S says
Not much flavor and cookies completely flattened.
Tami says
these are so fun! made em with the baking fruitlets and they turned out fine.
i adjusted the baking times to 4 minutes on convection, or 7 if baking from bottom only.
otherwise yeah, the gumdrops will melt out.
thanks Karlynn, one bite and it brought back memories!
Colette says
The butter ran while cooking. The parameter was real crispy and difficult to remove from sheet. Most broke.
Gail says
These are incredibly DELICIOUS – buy your gumdrops at Bulk Barn early in the Christmas season as they tend to sell out.
Cathy says
My batter is very dry and cannot drop them on a cookie sheet. What do I do
B says
Adding another egg worked for me!
Marsha says
I haven’t had these since I was a kid! My moms old recipe notebook has these in it. Might just have to give these a go. Thanks for the memory!
Kim E. says
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!! I lost my best friend almost exactly two years ago and miss her terribly. We had been best friends since grade 2. I’m now 46. Gumdrop cookies were her specialty and she would make them for me at all times of the year as a surprise! I was missing her a bit more than usual when I serendipitously came across your recipe. I’m going to make some as a little tribute this afternoon.
Alecia Allred says
These look great!! I am fairly new to your site. I have really enjoyed everything i have tried so far. Where does the remaining 1/4 c sugar go? Thank you again and Merry Christmas!!
Karlynn says
It all goes in together, I’ve updated the recipe but it’s taking its time showing. All the sugar gets beaten in! I was going to do another technique and skipped it and forgot to change it!
Janet says
This is my first time making gumdrop cookies. I rolled the into balls to put on my sheet. I just pulled them out of the oven and they are looking fantastic
Gail Gross says
Where is the remaining 1/4c of sugar used?