There’s something magical about the combination of sweetened cereal and colorful marshmallows that taste like straight sugar – something magical that my kids absolutely love. Lucky Charms really has the secret formula – a cute, fun, colorful, and delicious cereal that keeps people coming back for more. These Lucky Charms cookies will do the exact same thing. Not are are they fun and colorful with the addition of rainbow sprinkles, they’re also really yummy too. A rainbow sprinkle cookie gets filled with a surprise marshmallow center (kind of like these hot chocolate cupcakes) then topped with a vanilla glaze and of course – Lucky Charms marshmallows! The cookie itself is fantastic (we’ve been eating them unglazed all week) but adding that glaze and marshmallows on just takes these over the top. Make these and put them at the end of this St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt for a fun surprise treat or serve up for any St. Patrick’s Day party, or even give out to people after playing this roll a rainbow game. Or use them as refreshments for a St. Patrick’s Day minute to win it night using these St. Patrick’s Day games that include Lucky Charms – seems like a perfect time to enjoy a little sweet!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Colorful – if you’re looking for fun and colorful cookies, these should be your new go-to! They’re colorful, creative, and did I mention already that they’re delicious? Magical – I mean these not only look like a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal, they have actual Lucky Charms on them. They’re nostalgic, fun to eat, and just add that perfect element of magic! Easy – while they look impressive, the entire recipe is really easy to make! Plus, the dough only needs to freeze for 20 minutes so you can have them on the table for eating quickly!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Vegan marshmallows – these have to be vegan marshmallows (I used Dandies and they worked perfect). Vegan marshmallows don’t have gelatin, so they don’t dissolve in the cookies like normal marshmallows do. If you try using regular marshmallows, they’ll leak out during baking. If you’ve never tried vegan marshmallows before, they taste pretty much identical to regular ones!Sprinkles – use jimmies (the long sprinkles) in these for the best results. If you use the little circle sprinkles (nonpareils), they tend to bleed into the cookie dough, which can totally change the color of the dough. Butter – unlike most baking recipes that call for softened butter, you’ll actually slightly melt the butter for this recipe, but just slightly. You still want most of the butter intact. Also, you’ll want to use unsalted butter for this. If you only have salted, change the added salt from 1/2 tsp to 1/4 tsp. Lucky Charms Marshmallows – you can either sort the marshmallows out of a regular box of cereal or just grab a bag of these Lucky Charms marshmallows instead (much easier).
How to Make Lucky Charms Cookies
I was making these other day (to film this TikTok video) and realized I’d forgotten how easy these are to make! One thing to keep in mind – these make large cookies. I tested out making smaller cookies, and they just split open too often in the oven for me to recommend this, and you don’t get the same gooey marshmallow center with 1/4 marshmallow unfortunately. Anyway, back to the cookies.
1 – Make the Cookie Dough
To start, line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. You’ll need baking sheets even if you only have one oven to bake in at a time.
When your sheets are lined and your ingredients are gathered, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl or stand mixer.
Once the butter and sugar are light and fluffy, add the vanilla extra and the egg and beat until smooth.
While all of that beats, combine the flour, baking soda and cornstarch in a medium bowl and stir until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until just combined, don’t over mix. I like to mix the dry ingredients in, turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides, then mix again.
Then stir the sprinkles into the dough using a wooden spoon or spatula. I don’t recommend beating them in with the mixer so the sprinkles don’t get all broken up and end up bleeding into the dough like the nonpareils would.
Scoop out 24 balls of dough using a two tablespoon cookie scoop. This will give you equally sized balls so they cook evenly.
Next, slightly flatten each of the balls then place half a marshmallow on one of the flattened balls. Place another flattened ball on top and seal it around the marshmallow. Then roll it into a ball to create one large cookie dough ball with the marshmallow half in the center.
Repeat with remaining balls so that you end up with 12 large dough balls.
Place dough balls on one of the parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes. Cookies must be frozen for 20 minutes or they will spread out too much while baking and the marshmallow will leak out.
While the cookie dough is chilling, preheat your oven (ovens if you have multiple) to 350 degrees. You’ll want to bake one sheet at a time so if you have two ovens, now’s the perfect time to use them both!
2 – Bake the cookies
Remove the cookie dough balls from the freezer and place half of the balls three inches apart on the second baking sheet. Rearrange the cookie dough balls still on the first sheet so that they are also spaced out about three inches from each other. Place one cookie sheet in the preheated oven and bake for 17 – 20 minutes or until edges are just starting to brown. Cookies will be soft in the middle but will continue cooking as they cool on the baking sheet. Let them cool completely on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack or plate to serve. If you try to ice before they’re cool, the icing will all just melt off completely.
3 – Decorate the Cookies
Prepare the sugar cookie icing by whisking together powdered sugar, water and corn syrup until you reach your desired consistency. You want something that’s a bit thicker and needs to be spread compared to a thinner icing that you pour over the cookies. Lightly ice each cooled cookie, keeping it a bit from the edge so it doesn’t get all over and so people can hold the cookie without getting ice all over their hands. Finish the cookies by topping with Lucky Charms marshmallows while the icing is still wet, so they stick to the icing. Let icing dry completely before serving or storing cookies. Then enjoy your delicious creations! I mean hello, look at that marshmallow center – easily my favorite part of these cookies! Plus, if you don’t tell anyone about the marshmallow inside, it’s kind of a fun and magical surprise! Kind of like these St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes!
Expert Tips
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Do not over bake the cookies or they will dry out and be crispy instead of soft in the middle. Error on the side of taking them out too early rather as they’ll continue to cook on the baking sheet. Try some without the icing and Lucky Charms on top. I personally prefer them that way (but my kids are wild about the marshmallow topping). They make great sprinkle cookies for any holiday!
More Easy Cookie Recipes
If you like cookies, you’ll love these cookie recipes that are all just as easy as these ones!
Peppermint sugar cookies – these delicious sugar cookies with a peppermint frosting are perfect for the holidays or any time! Edible sugar cookie dough – don’t want to wait for cookies to bake, try this yummy sugar cookie dough that you can eat right out of the bowl instead!Caramel toffee cookies – if you like caramel you’ll love these fantastic cookies that are dipped in caramel and topped with toffee bits! Easy monster cookies – grab everything you have and toss it into these delicious monster cookies! They’re soft, chewy, and addictive! Easy s’more cookies – these delicious cookies start with a pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough and get topped with s’more goodness!
