Years ago a reader named Janet shared this recipe for Honey Cookies, and I’ve been making them ever since. They are dense, chewy, and taste better than I expected. By that I mean I thought they’d be overpoweringly honey flavored, but the overall flavor is pretty balanced.
Honey Cookies Flavor
One reason the Honey Cookies are not too strong in flavor is that the honey is mixed with sugar. The combination of both makes the cookies chewy, dense and crackly on top. They’re very pretty. Also, it’s important to use the right kind of honey. The honey that works best in these cookies is regular old clover honey. Clover honey is very mild and will give you a hint of flavor, whereas something like orange blossom honey will be stronger.
No Mixer Required
And finally — No mixer required! All you need is a bowl and a spoon.
Honey Cookies
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil (Canola is fine)
- 1 cup sugar (200 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup honey (80 grams)
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (can use a combo of white and wheat) (260 grams)
- Sparkly sugar or Turbinado sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together oil, sugar, eggs, honey, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Mix well, then stir in the flour, stirring just until it is mixed in.
- Shape the cookies into balls about ¾ to 1 inch in diameter and roll them in sparkly sugar (or Turbinado). Place 2 ½ inches apart on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. They should be nicely browned around the edges, crackly and golden.
Anna
Pat, that’s so great! I’m glad you were able to please your pick cookie-eater brother with these.
Pat Perrier
I’ve made these three years running, and this year, my brother (a picky cookie-eater) said, “We’re doing those Jewish cookies for Christmas, right?” — translation: YOU make them, *I* eat them! They’re a hit. Thanks for the recipe!
Anna
Yes, the turbinado looks pretty and adds a nice texture, but it’s not crucial to the recipe. I usually just use sugar.
Carol
Do you use regular sugar in the cookie and turbinadp sugar just to roll the cookies in?
munchy
i made these cookies with butter and they’re very nice, chewy in middle crunchy outside, the honey isnt strong but overall the cookie was sweet, it would be tasty with little less sugar too
Beekeeperlinda
As a beekeeper I’m always looking for recipes with honey. I used two sticks of butter and 1/3 cup oil and mine came out flatter than the picture but still delicious. I wondered why there was no baking powder in the recipe? Other than the butter substitution, I followed the recipe and stuck to the baking soda but wondered if the lack of baking powder is why they did end up flat. Anyway, delicious and I’m taking them to my grandson’s class for Thursday when I am the “mystery reader.”
Anna
Love Teddy Grahams! They are little works of art. Good luck with your experiment.
joani
Great recipe! I rolled mine in sugar and chopped almonds.
Sugarbetty
Do you think I could make the dough and then freeze it? I would love to make a few kinds of cookies for a gathering on Sunday, but I don’t have much time to bake on Saturday. Thanks, I love your site.
Brittani
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I was a little worried about the lack of butter, but they are AMAZING! I used all wheat flour, and added an extra tsp of vanilla. I also rolled them in a mixture of white and brown sugar. They are so good and satisfying!
Piyali
Those cookies were awesome. My son could not stop eating. Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe.
Ginger
Very sweet, but sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon on top and it improved them!
Whitney
I just made these and am enjoying one now with a glass of milk. They are so easy and are absolutely delicious! The honey makes them so chewy! My new favorite kind of cookie.
Anonymous
came out very thin and flat. Nothing like the picture. Too sweet with the sugar and honey and then rolled in sugar
Karen Franscioni
Isn’t life amazing!! This recipe is my Great Aunt Thelma’s I am sure of it! Thelma Hunt lived in Santa Maria about 30 years ago. (She has since passed on.) I was searching for a Honey Cookie recipe because I was having a problem with Aunt Thelma’s. I’ve been making these cookies for well over 30 years. When I saw the recipe, it’s exactly the same, and then the comment on where it came from I knew it was Aunt Thelmas’.
What had changed over the years is we now have a wonderful kitchen aide mixer. I was over-mixing the cookies and they were coming out flat!
I’m thrilled the problem of flat cookies has been solved, and I love that Aunt Thelma’s Honey Cookies live on beyond our own family. Thank you!
Elma
I am looking for a honey cookie recipe that my great grandmother had and I am in my 80’s so it
goes way back. You mixed the eggs, sugar, shortening, honey ginger, soda and maybe cimmamon and a small amount of flour making a sponge. This was left to set out over night and then more flour was added. The dough was rolled and cut into cookies. and baked. The cookies were medium tan in color and chewy and delicious. Any have a recipe like this? Thanks
Toni
Wow. I just made these and they are absolutely delicious! Very quick to make too. Thank you for sharing!
angie
what kind of oil did u use????
Anna
I didn’t need to chill the dough before baking.
Lily
This recipe looks identical to one that I have for molasses cookies, except that white sugar replaces brown sugar and honey replaces molasses. Also, the molasses cookie recipe calls for 1/2 cup butter : 2 1/3 cups flour whereas this recipe calls for 1/2 + 1/6 cups oil : 2 cups flour. I wonder how replacing the oil with butter in this recipe would affect the outcome. Any ideas?
Also, did you chill your dough before baking?
dara
I had some extra honey from making honey cake, so i decided to try this recipe. except i used 1 cup of honey and 1 cup of sugar because I was afraid the honey flavor would be too subtle. the batter was really wet, so i added more flour, and tried baking even though they were too wet. the result was hard, overcooked graham cracker like cookies. i added another cup of flour or so, and a little baking soda and baked them at 350 for 8-10 minutes and they came out perfect! my roommates called them heaven 🙂
katerina
these cookies turned out just like the picture!! i halfed the recipe and mixed the egg and sugar first! this is why the cookies dont turn out flat. mix the eggs and sugar till it turns white and creamy.. about 8 to ten minutes. then add the other ingredients. i also used baking powder instead of baking soda and mixed it with flour before adding. then i baked it on wax paper at 375 and they turned out picture perfect.
Anna
I usually make ice cream sandwiches with softer cookies, so I’m glad to hear these work well too. Will try.
Kelly
These cookies are always a big hit whenever I make them. I started selling cookies at a farmer’s market and these are typically the first to go and I have repeat customers! I definitely recommend also making ice cream sandwiches with these cookies! They’re pretty much my most favorite dessert.
Rachel
Well I’m making these cookies right now, I taste tested the dough and its pretty good. I used whole wheat flour and I’m thinking of putting some crushed almonds on them.
Hannah
These do look good! I love the clear sprinkles on top, its a great touch!
Anna
Good Luck with them, Better Recipes ;).
I think they’ll work for you. Mine were a good thickness. Others found them a little thin. Maybe err on the side of too much flour (scoop) than too little? Although when I made them, I didn’t make it a point to pack the flour.
Better Recipes
I am so excited to make these cookies for my boyfriend. I just hope my cookies will look as good and puffy as these do. This recipe looks and sounds fantastic!!
Sarena
Great recipe! We all loved it here. I have made two batches in the past week and they are gone! They are exactly as you described and absolutely perfect! Thank you for sharing it!
http://www.thenondairyqueen.blogspot.com/
Anna
Jen, thanks for the review!
I’m glad you found a new cookie for your Christmas list.
Jen
Huge hit. We loved them. Definitely had the chewy molasses cookie-type consistency, but with the taste of almost a slightly burnt honey. They seriously might be my new favorites (or at least one of many!). I am going to add them to my Christmas baking list (especially since they make so many – I did a half batch and easily got 3 1/2 dozen). Thank you so much for sharing!
Stacey
mine too. they definitely weren’t puffy. but a nice chewy texture.
Meg
Yum! Honey Cookies. They looked and sounded delightful, and they were! Great with a cup of tea – iced or hot! Mine really spread and came out very flat, in fact flatter with each batch in the oven. Why would that be?
kate
Janet (pardon me Anna and everyone)–
Hi. We have been in Orcutt for 1.5 years…out in Lake Marie. Time warp.
I love the smell of the SM BBQs, but I have been a vegetarian for 23 years. Foxenwood still looks super nice and tidy, by the way, and puts the new developments to shame.
OK—back to cookies!
kate
Janet
Wow, interesting how this thread is going…I had not looked up Santa Maria, thank you for all the neat information. I lived there for almost 20 years and loved it! I would move back in a heart beat if we could afford a house there. Hello to Kate who probably enjoys lots of SM BBQ….I sure miss the tri tip and BBQ chicken that you could buy every weekend! I lived in Foxenwoods for 10 years and it might be considered Orcutt now? Sorry everyone for taking up this thread but I don’t often run across a SM person;-) Anna, thank you for trying those cookies….and super glad you liked them.
bakingblonde
I love honey! Those look great, and I bet they would be great with some honey roasted peanuts tossed in or even a some PB. But then again, I LOVE peanut butter and honey together!
Shannon
YUMMY! I wonder what this recipe would taste like with our local sweet honey around my way! I have never had a honey cookie before, but I am anxious to try this recipe out!
Megan
BTW – it’s 106 here today. UV Index – 10. Oh, but it’s a dry heat – hahahahaha.
Anna
Hmmmmmmm. I still haven’t bough agave nectar and am not sure what the flavor is like, but if it has a good flavor, it would be good in these cookies. Thanks, VG!
Megan, I hope it’s not a gazillion degrees where you are.
Giz, my mom hardly used honey at all. In fact, I grew up not liking it much. Now I can eat it in things, but I still won’t eat it on a sandwich or biscuit.
Patricia, I wonder if honey tastes different in Brazil. I’m guessing it does since flowers are different. I guess honey is like wine….kind of different wherever it comes from.
Emiline, were you like those champion double dutch girls on TV? Now I’m always going to visualize you that way, so it doesn’t even matter.
Sue, she seems a little more positive about Track & Field Day this afternoon. We have to find a hat, though.
Kate, shout out to Santa Maria! I just read all about it on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria,_California
Must be nice living there!
Marie, glad you liked Cook-Off. The lady who wrote it (I’m blanking out on her name…if only there were a place to look it up) is funny. She wrote another book about animals or something. I think they’re making it into a movie.
Heidi, yes. You should be able to pipe it.
Rita, the texture is awesome!
Stacey, I wonder if that is really true. If not, the cookies are still tasty!
stacey
ever since hearing that honey from your area actually helps reduce allergies, I’m all for honey. so these will be good for more reasons than one for the kids
Clumbsy Cookie
Those cookies seam to have such a great texture, they look great! I’m blessed to have “homemade” honey from my oncle’s bees. Glad Janet shared with you ans you shared with us.
Heidi
Anna-the frosting for your DP cake-is it stiff enough to pipe?
Marie
Hi Anna. I wanted to let you know that I made the easy oatmeal cookies you had listed in your top ten and they were awesome. I’m going to make the Levain copycats tonight for a birthday party.
I also read the book, Cook-Off, that you recommended and it was a fun read. I can’t believe how hard these women work at contesting. Thanks for the recommendation.
kate
Oh boy, do I feel for Fuzz. Track and field day. Yuck.
But cookies with honey–YUM! Hailing from Santa Maria myself (or Orcutt, to be more exact), I loved seeing the shout-out to my (adopted) humble little burg.
I have some honey and I’m gonna make some cookies and thank the stars I am not being forced to participate in the high hurdles any more!
Thanks for another great recipe.
Sue
I’m sure the kids will love these. They look “sweet”. And I mean that the way the kids say it. 🙂
This won’t make Fuzz feel any better, but my kids were never big fans of track and field day either. It’s nice she has a good Mom like you to be there with her.
Emiline
The cookies are handsome. Really, really good looking.
We used to have a day called “Skills Day” where I reigned in jump roping for years.
Patricia Scarpin
YUM, Anna! I love baking with honey.
Brenda
My Great-Grandmother made honey cookies. I remember making them with my Grandmother when I was about 10. The recipe I have is similar but has more spices and buttermilk. I have the recipe written in my Great-Grandmother’s handwriting.
HONEY SUGAR COOKIES
1 c honey
1 c sugar
1 heaping cup shortening
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
5 c flour
Mix all ingredients until dough forms a ball. Roll dough out and cut into circles. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with a little sugar and bake at 350 degrees until done. Can also add 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 cup of nuts if desired. This recipe is an old one and doesn’t have the time to cook the cookies. You just have to keep and eye on them and judge for yourself when they are done. I would say anywhere from 8-13 minutes.
giz
Whever I hear anything where the main ingredient is honey or honey is the name on the food – it just swings me to my childhood when my mother made everything honey. Such a great cookie.
Megan
Must be an end-of-the-year event, my kids have Field Day next week!! These look so interesting, I’ll have to try them! I have a huge container of honey from Costco so what better reason? Thanks!!
VeggieGirl
Oooh, Track & Field Day sounds fun!! Enjoy working the concession stands!!
Those cookies would be great with agave nectar, I bet.