Soft Honey Cookies

Sometimes you just need a midday pick-me-up. A cup of coffee or tea will give you that jolt of caffeine, maybe sweetened with your favorite coffee creamer. But simply enjoying a warm beverage sometimes doesn’t cut it, and having something sugary to pair with it helps to wake up your mind and soul. (Because who doesn’t love a sugary afternoon snack?) These honey cookies are just the thing to go with that midday cuppa. The honey creates a soft and chewy cookie that will melt in your mouth with each bite. Prep and refrigerate the dough, then bake a batch that you can enjoy all week long.

Ingredients for Honey Cookies

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• Sugar: Sugar, beat together with the oil, creates the proper structure to create soft, moist honey cookies.
• Canola oil: Oil is used as the fat in this recipe, helping to give this cookie a chewy texture. You can sub in vegetable oil if that’s what you have on hand.
• Eggs: Using room-temperature eggs is key for mixing the dough evenly for these cookies with honey to have the proper pillowy texture. For a quick way to get room-temperature eggs, drop them in a bowl of warm water for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Honey: Along with sugar, honey sweetens these cookies and softens them up.
• Vanilla extract: A small amount of vanilla extract is used to help enhance the flavor of these cookies.
• All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour creates the structure of these cookies. Mix it with the other dry ingredients first before sprinkling into the wet ingredients.
• Baking powder: Baking powder is the leavening agent for this recipe.
• Cinnamon: This warming spice helps to round out the flavor of these cookies with honey, adding a unique finishing taste.

Directions

Step 1: Beat the ingredients

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In a small bowl, beat together the sugar and canola oil until blended. Beat in the egg, then the honey and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Gradually add in the dry mixture to the sugar mixture and mix well; the dough should become stiff. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for two hours.

Step 2: Bake the cookies

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Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a baking sheet, then drop the cookie dough by tablespoonfuls at least 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies until they are lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool for one minute before removing from the pan to a wire rack.

Test Kitchen Tip: Do not overbake the cookies! They will continue to cook on the hot pan after they are removed from the oven. If you overbake them, they won’t have a chewy and pillowy texture.

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Recipe Variations

• Use butter: Don’t have canola oil on hand? Swap it out with a softened room-temperature butter. Follow the instructions as normal, creaming the sugar and butter together in place of the oil.
• Add citrus zest: If you want to enhance the flavor of these honey cookies, mix in a tablespoon of zest from a lemon or an orange. This will brighten the flavor and pair nicely with the sweetness of the honey.
• Spice them up: For a different kind of flavor, sprinkle in warming spices such as nutmeg and allspice when mixing the dry ingredients.
• Drizzle with icing: While honey cookies are typically plain (ideal for dunking in coffee or tea), you could also drizzle these with a vanilla glaze or frost them with an easy vanilla buttercream.

How to Store Honey Cookies

Honey cookies last in an airtight container for up to one week. To properly store the cookies, we recommend also placing a slice of soft bread in the container to keep them soft.

Can you make honey cookies ahead of time?

Yes! You can prepare the dough for this honey cookies recipe and store the unbaked dough in the fridge for up to five days. The cookie dough can also freeze well. To freeze, after letting the dough chill, line a baking sheet with wax paper and drop cookie-sized balls onto it. Freeze the balls, then store in an airtight plastic bag. You can bake the cookies straight from the freezer, they’ll just need another minute or two in the oven.

Honey Cookies Tips

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What does honey do in cookies?

Honey helps to make these cookies soft and moist. The structure of this particular type of sugar gives them their pillowy bite, and also imparts a more robust flavor compared to only using granulated sugar.

Do I need to chill the dough?

Yes! Chilling cookie dough helps to give the cookies that pillowy structure and prevents them from separating. If you don’t, you’ll end up with large, flat cookies.

How do you make soft cookies versus crispy cookies?

The ingredients you put in your cookies, as well as the way you prepare them, will result in a softer or crispier texture, depending on what you’re going for. For a soft texture such as in these honey cookies, using room-temperature eggs and oil will help, and the honey also helps make these cookies soft. Beating the sugar and oil and chilling the dough also create a soft texture.