If you’re looking for a super-fun, perfectly sweet, not-your-average colorful treat, look no further than these White Chocolate Chip Fruity Pebbles Cookies.
Cereal + cookies is a match made in heaven (see these Lucky Charms Cookies next!). A fun and simple way to add tons of color and flavor into each chewy bite!
This cereal-based cookie is a total celebration of Fruity Pebbles cereal, using it both in the dough and as a crispy outer coating. The cereal is ground down into a fine dust to replace half of the flour, so the nostalgic taste is present in every single bite.
And keeping some pieces whole on the outside maintains that iconic crunch! Plus, the addition of white chocolate chips is reminiscent of milk, bringing the cereal cookie experience full circle.
Plus, they require less than 30 minutes and just 9 ingredients to come together, using the cereal to do the heavy lifting for flavor and meeting my busy mom checklist of easy, efficient, and elevated!
White Chocolate Chip Fruity Pebbles Cookies Ingredients
Here’s everything you need:
- Fruity Pebbles cereal.
- Unsalted butter. Salted butter works, too. Just omit the added salt.
- Granulated sugar.
- Egg.
- Vanilla extract.
- All-purpose flour.
- Baking powder.
- Salt.
- White chocolate chips.
Fruity Pebbles Cookies Tips and Tricks
How to Prep Fruity Pebbles to Make Cookies
Funny story about this homemade cookie recipe! The original recipe was a shortbread cookie filled with about a cup of Fruity Pebbles. I got a comment on the recipe that the cookies were bland, and I truly take all of my reader’s feedback to heart.
I immediately knew I wanted to re-work the recipe, and vowed to create a fun cookie full of Fruity Pebbles flavor that could never again be described as bland!
Through testing this recipe again and again, I found that in order to truly get tons of that cereal flavor, you need to integrate the Fruity Pebbles into the actual cookie dough recipe.
The solution? Substitute half of the flour in the dough with ground up Fruity Pebbles! You’ll need ¾ cup of the cereal dust, which you can likely get from about 1 ½ cups of the cereal.
Add 1 ½ cups to a high-powered blender or food processor and blend on high until it breaks down into a fine dust. Measure the cereal dust and make sure you have exactly ¾ cup. If you need to grind up more, please do!
Whatever cereal is left, add to a shallow bowl to roll the cookie dough in later.
How to Make Cookie Dough with Cereal
This dough comes together easily, but in order to integrate everything well, there’s a particular order in which you have to add things to your mixing bowl.
Start with the softened butter and sugar and cream it together. If you forgot to take your butter out of the fridge ahead of time or don’t have time to wait, check out this article on how to soften butter quickly.
Creaming the butter and sugar together will both help to dissolve the sugar in the butter so that your dough is not grainy, and also will help to aerate the cookie dough. This may take up to 5 minutes to fully accomplish with your hand mixer.
Next, add the vanilla extract and egg and mix with the hand mixer until just combined.
Then, add the flour, cereal dust, baking powder, and salt. Lastly, fold in the white chocolate chips with a spatula. I like to leave a handful out to add to the top once the cookies are formed.
Roll the Cookie Dough in More Fruity Pebbles
At this point, you should have a sticky and colorful cookie dough. Shape your dough into 8 or 9 large cookies. I find the easiest way to do so is to use a large cookie scoop.
Drop the shaped cookie dough, one at a time, into the extra Fruity Pebbles and press the dough into the cereal to create a crunchy, colorful outer layer.
Bake Your Rainbow Cookies
Line your cereal-coated cookies up on a prepped baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches of space between each cookie to allow for some spreading. Push a few of those leftover white chocolate chips into each cookie (optional).
Bake on the top rack of the oven pre-heated to 350°F for 14-16 minutes until cooked through. With the way the cookies spread, you’ll be able to easily see if the dough is still raw in the center.
Once they’re out of the oven, you can leave them as is, perfectly imperfect. Or you can use a round cookie cutter to reshape the cookies to make them more perfectly circular. Round out the sides by scooting the cookie cutter around the cookies while they’re still hot.
Make sure to use a cookie cutter that is a bit larger than the cookies.
Then, allow the homemade cookies to cool completely before you enjoy!
How to Properly Store Cereal Cookies
These Fruity Pebbles cereal cookies will last for 5-7 days at room temperature. They’ll last up to three weeks in the fridge when covered or stored in an airtight container.
Quick tip: Storing your cookies with a piece of bread will keep them softer and chewier. This is the perfect use for the end piece!
You can also freeze the cookies once they’re baked for up to a year, but I highly recommend just freezing the unbaked dough instead. More on that below.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough for Later
If you want freshly baked cookies at the drop of the hat, you can freeze some or even all of your cookie dough! In the freezer, the unbaked dough will last for up to a year.
Shape the cereal-based dough into your cookies, roll them in the Fruity Pebbles, and store them in a freezer safe storage bag (consider reusable storage bags for a more sustainable option!). Then, bake them on a lined baking sheet directly from the freezer.
You’ll likely need an extra minute or two of baking time when they’re straight out of the freezer—just keep your eye on them!
Why this is the BEST Fruity Pebbles Cookies Recipe
- The cereal is used in two ways! Both integrated into the dough and rolled around the outside.
- The texture! The crispy outer crunch from the outer layer of fresh cereal adds such an experience to each and every bite.
- They’re so fun! Not only is the taste so nostalgic, but the colors are just plain fun.
Crispy Fruity Pebbles Cookies with White Chocolate Chips
SAVE RECIPE TO COLLECTION PIN PRINT RATEEquipment
- High-Powered Blender * or *
- Reusable Baking Mat (optional)
- Large Cookie Scoop (optional)
Ingredients
- 3 cups Fruity Pebbles (you will need ¾ cup of ground up cereal for the dough, the rest will coat the outside of the cookie)
- ½ cup softened unsalted butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a reusable baking mat.
- Use a food processor or high-powered blender to grind up 1½ cups of the cereal into a fine dust. You will need ¾ cup of the ground cereal (make sure you measure after it's ground up—use as much cereal as you need to get ¾ cup of cereal dust!). Add the remaining cereal to a shallow bowl and set all of the cereal aside.
- To a large mixing bowl, add the softened butter and sugar and use a hand mixer on high to cream together until smooth (this usually takes anywhere from 2-5 minutes).
- Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix again to combine.
- Then, add the cereal dust, flour, baking powder, and salt and mix again until smooth.
- Use a spatula to fold in the white chocolate chips. Optional: keep a handful of white chocolate chips to the side to push into the top of the cookie dough before baking.
- Use a large cookie scoop or 2 heaping tablespoons of dough to form your cookies. One at a time, drop the cookie dough balls into the shallow bowl with the leftover Fruity Pebbles and gently press the cereal into the dough to create a crispy outer cereal coating.
- Add the cereal-coated cookie dough to the prepped baking sheets. Leave at least an inch of space in between each cookie for minor spreading. Optional: push the extra white chocolate chips into the top of the cookie dough.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes on the top rack. Allow them to cool and enjoy!
Pro Tips
- Make sure you measure the cereal dust after it’s ground up. Usually, you will get ¾ cup ground-up cereal from 1 ½ cup of whole cereal, but the amount tends to vary slightly.
