Chocolate Dirt Cookies
I never thought I’d be so excited to share cookies covered in worms, but I guess that’s just what happens when you’re a boy mom 🤷♀️ These dirt cookies are inspired by the dirt pudding cups my mom used to make when I was a kid. They are quite tasty, so much fun, and my boys absolutely love them!
Despite the worms and the “dirt” on top, these cookies are actually really delicious. The base is chocolatey, soft, dense, and moist (it’s the same one I use for most of my chocolate-based gourmet cookies like my buckeye cookies and mint chocolate cookies). We’ll add a not-too-sweet chocolate cream cheese frosting before topping with Oreo cookie crumbs and colorful gummy worms.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Balanced flavor (not too sweet!). While these dirt cookies are cute, they actually tastes great too. I know cookies topped with frosting, more cookies, and candy might sound like sugar overload, but I worked hard to make sure they actually taste good and aren’t just adorable.
- Adults love them just as much as kids! They’d make a perfect dessert for a bug or garden themed party .
- No chilling the dough before baking, so they’re fairly quick to make at just 40 minutes total.
- They are so much fun! Get the kids involved with the decorating (you may end up with piles of gummy worms on top of your cookies if you do 🤣) and just have fun with it. You could even make some stiff buttercream or royal icing and dye it green to do some blades of “grass” on the cookies if you wanted to add some more color!
What You Need
Dirt cookies have a pretty simple ingredient list with nothing too fancy or hard-to-find. Here are the key players in this recipe.
- Egg + egg yolk. Adding an extra egg yolk to our cookie dough will make it super tender and chewy. I do this with my brownie recipe for the same reason.
- Brown sugar. Using a mix of light brown sugar and granulated sugar adds the perfect depth of flavor and sweetness to these dirt cookies.
- Cream cheese. This prevents the frosting from being TOO sweet and adds a nice flavor too! I always use brick-style, full-fat cream cheese in my recipes, like my chocolate cheesecake or cream cheese frosting. Using the spreadable kind sold in tubs could cause a runny frosting.
- Oreo cookies. For our dirt! We’ll pulverize these into crumbs before sprinkling them on top of our frosting. Just like when making an Oreo crust, there’s no need to remove the cream before crushing your cookies.
- Gummy worms. I recommend using regular gummy worms, not the sour kind. Unless you like sour candy and chocolate together–then by all means use sour gummy worms! 🙃
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Dirt Cookies
- Prepare your cookie dough. This is a pretty basic chocolate cookie and yields a dough that’s a bit on the drier side, so be sure to gradually add your flour to help it incorporate properly.
- Roll the dough into balls and bake. I do 2 Tablespoon sized scoops; I don’t have a 2 Tablespoon sized scoop but typically just do a heaping portion with my favorite 1 ½ Tablespoon one.
- Flatten the tops. My 1-cup measuring cup works well for this, but you could use the bottom of a drinking glass or really anything that will give you a smooth surface for decorating.
- Swirl frosting on top of each cookie. I use a piping bag for this, but you can also just spread it on with an offset spatula.
- Decorate with cookie crumbs and gummy worms. I typically do just 1 worm on top of each cookie, but feel free to add more if you like!
