Butterscotch Pudding Cookies
Butterscotch Pudding Cookies are soft, thick and chewy cookies are loaded with butterscotch chips. They are so easy to make with a box of instant butterscotch pudding mix.
Call me crazy, but I’ll always choose butterscotch over chocolate any day. Don’t get me wrong. I love chocolate, BUT I love butterscotch that much more.
It’s been this way since I was a little girl and I’d devour my mom’s butterscotch meringue pie. Rich, sweet and just plain perfect. Who can resist that sweet buttery taste?
These cookies are all about the butterscotch. They are made with both butterscotch instant pudding and butterscotch chips. Yum!
Why You’ll Love these Butterscotch Pudding Mix Cookies
- Minimal prep with no chilling required
- Baked to perfection in 14 minutes
- Easy to find ingredients
- Incredible sweet taste and texture
- Makes 2 dozen cookies
- Kid friendly
- Easy to customize with other flavor combinations
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Package butterscotch instant pudding (do not make the pudding; just use the powder)
- Salted butter
- Cream cheese
- Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Butterscotch chips
How to Make Butterscotch Pudding Cookies
Step One: Preheat oven to 350F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, you can just drop the cookies onto an ungreased sheet pan, they won’t stick.
Step Two: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and pudding mix. Set aside.
Step Three: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl with silicone spatula.
Step Four: Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape bowl with silicone spatula.
Step Five: On low, add half of the dry ingredients and mix until mostly combined. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined. The dough should be difficult to mix.
Step Six: Use a cookie scoop to drop balls of dough onto the sheet pans 1″ apart. Press a few butterscotch chips into the top of the cookie dough balls, and press down to flatten the cookies slightly. If you’d like a uniform edge on your cookies, roll the dough balls briefly in your hand before pressing the chips into them. The cookies will not spread much in the oven, it’s important to pat them down a bit.
Step Seven: Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies look dry and are starting to brown. Let them cool on the sheet pan for 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Equipment Needed
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- Cookie sheets
- Parchment paper
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Stand Mixer
- Scraper spatula
- Cookie scoop
- Cooling rack
What to Serve with Pudding Cookies
- Milk
- Butterscotch Steamer
- Caramel Coffee Milkshake
- Mocha Latte
- Cream soda
- Butterbeer
- Hot Butterscotch
Variations
- Use a whole package (8oz) of cream cheese if you like. This is a very forgiving recipe and they will still turn out perfectly!
- Substitute the cream cheese with 8oz of mascarpone cheese. Bonus – it doesn’t need to be softened to room temperature before use.
- Drizzle with melted butterscotch. Melt ½ cup of butterscotch chips in the microwave. Transfer to a sandwich baggie and snip off the very tip of the bag with scissors. Drizzle the melted butterscotch chips over the completely cooled cookies.
- If you have butterscotch extract, try using that instead of vanilla extract.
Storage Instructions
Best Way to Store Instant Pudding Cookies
Butterscotch Pudding Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Can I Freeze?
Yes, you can freeze these cookies in an airtight freezer safe container for up to 3 months.
Recipe Tips
- To soften butter quickly, cut the butter into small chunks and place on a plate in a warm spot of your kitchen for about 30 minutes. You can also microwave wrapped sticks in 4 second increments until it’s just barely soft, flipping the sticks of butter every 4 seconds.
- The pudding mix makes this dough difficult to mix. I do not recommend using a hand mixer if you have the option of using a stand mixer.
- Using parchment paper on the baking sheets makes for an easier cleanup.
- To keep the cookies uniform and all the same size, roll the dough balls in your hands before placing them on the baking sheet.
What is a Pudding Cookie?
Pudding cookies are basically just cookies with instant pudding mix added to them. The pudding mix is what helps to keep the cookies so soft and moist.
You’ll also like these Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies.
Do I Need to Make the Pudding First?
No! Don’t make the pudding according to the box directions. All you’ll need to use is the actual pudding mix powder in the box. Super easy!
Can I Use Pudding Mix that Makes Cooked Pudding?
No, you want to look for the instant pudding mix NOT the cooked version.
Other Pudding Mix Cookie Combinations
- Coconut cream pudding with sweetened coconut flakes
- Chocolate pudding with Heath bar bits
- Vanilla pudding with chocolate chips
- White chocolate pudding with white chocolate chips and Craisins
- Banana pudding with white chocolate chips
- Cookies n’ Creme pudding with chocolate chips
- Cheesecake pudding with salted caramel chips
- Pistachio pudding with butterscotch chips
Can I Use Sugar Free Instant Pudding Mix?
Yes, you can make it sugar free if you like. Use the sugar free instant pudding mix and a sweetener like granulated Swerve.
Butterscotch Recipes
- Butterscotch Pudding
- Butterscotch Sauce
- Butterscotch Blondies
- Butterscotch Cheesecake Bars
- Coconut Butterscotch Cookies
- No-Bake Butterscotch Cookies
- Butterscotch Lava Cakes
- Butterscotch Pecan Monkey Bread
You’ll also like Cool Whip Cookies, Butterfinger Cookies, Kitchen Sink Cookies, Trail Mix Oatmeal Cookies, Cowboy Cookies and Brown Sugar Cookies.
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Butterscotch Pudding Cookies
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Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 package butterscotch instant pudding 3.4oz/99g package
- 1 cup salted butter softened
- ¾ cup cream cheese softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup butterscotch chips plus more for top of cookies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper, you can just drop the cookies onto an ungreased sheet pan, they won't stick.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and pudding mix. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl with silicone spatula.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape bowl with silicone spatula.
- On low, add half of the dry ingredients and mix until mostly combined. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined. The dough should be difficult to mix.
- Use a cookie scoop to drop balls of dough onto the sheet pans 1" apart. Press a few butterscotch chips into the top of the cookie dough balls, and press down to flatten the cookies slightly. If you'd like a uniform edge on your cookies, roll the dough balls briefly in your hand before pressing the chips into them. The cookies will not spread much in the oven, it's important to pat them down a bit.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies look dry and are starting to brown. Let them cool on the sheet pan for 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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I would have loved to cook this recipe with the butterscotch. But, you didn’t put in measurements on anything. I brought the pudding and butterscotch chips. Then when I was ready to bake them I didn’t know how.
Hi Brenda, The printable recipe card is at the bottom of the post. You would have scrolled by it to get to the comment section here. All measurements and instructions are listed. For a quick to access it, you can click “Jump to Recipe” at the top of the post. Hope that helps!