Whenever kids go back to school, I always think of my experiences from 1,000 years ago (just kidding, but the 90s and 2000s do seem strangely far away!) I remember hitting the grocery store with my mom and begging for all the trendy snacks, including Dunkaroos! What’s not to love about crispy graham cookies and creamy frosting with sprinkles? Well, the modern store-bought version seems to have a lot of mysterious ingredients I can’t pronounce, but my homemade recipe is just as good (if not better) and is made with staples you probably already have on hand! Let’s lean into some ’90s nostalgia and whip some up!
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Homemade Dunkaroos Recipe
Dunkaroos were a widely popular lunchbox snack made up of mini cookies and frosting for dipping that launched in the 1990s. They got discontinued in 2012 in the U.S. (cue collective childhood tears), and while they’ve since made a comeback, they just don’t hit the same as the original!
My homemade Dunkaroos recipe captures that OG nostalgic flavor with cinnamon-spiced graham cookies and an easy vanilla frosting loaded with rainbow sprinkles (the kind you’d spread on a classic vanilla cake). To get that authentic graham cracker taste on a budget, I grind up actual graham crackers into flour and mix it with regular flour, then roll the dough super thin so the cookies bake up crispy and perfect for dipping. One dunk into that sprinkle-filled frosting and you’ll understand why an entire generation is still obsessed with this throwback snack. 😉
Dunkaroos Recipe
Servings 20 servings (5 mini (2”) cookies + 2 Tbsp frosting each)Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 stick salted butter (room temperature, (8 Tbsp) $0.99)
- ¼ cup brown sugar (firmly packed, $0.22)
- 1 cup granulated sugar ($0.38)
- 1 large egg ($0.22)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.65)
- 8 sheets graham crackers (yields 1 cup flour, (4 crackers per sheet) $0.75)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (147g, $0.11)
- ½ tsp baking powder ($0.01)
- ¼ tsp baking soda ($0.01)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon ($0.08)
Frosting
- 1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature, (8 Tbsp) $0.99)
- 2 cups powdered sugar ($1.10)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.24)
- 2 Tbsp whole milk ($0.01)
- 2 Tbsp rainbow sprinkles ($0.35)
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350℉.
- To begin baking the cookies, in a medium mixing bowl, combine room temperature salted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. With a hand mixer, cream it together on medium speed.
- Add the egg and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Mix together on medium speed.
- In a food processor, add graham crackers and pulse until fine.
- Using a fine mesh strainer, sift graham cracker flour into a medium mixing bowl.
- Mix together graham cracker flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and ground cinnamon.
- Little by little, add flour mixture to the creamed sugar and butter mixture until a dough forms.
- Turn the dough out onto a parchment lined surface and roll it out between another sheet of parchment until it’s quite thin, about ¼” thick.
- Using any cookie cutters you have on hand (I borrowed my daughter’s tiny cookie cutters from her baking play set to mimic the size of Dunkaroos!) cut out as many cookies as you can until the dough is gone.
- Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes in a 350℉ oven. These cookies are meant to be crispy and dippable.
- To make the frosting, combine the stick of room temperature unsalted butter, powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and whole milk in a medium-size mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer until smooth on medium speed.
- Fold in the sprinkles last, then serve with your mini cookies!
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Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Hand Mixer
- Food Processor
- Parchment Paper
- Baking Sheet
- 2-Inch Cookie Cutters (or any cookie cutters you have)
- Rolling Pin
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!how to make Dunkaroos step-by-step photos
Gather all of your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350℉.
Make the cookie dough: Add 1 stick room temperature salted butter, ¼ cup brown sugar, and 1 cup granulated sugar to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer to cream them together on medium speed.
Now add 1 large egg and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Mix to combine these with the creamed butter and sugars on medium speed.
Now add 8 sheets of graham crackers to a food processor and pulse until very fine.
Sift the graham cracker flour using a fine mesh strainer over a medium-sized mixing bowl. You need 1 cup total of this graham cracker flour.
Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, ½ tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp ground cinnamon to the graham cracker flour. Mix to combine.
Next, little by little, add the cracker-flour mixture to your creamed butter and sugar until a cohesive dough forms.
Shape the cookies: Turn the dough out onto a parchment lined surface and roll it out between another sheet of parchment until it’s quite thin, about ¼” thick.
Use any cookie cutters you have (ideally 2-inch cutters to mimic the mini size of the Dunkaroos!), cut out as many cookies as you can until you have used all the dough.
Bake the cookies: Place the shaped cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes in your 350℉ oven.
These mini cookies are supposed to be crispy and dippable! They’ll also firm up more as they cool.
Make the frosting: Meanwhile, combine 1 stick of room temperature unsalted butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 2 Tbsp whole milk in a medium-size mixing bowl. Mix with your hand mixer on medium speed until nice and smooth.
Fold in 2 Tbsp rainbow sprinkles and then serve with your homemade Dunkaroo cookies!
Recipe Tips & Suggestions
- Use both baking powder and baking soda. Baking powder gives the cookies lift and lightness, while baking soda helps them spread slightly and enhances browning. Together, they create cookies that are thin, crisp, and perfect for dipping.
- Keep an eye on the cookies while baking. They’re small (especially if you’re using 2-inch cutters like I did), so they bake quickly. You want them crisp enough for dunking but not burnt! Pull them out the oven as soon as the edges start to turn golden.
- Use any cookie cutter you have. I went with mini 2-inch cookie cutters for an authentic Dunkaroos look, but any cutter will work. Larger cutters will give you fewer cookies, while smaller ones yield more. No cutters? Just slice the dough into 2-inch squares with a knife. For fun, try different-shaped cutters. The original Dunkaroos came in more than just circles!
- Let them cool completely. The cookies will continue to firm up as they cool.
- Play with the frosting. I went with a classic vanilla sprinkle frosting, but you can mix it up with chocolate buttercream, strawberry frosting, or a cream cheese frosting!
Storage Instructions
Store your mini cinnamon cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days. They may last a bit longer, but the texture will soften over time. Keep your Dunkaroos frosting refrigerated and use it within a week. Let the frosting sit out at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving so it can become soft and dippable.
These are so good and such a fun treat! Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
Thanks for the recipe they look delicious! Everyone can have a treat now and then and when you make it yourself it’s more fun.
So true! We all deserve a little treat and a kickback to the 90s once in a while. Haha.
Much healthier foods for children than sugar and fat bombs.
Sue is fun at parties.
Having completely missed the fad–due to its arrival between kids and grandkids–I was under-impressed with the cookie recipe. I dropped them by my former work place (I’m now retired), minus the frosting, and they disappeared like magic and folks said they liked the flavor. With a bowl of icing–no sprinkles–waiting at home, I tried again using my standard sugar cookie recipe and liked that better. It’s definitely a kid lunchbox pleaser! Small children always love mini-sized items, hence the popularity of cookie cutter sandwiches, a trick I effectively used way back in the 70s when my children were in elementary school, and later when my grandsons were small.
I definitely will be making these with the grandkids! Dunkaroos are so yummy! It gives me an excuse to eat them too!
the dunkaroos that are sold today just don’t hit quite the same as the ones from when we were kids. i do admit, i am sorely tempted to simply make the frosting and call it a day, because for me the cookies were really just the means to an end of frosted goodness. VERY excited to try this out and will report back!