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Home » Cookies » Soft Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

Soft Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

Published: Aug 13, 2018 · Modified: Dec 22, 2018 by Allison · 199 Comments

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The best SOFT and CHEWY SUGAR COOKIES loaded with SPRINKLES! No chill time – you can be diving into freshly baked Sprinkle Cookies in under 30 minutes. 

Blue plate topped with sprinkle sugar cookies.

My inner 5 year-old is squealing, because: SPRINKLE COOKIES! I mean, tell me these don’t brighten your Monday just a touch? Soft, chewy sugar cookies loaded with colorful sprinkles. Gimme!

This recipe was one of the first that I ever published, and I decided it was time for a facelift. I tweaked the recipe just a bit, and I took some new pictures (note: I also consumed no fewer than a dozen cookies during this process). #hardwork

Stack of sprinkle cookies.

We recently celebrated the start of a new school year, and I always make my kiddos cookies on the first day of school. For Juliette’s first day of Pre-K, she came home to a big plate of Sprinkle Cookies. If there is anything that you should know about Juliette, it is that she is one fancy girl. She loves glitter, sparkles, unicorns, dress up, and she especially loves SPRINKLES (pink and purple specifically). She was thrilled to dive into these cookies after her first day of school.

Sugar cookie dough in a stainless bowl topped with sprinkles.

Sprinkle Cookies

  • This recipe starts with a basic sugar cookie dough. In addition to vanilla, I also add a tiny bit of almond extract. I absolutely love almond extract in a sugar cookie – feel free to leave it out, if you’d prefer.
  • After preparing the dough, we add a generous amount of sprinkles. I use rainbow sprinkles, but you can use any color that you’d like.
  • The dough gets scooped into balls, then gently rolled in more sprinkles. This makes the sprinkles really noticeable; there’s no guessing what kind of cookies these are.
  • Now here’s the key: We are going to underbake these just slightly. In order to get a soft, slightly chewy cookie, we have to remove them from the oven before they are completely cooked through. They will continue cooking on the baking sheet after coming out of the oven.

Cookie dough balls on a baking sheet.

Whether you’re celebrating something special, or you’re just craving a Sprinkle Cookie, I hope you give these a try. The dough balls also freeze well, if you want to stick some in the freezer for another day. Freshly baked cookies at the ready? Yes, please!

Love SUGAR COOKIES? Try these: SUGAR COOKIE BARS – EASY SUGAR COOKIES – SUGAR COOKIE FRUIT TARTS

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Sprinkle Cookies on a baking sheet.

Blue plate topped with sprinkle sugar cookies.

Soft Sprinkle Cookies

The best SOFT and CHEWY SUGAR COOKIES loaded with SPRINKLES! No chill time - you can be diving into freshly baked Sprinkle Cookies in under 30 minutes. 
4.91 from 116 votes
Print Pin SaveSaved!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Dessert
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 15 - 20
Calories: 133kcal
Author: Allison - Celebrating Sweets

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups all purpose flour, add an extra tablespoon for thicker cookies
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened slightly but still cool
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract, optional
  • ¾ cup sprinkles, see note

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  • Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Slowly pour in the sugar, mixing as you pour. Beat sugar and butter for a minute, until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, mixing until combined and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add ½ cup sprinkles (see note) and stir by hand until combined.
  • Scoop 2-tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Place ¼ cup sprinkles on a plate and press the tops of the dough balls in sprinkles. Place dough balls onto prepared baking sheet leaving about a couple inches for spreading. I like to mound the dough balls higher rather than wider so that they bake up on the thicker side.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes. The edges should be completely set, and the centers should look slightly under cooked. See note about shaping the cookies immediately after baking. Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough once the baking sheets are completely cool.

Notes

Butter should be softened slightly. It should not be starting to melt, or losing its shape.
Sprinkles: We have found that we like this recipe better with less sprinkles. We use about ¼ cup sprinkles IN the cookies and then roll the cookie dough balls in another ¼ cup sprinkles. We're leaving the recipe as originally written (because so many of you love it), but adding this note in case you want to reduce the amount as well. 
How to get perfectly round cookies
Option 1: Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven place a round glass, bowl, or cookie cutter (larger than the cookie) upside down over the top of the cookie. Gently but quickly swirl the glass/bowl/cookie cutter in a circular motion. The edges of the cookie will bump against the inside of the glass creating a perfectly round shape. Note: This only works when the cookies are hot, straight from the oven, and still on the baking sheet.
Option 2: Immediately after the cookies come out the oven use the back of a spoon to gently push the edges inward to create clean edges and a perfect round shape.

Nutrition

Calories: 133kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 33mg | Potassium: 43mg | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 155IU | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 0.5mg

Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
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Comments

  1. Sarah

    September 21, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    Can you freeze the raw cookie dough balls and then pull them out (and bake) the day you want them? Fingers crossed – hoping to do some prep work for my daughter’s bday and we LOVE these!

    Reply
    • Allison

      September 23, 2022 at 1:39 pm

      Yes, you should be able to do that. I would recommend thawing them in the fridge so they’re not going into the oven frozen. Also, I have occasionally had the color from the sprinkles bleed into dough when it sits for more than a few hours. Just something to consider. Enjoy!

      Reply
    • Amanda

      October 25, 2022 at 8:36 am

      Can I make these cookies using salted butter instead of Unsalted butter?

      Reply
      • Allison

        October 26, 2022 at 8:29 am

        Sure. Just reduce the added salt by half.

  2. Falling melancholy

    September 25, 2022 at 6:49 pm

    4 stars
    Fantastic recipe, but dangerous not to consume all of them in a single sitting. Next go round, i may reduce the sugar a bit becuase it was a bit too sweet for my liking. Although it did not stop me from eating one, and anothee, and yet another.

    Reply
  3. EFrankel

    November 21, 2022 at 2:29 pm

    5 stars
    These were delicious!! Really hit the spot. Exactly what I was looking for. Classic rainbow sprinkle cookie. Soft sweet and yummy.

    Reply
    • Allison

      November 29, 2022 at 1:35 pm

      I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Katie

    December 06, 2022 at 10:32 am

    5 stars
    These are so delicious! They came together really easily and under-baking them kept them soft and chewy. Definitely will be making again!

    Reply
  5. Jenn

    December 11, 2022 at 6:36 pm

    5 stars
    Excellent, easy recipe. Made it in about a half hour start to finish with my kids. We did it as Christmas cookies. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Allison

      December 19, 2022 at 11:00 am

      You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂

      Reply
  6. Jackie

    December 24, 2022 at 8:18 pm

    5 stars
    Easy, soft and so yummy

    Reply
    • Allison

      December 28, 2022 at 4:11 pm

      I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Myra

    January 08, 2023 at 8:34 am

    3 stars
    For some reason our cookies didnt flatten and cooked into big ball shapes. They were very crumbly but the kids said they were delicious.

    Reply
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aboutHi, I'm Allison! I'm a busy wife and mom with a passion for cooking and baking. This is where you'll find my favorite homemade recipes, designed to help you make every day delicious! Read more....

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