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.
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
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.
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.
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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Recipe
Soft Sprinkle Cookies
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-tablespoon portions 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 9-11 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
Nutrition
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!
Sarah
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!
Allison
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!
Amanda
Can I make these cookies using salted butter instead of Unsalted butter?
Allison
Sure. Just reduce the added salt by half.
Falling melancholy
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.
EFrankel
These were delicious!! Really hit the spot. Exactly what I was looking for. Classic rainbow sprinkle cookie. Soft sweet and yummy.
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Katie
These are so delicious! They came together really easily and under-baking them kept them soft and chewy. Definitely will be making again!
Jenn
Excellent, easy recipe. Made it in about a half hour start to finish with my kids. We did it as Christmas cookies. Thank you!
Allison
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Jackie
Easy, soft and so yummy
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Myra
For some reason our cookies didnt flatten and cooked into big ball shapes. They were very crumbly but the kids said they were delicious.
Summer GRIFFIN
I had this happen too! I know I did something not right … Hopefully you see this Allison and might have the answer! They were still 10/10!!
Allison
Hi! Try reducing the flour by a couple tablespoons. You can also flatten the dough balls a bit to encourage spreading.
Debra
I made these cookies and they were delicious and soft in the middle the way I like them! I could taste the Almond Extract! Can I mail a few in a box thru UPS that would take 4 days to arrive? (Mailing from FL to NY.)
Allison
You can but they will dry out over time.
Val
Can you make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it for later use?
Allison
If you need to make ahead I would recommend freezing the portioned dough balls. Thaw in the refrigerator before baking and add a minute or two to bake time.
Kim
I live in the UK now and I miss the sprinkle sugar cookies I used to be able to get from the grocery stores, how similar do these taste to those?
Allison
Pretty similar. Better, in my opinion. 🙂
Kim
The recipe says to use 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie. Is that right?! Wouldn’t that make huge cookies?
I used 1 tablespoon instead and it only make 18 cookies. I wish I had make them smaller. I also overcooked them a little. I find out to be so hard to tell when cookies are done!
The cookies tasted okay to me. Everyone else in my house really enjoyed them. They didn’t satisfy me so I will be trying a different recipe.
Allison
Hi, Kim. Yes, that makes medium-large sized cookies. I usually remove cookies from the oven when the edges are cooked through but the very center is still a bit underbaked. They continue cooking a bit while they sit on the baking sheet.