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!
Danielle
Hi! I know there’s a focus on sprinkles in this recipe, but I have to do as little food coloring as possible in my cooking. Will the cookies be ok without the sprinkles? Or is there a different recipe you love for soft white sugar cookies? I love the ones from Kroeger, but they put so much icing on them. Soft and almost cake like is my end goal. Thank you in advance!
Celebrating Sweets
They will be fine without the sprinkles. Although, I wouldn’t say that they are cake-like. They are soft, with chewy edges, but not cakey. Thanks for stopping by!
Elizabeth
My toddler and I go to Publix after taking my older two kiddos to school each morning just to get a sprinkle cookie. Its like the most precious and delicious treat to start the day for him(after breakfast of course) :-)… Sometimes I’m unable to stop by because my bb girl, who is 6 months, has her very own agenda. Today was one of those days. I chose to come home and look for a recipe. I found yours and decided to give it a try. My son loved it!!! I love it!! The hint of almond extract takes it to a whole new level! This recipe is just what I was looking for and I’m glad my boy got to enjoy it. The best part is that this can make quite a lot of cookies depending on the size (adjusting baking time) so he can have one or 2 cookies and will last a whole week or longer.
Thanks for sharing!
Celebrating Sweets
Thank you for the kind comment. I am so glad that you enjoyed them. What a precious tradition you have created with your toddler – love it! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Christine
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Celebrating Sweets
I makes 15-20 cookies is using 1.5 tablespoons of dough. Enjoy!
Teri
I just made a batch of these to share with colleagues! We all enjoyed these festive cookies!
Bree
I made these this week with red and green sprinkles to take to a Christmas party for my daughter’s class and they were a big hit! So festive and delicious. We live in Germany and cookies are usually thin and crunchy (like biscuits) so these were softer and sweeter than the German children had tried before. I hope I’m not corrupting the kids by introducing them to American amounts of sugar…
I’m wanting to make them again for a party next week. Do you think these cookies would freeze well if made ahead of time? I’ve never frozen cookies with sprinkles in them before, but I like to keep frozen cookie dough in my freezer and bake when I need them. Thank you for a delicious recipe!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Bree. I’m cracking up at your comment about “American amounts of sugar”- it’s so true! Yes, they will freeze well. I have frozen both cookie dough balls, and baked cookies. If you’re freezing cookie dough, let it thaw at room temp for a while before baking. You shouldn’t have trouble freezing the sprinkles, I’ve never had trouble with sprinkles losing their color, although different brands of sprinkles could technically have different results. Enjoy! Thanks for the kind comment. Happy holidays! -Allison
Brittany
Would it be okay to make dough and set in fridge overnight until ready to bake the next day. Doing a cookie day with the family and kids and want the kids to be able to dip the dough into the Christmas sprinkles to help decorate them!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Brittany. Sure! I’d recommend the following: After refrigeration, let the dough sit at room temp for a while, until it softens a bit and is easier to work with. If you try rolling dough balls in sprinkles that are straight from the fridge the cookie dough will be so firm that the sprinkles won’t stick. Leaving them at room temp for a bit will help with that. Also, optional: you can reduce the amount of the sprinkles in the dough itself, just in case the sprinkle color bleeds into the dough while sitting in the fridge. Enjoy! -Allison
Tay
Tried the recipe twice and each time the cookies fell flat. I even chilled the dough the second time and they were less flat, but still didn’t look like the picture. Followed the recipe to to a T and they taste great for sure, but can’t figure out what’s going wrong! Baking powder is brand new, butter is as recipe suggests. So weird!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds like you knew what you were doing, so I’m stumped. The only other things that could have made them flat was too little flour (under measuring) or too much liquid (using a jumbo egg instead of a large egg). Sorry they didn’t work out for you.
Barbara
It could be her pan that she is baking them on. I use very flat shinny pans and no parchment paper. Pre non stick pans can change a cookies snap. This is just an idea.
Marleny
This is the second time I make this recipe, the cookies are delicious! I am however having a little problem. I feel like my cookies don’t spread as much as the pictures show. At first I thought I made them too big so the second time around I made them smaller but it was the same.
Has this happened before? Is there anything I may be doing wrong?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! You might be accidentally over-measuring your flour. Try fluffing the flour with your measuring cup, scooping a heaping portion, then leveling it off with the back of a knife. Or you can try reducing the flour by 1-2 tablespoons and that should give a little more spread when the cookies bake. Glad you enjoyed them!
Elizabeth
It is so good! I used all orangic ingredients and organic sprinkles and it came out so good! Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Celebrating Sweets
Great! Glad you enjoyed them!
Tina
Hi!! Can I use any type of sprinkles with this recipe? For example, can I use the small ones that look like glitter, the little round balls, etc? Thanks!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! I have only ever made them with the type of sprinkles pictured. The little round balls should work ok I’ve seen many other cookie recipes with those. I’m not sure about glitter – if it’s similar to sparkling sugar, it would probably work, but I’m not sure if they will hold their color. Enjoy!