Soft Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

4.91 from 212 votes

Modified: Dec 22, 2018 · Published: Aug 13, 2018 by Allison Mattina · 309 Comments

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

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 212 votes

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Dessert

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 25

Servings: 15 - 20

Calories: 133kcal

Author: Allison Mattina

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

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.