Sprinkle Cookies
Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies are a fun twist on a regular sugar cookie. These cookies are soft & chewy, full of buttery vanilla flavor, and coated in bright rainbow sprinkles!
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Sprinkle Cookie Recipe
I love making these cookies and customizing the sprinkles based on an upcoming holiday, a party theme, the birthday kid’s favorite colors, etc. But don’t let the bright sprinkles fool you, these cookies have the best flavor and texture that will keep even the adults coming back for seconds.
Ingredients for Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
- Salted Butter (softened) – If you only have unsalted butter, just add an extra pinch of salt to the dough.
- Margarine (softened) – You’ll notice this recipe calls for both butter and margarine. This combination creates a soft and chewy cookie with a buttery, crisp, melt-in-your-mouth edge. However, you can use all butter or all margarine if you’re in a pinch.
- Granulated Sugar – Because this is a sugar cookie base, you don’t need any brown sugar in this recipe.
- Egg
- Light Corn Syrup – The corn syrup makes this cookie extra chewy. However, if you don’t have any, it won’t ruin the cookie without it.
- Vanilla Extract – This is my favorite kind.
- Butter Extract – Just trust me on the butter extract – it makes this cookie almost taste like funfetti cake! If you only have vanilla extract, increase to 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla. However, it’s totally worth it to use butter extract because it will make these cookies taste out of this world!
- All Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda – We use baking soda in this recipe to help the cookies spread, rather than puff up. It also gives the cookies that perfect crisp edge we’re looking for.
- Salt – This is my go-to salt for baking.
- Rainbow Sprinkles – You can use any sprinkles here. I love using rainbow sprinkles or a festive holiday mix depending on the upcoming holiday. I always purchase sprinkles in bulk from the grocery store bakery – it’s so much cheaper that way!
How to Make Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350°F.
- Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, cream together the margarine, butter, and sugar until well combined.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all ingredients are in the mixture.
- Now add in the egg, corn syrup, vanilla, and butter extract and continue to mix until well combined.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl again, then add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until a soft dough forms.
- Portion out the cookie dough into your desired cookie size. For small cookies, use 1 1/2 tbsp of dough (I use my #50 scoop for this). For medium cookies, use about 3 tbsp of dough.
- Roll each portion of dough into a ball and then roll/press the sprinkles onto the outside of the ball. Then place each sprinkle cookie dough ball onto your prepared baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for about 7-9 minutes (small cookies) or 9-11 minutes (medium cookies). To know the cookies are done baking, they should have flattened, spread, and no longer look wet or glossy in the center.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely on the pan (about 5 minutes) before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
Do you put sprinkles on before or after baking cookies?
Always put sprinkles on cookies before baking so the sprinkles can stick to the dough, otherwise they won’t stick to the baked cookies. In this recipe specifically, we roll the dough in sprinkles to create an outer layer, but you could also simply just mix sprinkles into the cookie dough for a different look.
Will my sprinkles burn in the oven if I put them on the cookies before baking?
Nope! As long as you follow the recipe and use the correct oven temperature, you should have no problems with sprinkles burning while baking.
How to store Sprinkle Cookies:
Store your Sprinkle Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want the cookies to stay fresh longer, store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Recipes Similar to Sprinkle Cookies
Sprinkle Cookies
Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies are a fun twist on a regular sugar cookie. These cookies are soft & chewy, full of buttery vanilla flavor, and coated in bright rainbow sprinkles!
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Servings: 32 small cookies
Calories: 144kcal
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (111g) salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup (111g) margarine softened
- 1 1/4 cup (293g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp light corn syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp butter extract
- 2 1/2 cups (380g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (200g) sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Line you baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer, cream together the margarine, butter and sugar until well combined.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the egg, corn syrup, vanilla and butter extract. Mix until combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda and salt, mix until the dough forms.
- Portion the dough out into your desired size. For small cookies, use 1 1/2 Tbsp of dough (#50 scoop) or for larger cookies use 3 tbsp of dough.
- Roll into a ball and then roll and press sprinkles onto the outside of the cookie dough. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake at 350° F (180° C) until the cookie will flatten, spread and the center of the cookie will no longer look wet and glossy when they are ready to come out of the oven. For small cookies, about 7-9 minutes, for larger cookies about 9-11 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
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Nutrition
Calories: 144kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 113mg | Potassium: 15mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 223IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.5mg
These taste delicious but mine came out looking like they melted, not the perfect round ones like in the pictures. I tried different baking times but had varying results but still look like they melted. LOL
Mine did the same thing. They taste great, nice and buttery but super flat.
Do you have to use margarine? Can you use all butter? Thanks!
You can use all butter! It will just alter the texture of the cookie a bit!
Could you please tell me what is considered margarine? When I look, I see vegetable oil spread sticks, but nothing that says margarine. Would these be considered margarine?
Thanks!!
Yes, that is margarine!
Substituted butter for margarine…. And they turned out great. I popped them in freezer for about 10 minutes, then baked ant 350 and they spread perfectly!
I wanted to love these. The dough was just too soft and loose. I ended up adding about 1/4 cup more flour but it was still too soft. I baked them anyway because I trust Karli. They came out like pancakes. I will tweak it a little more.
Great flavor but they turned out flat, so sad
Shoot – I’m sorry! Try adding 1/4 cup of flour and see if that helps!
These taste so good, but mine also spread a lot into each other and were very flat and greasy. I used all butter. The sprinkles, which were so visible on the outside when I put them in the oven, seemed to disappear as they spread and cooked! Might as well just mix them into the dough to make them a little easier to make.
I really wanted these to work!
So sorry to hear that! If the cookies are spreading too much, you can add up to an additional 1/4 cup of flour and see if that helps. If you’re still running into problems, try increasing the oven temperature by about 10°!
I used all butter instead of half margarine. The only struggle I had was getting the sprinkles to want to stick to the balled cookie dough. I kind of had to really press them in for them to stick which made it hard to get full coverage. But, they tastes great and I will be making them again!!