Any sprinkle lovers in the house? These cookies are chock-full of all the sprinkles you can handle! This no-chill cream cheese dough is soft and chewy and is perfect with the sprinkles!
I know sprinkles aren’t for everybody. You love them or you don’t. No shame in that. But if you love sprinkles like me, these cookies are for you. Much like this confetti cake, these cookies make the sprinkles the star.
What makes these Sprinkle Cookies Great?
- The no-chill dough means these whip up in minutes.
- The cream cheese gives these a great tang flavor and a super duper soft texture.
- Completely customizable for the occasion! Use red/green sprinkles for Christmas cookies. Pink for Valentine’s Day. Blue for a boy baby shower. The options are endless!
Ingredients
These cookies are fantastic because they only require a few ingredients and come together in a snap!
- All-purpose flour. My go-to for cookie making!
- Baking Powder. This gives our cookie a slight puff when it bakes.
- Unsalted butter and cream cheese. Using both of these together gives us great flavor and great texture. The cream cheese not only prevents spreading, but it makes these soft and chewy.
- Granulated sugar.
- Egg. Typically I like to add an extra egg yolk to my cookie dough for extra richness, but with the cream cheese, it’s totally unnecessary here!
- Sprinkles. Use “jimmies” here, not quin (disc-shaped) or nonpareils. They are just too hard for these fluffy cookies.
How to make Sprinkle Cookies
Begin by whipping together your butter, cream cheese and sugar. The butter and cream cheese is ideally just room temperature, but not melty.
Only whip them until they are well combined, about 1 or 2 minutes. Unlike cake, we don’t need that really fluffy texture for cookies.
Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Then just add in your flour and some of your sprinkles! I told you, these sprinkle cookies come together in snap!
Shaping the Cookies
This is the most difficult part, the shaping, and it’s really not too difficult at all.
Because we want big ol’ celebration style cookies, we want big ol’ cookie dough to start with. I divided the dough into 8 equal portions. I just used a cookie scoop to get close and eye-balled it from there.
Next, roll the dough into a nice ball. The dough will be tacky, but it should be doable. If you are having a hard time, you can wet your hands to prevent sticking. You can also chill the dough for 30 minutes.
To create the sprinkle topping, place the sprinkles in a small bowl and dip the top half only in the sprinkles. Avoid rolling the dough completely in sprinkles for the best ratio.
Place the sprinkled dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Now, this is usual for cookies, but give them a press down so they are relatively flat, about 3/4″ tall. These cookies do not melt and spread out, so this provides the shape.
Last step is to bake! It’s important to under bake them slightly to give us that real chewy sprinkle cookie texture we are aiming for. The bottoms of the cookies should just brown slightly and the tops should still be soft and pale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely, you can leave them out of the batter, off the top or out of the recipe all together!
These cookies do not melt and spread like a traditional cookie. You should flatten them out before baking.
Yes, you can make the dough a day or two ahead and bake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready. You can also wrap and freeze the dough. Thaw and bake as normal.
I recommend using a standard jimmie-style sprinkle. Avoid quins or nonpareils. I used this rainbow style from Wilton which was easily available at my store. You could also use the sugar sprinkles, but I would not add them to the dough, only on the top.
Looking for other great party desserts?
Chewy Sprinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 180 g all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 56 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 56 g cream cheese room temperature
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 95 g 1/2 cup jimmie-style sprinkles, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.180 g all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- In the bowl of a stand-mixer with paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with hand mixer, beat together butter, cream cheese and sugar until well combined. About 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.56 g unsalted butter, 56 g cream cheese, 150 g granulated sugar
- Add egg and vanilla extract on low. Add flour mixture all at once. When flour is nearly incorporated, add 1/2 of the sprinkles (48g, 1/4 cup).1 large egg, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Divide dough into 8 equal portions, dough will be slightly sticky. Shape each portion into a ball, dip the top half of the dough into the remain sprinkles, place evenly on prepared baking sheet.95 g 1/2 cup jimmie-style sprinkles, divided
- Flatten top of dough balls with palm of your hand.
- Bake 12-14 minutes, until the bottoms just begin to brown and the top is still slightly soft.
- Cool completely on cooling rack.
Notes
- Store cookies in airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Smaller cookies may be made. Use standard 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop and continue with same process in step 5. Bake for 9-11 minutes.
Disclaimer: We test all recipes using the metric weights shown, we cannot guarantee outcomes when switching to US measurements.
