Sprinkle Cookies

Sprinkle Cookies

I admit- I’m one of those people who gets easily attracted to fun colors when in a sweets shop, even though I know I’m likely not going to like the goods after I buy them. That’s because most shops make their cookies overly sweet to the point you can’t taste any flavor- just sugar. Once every other year, I get a hankering for these adorable, fun Sprinkle Cookies, the kind we used to eat as kids. This year I finally settled on my own recipe after being dissatisfied with every cookie store within a 100 mile radius of my hometown. So here is my Sprinkle Cookie recipe- have fun, indulge and taste a real cookie!

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg at room temperature*

1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour + for dusting

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

A few tablespoons of multi-colored sprinkles

*Tip: If you don’t have room temp eggs, just take an egg out of the refrigerator and let it sit in a bowl of hot or very warm (not boiling) water for a few minutes.

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. You can use a stand mixer, hand held mixer or even a large whisk (though the latter will require serious arm strength), on high, whisk the butter and sugar together until thoroughly mixed. Stop once in between to scrape down the sides of the bowl before continuing to whisk until fluffy, about 5 minutes total if using stand mixer. (Add 2 minutes for hand held mixer and about 10 minutes if doing this manually).

Add the egg and Vanilla, continuing to whisk until thoroughly combined. Lower to medium low speed and slowly add in the dry ingredients- flour, baking soda and baking powder, whisking until just thoroughly combined. If necessary, stop in between to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are mixing together. You should get a very soft dough consistency that might seem too wet or soft compared to other cookie dough but it’s right.

Place the sprinkles in a bowl . Using a spoon that’s been lightly dusted with flour*, scoop a large tablespoon of the dough and place into the sprinkles, covering one half of the dough. Place the dough onto a non-stick baking sheet, sprinkle side up. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough. You’ll have to use 2 baking sheets or you can save half of the dough to make a second batch another day. Just place the leftover dough in a zip lock bag and freeze until using.

Bake the cookies for exactly 11 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.

*Tip: Because this dough is softer than most other cookie dough, you may have to play around with using both a spoon and your hands. I actually use only my hands to roll the cookie dough into the sprinkles but always cover my hands in flour first so the dough doesn’t stick too much.