Holiday Sprinkle Cookies
on Nov 24, 2017, Updated Dec 19, 2017
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These Holiday Sprinkle Cookies are pillowy soft and melt-in-your mouth. They have a delicious buttery vanilla flavor and are packed with sprinkles. They’re the perfect easy cookie recipe for your holiday baking.
This year my whole family will be together for Christmas. That means:
- My parents house will be PACKED.
- A lot of baked goods will be eaten.
- My Dad will be teary eyed with happiness.
- My nephew is coming!
He’s a small torpedo of happiness (with the occasional tantrum – he’s a toddler after all) and completely adorable. So I needed to make the perfect Christmas cookie for his visit. And these holiday sprinkle cookies are just the thing.
It turns out that on his first birthday, he didn’t really care for cake. But he LOVED the sprinkle cookies.
And let me tell you – he’s a very wise little boy. Because these holiday sprinkle cookies are delish. They’re buttery, melt-in-your mouth, pillowy soft, with a hint of vanilla & almond, then loaded with Christmas cheer (AKA sprinkles).
What I also LOVE about these cookies is there’s very little work involved. No decorating, no royal icing, no dough chilling! (Ok – chilling is optional if you want extra thick cookies, but they totally work without chilling the dough too).
So let’s get started.
How to Make These Holiday Sprinkle Cookies
To get started, we’ll beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. It’s super important that you use high quality butter (not margarine), and that your butter is soft but not melty. If the butter is melty or too soft, your cookies can spread.
Then we mix in the vanilla extract, a little almond extract (seriously worth it because it gives soooo much flavor), and an egg.
For the dry ingredients we’ll whisk together flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking powder and a little salt. The cornstarch and cream of tartar make these cookies extra soft and give them that perfect melt-in-your mouth consistency.
Then beat in your dry ingredients followed by the sprinkles. I use jimmies as opposed to nonpareils (the little round ones), because they don’t bleed color all over the dough.
Form the dough into balls about 1.5 tablespoons in size (I use a cookie scoop for this), and then it’s time to bake. You can also chill the dough before baking too for extra thick cookies.
Either way you’ll end up with soft, melt-in-your mouth holiday sprinkle cookies that are fit for Santa and everyone on the nice list 😉
Holiday Sprinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, , softened but not melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, , spooned & leveled
- 2 tbsp cornstarch, (tablespoons not teaspoons)
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup holiday sprinkles, , I recommend jimmies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees (if baking right away). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in the vanilla extract, almond extract and egg.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking powder and salt.
- Slowly beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Then beat in the sprinkles with the mixer on low speed, or stir them in with a large rubber spatula.
- Form the dough into balls about 1.5 tablespoons in size. Place 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheets.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops look just set.
Simple and easy and delish!
We made these minus the sprinkles as we didn’t have any and they were great! Thank you
Can these cookies be baked now and then frozen to be used at Christmas?
absolutely!
Can I use Ameretto instead of almond extract?
I haven’t tried it – so I’m not sure. You could also just leave out the almond extract if you don’t have any on hand.
Can these be made into a roll out cookie and use with cookie cutters?
I think this dough is too sticky/soft for rolling out. You could use this recipe instead, and stir in 1/3 cup of sprinkles: https://www.justsotasty.com/soft-batch-frosted-sugar-cookies/
Thank you so much! I was looking for an easy recipe for a cookie swap at work and for my daughter’s class Christmas party. They came out great, and are so quick and simple. I’m planning to make a few more batches to take to our Christmas Eve gathering because I absolutely hate making cut outs!