I am obsessed with sprinkle cookies.
I’m also obsessed with Miffy, the cute Dutch bunny with the x mouth.
These are my ultimate go to cookie. Soft and chewy middles, slightly crisp edges, layers of colorful sprinkles. Dare I say that sprinkle cookies are my all-time favorite cookie? I think yes. If I had to choose between chocolate chip and sprinkle cookies, I would choose sprinkle cookies each and every time. I love sprinkles and sprinkle cookies so much that Mike buys giant bags of rainbow sprinkles on the regular. It’s a little absurd, but rainbow sprinkles make me so happy.
What are sprinkle cookies?
Call them funfetti, confetti, birthday cake, or sprinkle cookies, essentially they’re all the same: a soft and chewy cookie studded with colorful sprinkles. I like to think of them as chocolate chip cookies, sans chocolate chips, plus sprinkles.
This recipe in particular has both brown sugar and white sugar for that classic chocolate chip cookie taste. Most of the sprinkle cookie recipes on the internet have a higher percentage of white sugar to brown sugar resulting in pale sugar cookie looking sprinkle cookies. Those cookies are good too, but I love the round caramel notes that more brown sugar adds.
This sprinkle cookie is my magnum opus, my pride and joy, may all-time favorite cookie. Even Mike likes them and he’s kind of a cookie snob. We’ve taken to ending our nights sweetly, with one freshly baked sprinkle cookie each.
How to make sprinkle cookies
- Melt. Melt the butter in a pot over low heat just until liquified. Pour the melted butter into a large mixing bowl, scraping down the sides, and set aside to cool.
- Measure. In another mixing bowl, measure out and whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Whisk. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl with the melted butter and stir until smooth. Whisk in the egg and vanilla.
- Stir. Stir the dry ingredients in, until about 80-90 percent mixed.
- Fold. Fold in the sprinkles, making sure not to leave any dry spots, but also not over-mixing.
- Scoop. Use a medium cookie scoop (or a spoon, you’ll want about 1.5-2 tbsp of dough per cookie) to portion out the cookies. If you’re making Miffys, divide 1 cookie dough ball into 8 and shape into short logs for the ears, adhering 2 per each ball of dough.
- Bake. Bake in a 350°F until the edges set and the tops are golden. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Decorate. If you’re making Miffy cookies, use some melted chocolate to pipe on her eyes and an x for her mouth. Enjoy your bunnies!
Sprinkle cookie ingredients
- butter – butter straight from the fridge because we’re going to melt it, more on that below.
- flour – regular all purpose flour. If you don’t already have a kitchen scale, I recommend it, you’ll wash less dishes, you won’t have to sift or fluff your flour, and your baking will come out so much better.
- baking soda – baking soda is what’s going to give our cookies just a little bit of lift and puffiness.
- salt – just a bit of salt to contrast with the sweetness.
- brown sugar – a higher ratio of brown sugar to granulated means a more caramel tasting cookie as well as a softer, chewier bite.
- granulated sugar – a bit of granulated sugar helps with the crisping up of the cookie edges.
- egg – typically I only ever buy large eggs, but for these cookies, I like to use an extra large egg for the extra liquid. This helps the cookies spread a tiny bit more than if you just went with a large egg. If you only have large eggs on hand, simply break open two eggs, whisk them well, and measure out 64 grams of whisked egg, or 4 tablespoons.
- vanilla – warm and toasty, a splash of vanilla makes these cookies extra cozy.
- rainbow sprinkles – the sprinkles you use matter more than you think, so make sure you get ones that taste good! More on that below.
The sprinkles
The sprinkles you use affect the overall taste of your cookie a lot. For me, I like rainbow jimmies, which are the sprinkles that look like little colorful sticks, instead of nonpareils/hundreds-and-thousands, which are little balls. Nonpareils are super cute, but too crunchy for mixing into cookies. Rainbow jimmies are just soft enough, don’t bleed, and have a specific sprinkle flavor that is hard to describe.
It’s important that your sprinkles are fresh and tasty because they are a large portion of your cookie. For me, I like the Canadian brand, Yupik. You can get them on amazon, both in Canada and the US. They’re sweet and just the right amount of crunchy. Make sure you select the “rainbow sprinkles,” not the nonpareils.
The secret for the best cookies is melted butter
I think the best part about this recipe is the fact that it uses melted butter. Almost all cookies (aside from brown butter cookies) use room-temp butter that is creamed with sugar until light and fluffy. The goal of creaming butter and sugar is to increase the volume of the baked goods: emulsifying and coating each sugar crystal in fat (aka butter) ensures that tiny air bubbles form when baking, making your cookies and cakes soft, tender, and fluffy. But, when you switch from using room temp butter to melted butter, you get a chewier, fudgier cookie that isn’t puffy or cakey.
If you have problems with cookies that are too tall or cookies that don’t spread, melted butter is the way to go. When you use melted butter to make cookies, they tend to deflate and densify after cooling, resulting in a perfectly crisp on the outside, perfectly cooked on the inside cookie.
How to melt butter for cookies
Simply put your butter in a small pot and melt over low heat just until it turns liquid. Pour the butter out of the pot into a bowl, to encourage cooling, and you’re ready to make cookies, no more waiting for the butter to come to temp.
The perfect bunny for Easter
I love Miffy even more than I love sprinkle cookies. She is the MOST iconic bunny and I just love her blank look with her x nose-mouth combo. Now that Easter is coming up, it’s all bunnies, all the time for me. Bunny cupcakes, bunny tuna onigiri, bunny buns, just give me ALL the Miffy bunnies. Anyway, making Miffy shaped cookies is super easy, even easier than rolling and cutting them out.
How to make Miffy cookies
- Shape her head. Her head is simply a ball of cookie dough. My favorite way of portioning out cookie dough is by using a cookie scoop, specifically a size 40, 1.5 inch cookie scoop. I find that this makes the perfect sized cookie after baking, not too big and not too small. Just right for when you want to have one or two cookies.
- Shape her ears. 1 cookie dough ball is perfect for 8 ears. Simply divide evenly into 8 and shape the dough into short logs/ears. Add the ears to the top of a cookie ball, pressing the cookie dough together slightly to adhere. I prefer my Miffy’s to have short ears because they bake and travel better; you don’t have to worry about her ears breaking off.
- Bake and decorate. Bake until the Miffy’s are golden and crispy on the edges but soft in the centers. Let cool completely on the baking sheet then use melted chocolate and a piping bag (or a toothpick) to add here eyes and x mouth.
Happy Miffy-ing! From here on out until Easter, it’s going to be Miffy food all day, ever day.
xoxo steph
PS – Did you grow up with sprinkle cookies? I didn’t, the closest thing I had to these were soft sugar cookies, the drop kind of sugar cookie, not the roll and cut kind. They didn’t have sprinkles. Even now, I find it surprising when I see sprinkle cookies at a cafe or bakery. If they do have them, I always get one to see how they compare. Have you ever had bakery sprinkle cookies?
Sprinkle Cookies
Soft and chewy middles, slightly crisp edges, layers of colorful sprinkles, sprinkle cookies are the perfect cookie.
Serves 20 cookies
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1.5 cup all purpose flour (200g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (150g)
- 1/4 cup sugar (50g)
- 1 egg (extra large, 64g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
Add the butter to a small pot and melt over low heat, stirring, until the butter liquifies. Remove from the heat and pour the butter into a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool slightly.
In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
When the butter is slightly cool to the touch, whisk in the brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Whisk in the egg completely and stir in the vanilla.
Use a silicone spatula to fold the whisked dry ingredients into the butter batter until about 90 percent mixed.
Gently fold in the sprinkles, ensuring no floury dry spots remain.
Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop out the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking or freeze (see notes)
To bake, heat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are set and the tops are golden, turning the cookie sheet halfway if needed. Remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy!
If you aren’t baking all of them right away, freeze the cookie dough balls until firm, then transfer to an air-tight container.
Nutrition Facts
Sprinkle Cookies
Amount Per Serving (1 cookie)
Calories 122
Calories from Fat 45
% Daily Value*
Fat 5g8%
Saturated Fat 3.1g19%
Cholesterol 24mg8%
Sodium 97mg4%
Potassium 22mg1%
Carbohydrates 18.1g6%
Fiber 0.3g1%
Sugar 10.3g11%
Protein 1.4g3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.