When I think of sprinkles, I think of birthday cakes. Like my cheery homemade sprinkle cake. Bright colorful dots assorted through soft, buttery confections. Pinks, blues, greens, and orange flecks of sugary beauty. No cake batter is complete without a hefty pour of sprinkles, in my opinion.
The secret to the super soft texture is the egg yolk. Egg yolks give cookies a moist richness, without drying the finished cookie out. The reason why I didn’t use the egg white is because my first three batches had too much liquid with an entire egg added in – they spread too much and were too thin for my liking.
Preliminary notes:
*If you can’t find butter extract, try using almond extract. I actually made a batch of these cookies (my fifth batch, yes) with almond extract. The resulting cookie doesn’t taste as “cake batter-y” in comparison to the butter extract cookie, but it’s pretty close.
*Depending on how I rolled them, I had to gently press down on a couple of the cookies mid-baking. If you find they aren’t spreading at all, remove them from the oven at the 6 minute mark and very, very slightly press down.
Print
Bite-Size Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 9 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 small cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These bite-size sugar cookies are buttery and soft, filled with sprinkles, and do not require any cookie dough chilling prior to baking.
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons (60g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon butter extract
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (94g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/3 cup (55g) sprinkles
- for rolling: 1/4 cup (40g) sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Set aside. Pour 1/4 cup sprinkles onto a plate to use for rolling. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed using a handheld or stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat in egg yolk, butter extract, baking powder, and salt. Add flour, and mix until a dough forms. Dough will be thick. Gently mix in sprinkles.
- Roll dough in teaspoon size balls. Make sure that the balls are tall, rather than wide. The taller the cookie dough ball, the thicker the cookie will be. Roll the dough balls into the reserved sprinkles and bake for 9-10 minutes. Watch them closely at the 9 minute mark to assure they do not brown.
- Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheets before transferring to a cookie rack to cool completely. Cookies remain fresh up to 1 week covered at room temperature.
Notes
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: cake batter sugar cookies
Could I add water, if it’s too thick? And is it just egg yolk or the egg white too?
I have made this recipe many times. I quadrupled the recipe and used two whole eggs. Still as delicious as the first time. We don’t like them with Almond extract. We finally found an imitation butter that will ship APO. I will have a happy husband tonight!
★★★★★
Hi Sally! I was wondering if I could remove the baking powder and use this recipe as a roll out cookie dough?
No, I don’t recommend it. Here are my cut out sugar cookies with sprinkles!
Hi Sally! I’m going by your suggestion to tweak this recipe for your Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies. I observed both recipes have the same yield; however are the cookies similar in size? If not, is it okay to make these cake batter sugar cookies bigger?
Shouldn’t be a problem!
These came out exactly how I was hoping – soft, chewy, cake-battery. I used the almond extract substitute for the butter extract and it tasted great. I am at a high altitude – over 5,500 ft – so I increased the oven temp to 375 F and baked them for 7 minutes and they came out perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
These are so cute! But do you need to chill them first before baking?
No dough chilling!
Thank you for such an awesome recipe! These cookies were so easy and super scrummy!!! I used a gluten-free flour mix and added 1/2 teaspoon of xantham gum and it worked a treat. The first batch I rolled tall and had to pull them out and pat them down, so the second batch I made into discs and they spread perfectly! Love, love, LOVE these cookies!
Hi Alice! Thanks so much for reporting back about these cookies and how you adapted them to be gluten free! That’s so helpful for my gluten intolerant readers. Thank you!
Hi Sally! I tried this recipe and it’s wonderfully yummy. I doubled it, and I got 24 medium sized cookies using my cookie scoop. I put the scooped dough balls in the freezer for 24 hours. I didn’t need to press them down, they cooled to a beautiful thickness, neither flat nor domed. Thanks very much for sharing.