These soft, chewy, and sprinkle loaded drop style Christmas sugar cookies are made with only 8 ingredients. No rolling pin or cookie cutters required!
Ditch the rolling pin, toss the cookie cutters, and break out the mixer because today we’re making drop sugar cookies with Christmas sprinkles. These soft-baked cookies are perfect if you want SIMPLE and EASY sugar cookies. (Don’t we all? But don’t worry, we still love you too, sugar cookies!)
Cookie Chemistry
These drop style Christmas sugar cookies are based off of a recipe that’s already published on my blog: Soft-Baked Sprinkle Sugar Cookies. These chewy sugar cookies have always been a favorite, but I often receive questions about the leaveners used. The recipe calls for baking soda and cream of tartar. Let’s work on some cookie chemistry together:
- Give my article about baking soda vs baking powder a read. As you learn, recipes calling for baking soda must also contain an acid such as sour cream, brown sugar, or buttermilk. The acid reacts with the baking soda to create carbon dioxide, which allows the cookies to rise. Cream of tartar is our acid. I use it because it’s mostly flavorless. It also doesn’t change the texture of the sugar cookies. Baking powder already contains an acid so it doesn’t require any special ingredients.
I decided to rework the recipe and use baking powder instead of baking soda/cream of tartar. When testing cookie recipes, one problem I always face is finding the right amount of leavener. Using too much baking powder leaves a bitter aftertaste. (Which was my problem a few years ago.) Good rule of thumb I learned: use around 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 1 cup of flour. Today you’ll use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour.
Science is delicious.
How to Make Drop Style Christmas Sugar Cookies
These are my drop sugar cookies, but with Christmas sprinkles. The process is super straightforward. Dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another. Sugar cookies get all of their flavor from butter and vanilla, so make sure you’re using the correct forms of each. Unsalted butter is preferred (here’s more on salted butter vs unsalted butter, if you’re curious!) and pure vanilla extract is best. Homemade vanilla extract would be fantastic in these cookies.
Chilling the cookie dough is imperative. These cookies are very buttery and the colder the cookie dough, the less your sugar cookies will over-spread. The cookie dough can get a little hard after 2 hours in the refrigerator, so I recommend rolling the dough into balls before chilling. Here are all of my tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading.
Other good stuff:
- ONLY 8 INGREDIENTS. The usual suspects: flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, butter, egg, sugar, sprinkles. That’s it. Nothing complicated or strange.
- EASILY DOUBLED. This recipe yields about 20 sugar cookies. You can easily double the recipe if you need a larger batch for a big family or cookie exchanges.
- EXTRA SPRINKLES. There’s room for a mountain of sprinkles in this cookie dough. I even recommend dipping the tops of the cookie dough balls directly in more sprinkles. That’s optional, but rumor has it Santa Claus loves extra sprinkles.
So soft, chewy, holly, and jolly.
These drop sugar cookies will be a new staple in your cookie repertoire! You might also love my Christmas Cookie Sparkles, which have the most unbelievably unique tangy flavor. Or my Brown Butter Sugar Cookies with a nutty caramelized flavor. All very easy and perfect for your Christmas cookie trays, alongside your traditional Christmas sugar cookies, of course!
What is Sally’s Cookie Palooza?
Sally’s Cookie Palooza is a tradition since 2013. Every December we countdown to Christmas with 10 new cookie recipes in a row. Over the next two weeks, I’m publishing 10 brand new cookie recipes as well as giveaways, the December Baking Challenge, Christmas cookie video tutorials, and so much more. This is the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Sign up for instant updates and you’ll receive a free email alert whenever I publish a new recipe. 🙂
Click to see Sally’s Cookie Palooza over the years!
Print
Drop Style Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft, chewy, and sprinkle loaded drop style Christmas sugar cookies are made with only 8 ingredients. No rolling pin or cookie cutters required! Make sure you chill the cookie dough for at least 2 hours before baking.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles, plus more for topping*
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Beat in 1/2 cup of sprinkles. Dough will be thick and sticky. Scoop large sections of dough (about 2 Tablespoons of dough each) and roll into balls. For extra sprinkle goodness, lightly dip the tops of the cookie dough balls in more sprinkles. Place dough balls onto a large plate or lined baking sheet.
- Cover and chill the cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (and up to 4 days).
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Arrange chilled cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough, roll into balls, and chill the dough balls in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. (See note about cookie dough chilling.) Cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- Sprinkles: Any sprinkles are great, but I recommend avoiding nonpareils (the little balls) as they tend to bleed their color in cookie dough and cake batter.
- Dough Chilling: Chilling the cookie dough is imperative. These cookies are very buttery and the colder the cookie dough, the less your sugar cookies will over-spread. The cookie dough can get a little hard after 2 hours in the refrigerator, so I recommend rolling the dough into balls before chilling. Here are all of my tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally,
Can you add white chocolate chips to these?
Absolutely! You can add 1 cup of white chocolate chips.
I froze them for 10 min instead of refrigerating for 2 hours and they still came out PERFECT!!!
I need to make sugar cookie dough in mini muffins tins. Any thoughts on if this dough work for that or should I use your cakey sugar cookie dough?
Hi Ashley, this dough should work for that! We’re unsure of the exact baking time, but keep a close eye on them. Let us know how they turn out for you!
Hi, I only have egg yolks (no whites) would this recipe still work?
I’m getting a head start of making my Christmas cookie boxes this year and baked a double batch of these today. I used a medium sized cookie scoop which gave me 30 cookies. They chilled in the fridge for 4hrs before baking. I always bake one single cookie first (just in case something goes wrong) and the cookie came out very puffy and did not drop after cooling. I wanted flatter cookies so for the subsequent batches I set the dough on the counter for 15 minutes before baking and that did the trick! The rest of the cookies came out much flatter just to my liking. I’m very pleased with how these turned out and I’ll now I’ll freeze them until closer to Christmas
Hi Sally. I followed all
your instructions to a tee including shaping tall balls.
the cookies still
came out fairly thin…?
Hi Minal, here are all of our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading. Hope this helps!
I made 100+ of these sugar cookies for Christmas last year and they quickly became everyone’s favorite sugar cookies! Now here I am in May with a batch in the oven and dough in the freezer! Lol. Great recipe! Thanks so much!
Another great recipe! These were gone in no time, my family loved them!
I I made the drop style Christmas sugar cookies and they were very tasty however, they were, I guess I would describe them as puffy. The pictures here show them as flatter.. Any ideas why?
Hi Chris, If the cookies didn’t spread enough, there may have been too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about measuring flour in this post about properly measuring baking ingredients.
I’ve made these cookies twice now and the same thing happened to me with my second batch. My first batch looked just like the pictures, and I chilled the dough for a few hours before baking. With my second batch, I chilled the dough for about two and a half days and they came out puffy after baking. I weighed all my ingredients both times and both batches were made exactly the same.
The absolute best sugar cookies! Easy to make and delicious. I will never make any other sugar cookies!
I made these for my son’s end of year school celebration where the whole class brought in food. My son said these were a hit and the most popular treat in the class! They tasted and looked great, I’ll definitely be making them again
I have NO allspice..is there a substitute spice?
Hi Joan! This recipe doesn’t call for allspice, but usually you can just leave it out or replace with another spice you enjoy.
Hello! Would these still bake the same if I used a cookie cutter opposed to making balls?
Hi BWalk, this dough will spread too much for cookie cutters. You could add sprinkles to our cut-out sugar cookie dough instead.
Can M&Ms be used in these cookies instead of sprinkles?
Definitely! You can also use m&ms in our chocolate chip cookies instead of chocolate chips.
Is it powdered sugar or the scratchy sugar?
Hi Emily, this recipe calls for granulated sugar, not powdered.
Do these need to be chilled?
Yes, otherwise they will spread too much when baked.
Past… If you use chilled butter (just make sure to beat it thoroughly with the sugar to avoid lumps) and don’t use too little flour, you can totally skip the chilling step. Just use butter and eggs straight out of the fridge, mix up as directed, scoop onto cookie trays and get them right into the oven. The cookies turn out just fine, without needing to plan ahead or find a ton of fridge space.
Is there a way to cut this in half, with just the egg yolk or weighing the egg and cut that in half?
Hi Funmi, our general rule for halving an egg is to crack it open, beat the yolk and white together with a fork, measure the volume (should be a few Tbsp), then use half.
I made these for Christmas and they were amazing. Could I make these bigger and bake a little longer?
Hi Emily, absolutely! Bake time will vary depending on exact size. Keep a close eye on them.
Great recipe! I tried my first experiment as a beginner baker. Since it was New Year’s Eve, I threw in a little extra flour and 3/4 cup of Jameson Orange. SO DELICIOUS!
Hi Sally,
My friend made this me this recipe for me and it was great. Is it possible to use a gas oven. If possible, how long do the cookies need to be baked?.
Hi Steve, we’re glad you loved the cookies! We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
These are delicious and they look great too! Will be a new baking favourite for sure!
Last minute Christmas baking and needed an easy cookie to add to the traditional rolled cookies – these were super easy and delicious. I prefer them with all the sprinkles mixed in which give them a bit more of a muted finished effect. Will be making these for birthdays and Halloween etc. going forward. Sprinkles are fun!
Hi, I was wondering if I can roll the dough in sanding sugar and skip the sprinkles incorporated in the batter?
Hi Stephanie, You may enjoy our Christmas Cookie Sparkles recipe!
Hi Sally,
Love all your recipes! Thank you so much. I’m wondering if the type of sprinkle matters here? Will using nonpareils instead of jimmies change the texture?
Thanks!
Hi Alex, we usually prefer jimmies or quins, but we did use a small handful of nonpareils in this dough, too. Sometimes they can bleed their colors more than other sprinkles, so just keep that in mind!
Can I make these and freeze them?
Hi Stephanie, Yes absolutely.