Description
Buttery soft sugar cookies exploding with sprinkles and topped with a simple swirl of vanilla frosting. And more sprinkles.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup (230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar*
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sprinkles, plus more for decor on top of frosting*
Frosting
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 and 1/4 cups (270g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream or half-and-half*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- For the cookies: In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter for about 1 minute on medium speed. Get it nice and smooth, then add the sugar on medium speed and beat until fluffy and light in color. Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 different parts. The dough is quite thick and will be a little crumbly at first. But if you keep mixing, the dough will come together. Once combined, gently beat in the sprinkles on low speed until evenly disbursed. Cover the cookie dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory. Alternatively, you can roll the cookie dough into 1.5 Tablespoon balls and chill on a cookie sheet (covered) and then bake as directed in the next step.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and let sit out at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, allow to sit at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. This makes it easy to handle, while still keeping a firm texture from chilling. Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C) and line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Roll cookie dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough in each ball, and set on cookie sheet– about 8-9 cookies per sheet. Bake in batches for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. The cookies will still appear very soft in the centers. That’s ok; they’ll set up and become firmer as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for 3 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the frosting: In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy – about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Add more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin, more cream if frosting is too thick, or a pinch more of salt if frosting is way too sweet.
- Frost the cooled cookies as desired and decorate with more sprinkles. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator up to 6.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Unfrosted cookies freeze well. Cookies may be rolled into balls and frozen up to 3 months to bake at a later date. No need to thaw frozen balls of dough before baking; simply bake for an extra minute or two. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Cream of Tartar: Used to react with the baking soda; it cannot be left out. If you’re curious about using baking powder instead of baking soda + cream of tartar, I’m unsure of the exact amount needed to properly leaven the cookies. Update 8/2016: It would be about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder.
- Sprinkles: For the cookie dough, avoid using nonpareil sprinkles (the little balls)– they bleed their color. You may decorate the frosting with nonpareils (like I did).
- Cream: Cream or half-and-half is preferred for creamiest, fluffiest frosting. Keeping that in mind, milk would be an OK substitute if you do not have either on hand.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: sprinkle cookies supreme, frosted sprinkle cookies