Yay! These are soft, chewy, sprinkle loaded drop sugar cookies made from only 8 ingredients. No rolling pin or cookie cutters required! To prevent over-spreading, make sure you chill the cookie dough balls for at least 2 hours before baking.
We all know and love sugar cookies. Rolling pin, cookie cutters, decorating galore. It’s all so much fun, especially around the holidays.
Drop Sugar Cookies
But what about sugar cookies of the *other* variety? Roll the cookie dough into balls and bake them drop-style. No fancy equipment or knowledge of how to decorate sugar cookies required, unless you consider the mountain of sprinkles on top. (Is it even a sugar cookie if there’s no sprinkles?)
Today let’s ditch the rolling pin, toss the cookie cutters, and break out our mixers because it’s time to for drop style sprinkle sugar cookies. These buttery cookies are soft-baked, simple, and mega chewy. I can’t wait for you to try them!!
Video Tutorial
Cookie Chemistry
These drop style sugar cookies are based off of a familiar recipe: Soft-Baked Sprinkle Sugar Cookies. They’ve always been a favorite, but I often receive questions about the leaveners used. When testing cookie recipes, one problem I always face is finding the right amount of leavener. That recipe calls for baking soda and cream of tartar.
If you’re interested, it’s helpful to read my baking soda vs baking powder article. As you’ll learn, recipes calling for baking soda must also contain an acid such as sour cream, brown sugar, cream of tartar, or buttermilk. The acid reacts with the baking soda to create carbon dioxide, which allows the cookies to rise. In that recipe, I use cream of tartar because it’s mostly flavorless and doesn’t change the texture of the sugar cookies.
I reworked the recipe. Now I use baking powder instead of the baking soda/cream of tartar combination. (Baking powder already contains an acid so it doesn’t require any special ingredients.) Using too much baking powder leaves a bitter aftertaste, which was my problem a few years ago. Good rule of thumb I’ve learned since then: 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 definitely delicious.
How to Make Drop Sugar Cookies
You only need 8 ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, butter, egg, sugar, and sprinkles. That’s it! For extra flavor, feel free to add a splash of almond extract.
Preparing the cookie dough is easy. Whisk dry ingredients in one bowl and beat wet ingredients in another. Combine everything together. Sugar cookies get all of their flavor from butter and vanilla extract, so make sure you’re following the recipe closely. Proper room temperature butter is imperative.
Chilling the cookie dough is another non-negotiable. These drop sugar cookies are very buttery and the colder the cookie dough, the less they’ll 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 more tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading.
*Extras*
- Easily Double the Recipe: This recipe yields about 15 medium cookies. You can double the recipe if you need a larger batch for a birthday party, bake sale, or other event.
- Extra Sprinkles: We’re definitely testing the limits on “how many sprinkles is too many sprinkles?” here. You can skip the sprinkles or load them up like I do. I also like to dip the tops of the cookie dough balls into sprinkles before chilling/baking.
These drop sugar cookies will be a new staple in your cookie rotation, right next to your chocolate chip cookies! If you’re looking to use your cookie cutters, try my best sugar cookies instead.
Drop Style Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 15 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You can make these soft, chewy, sprinkle loaded drop style sugar cookies 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/40g 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. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months.
- 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. I used these naturally colored sprinkles in the pictured cookies. If desired, you can leave out the sprinkles for plain drop sugar cookies.
- 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 to prevent cookies from over-spreading.
Reader Comments and Reviews
yay good
Some people might think this is more hassle than it’s worth, but I was a little worried about portioning out the dough balls while it was still so sticky, so I ended up chilling the dough for an hour, making the balls, and then chilling those overnight. It worked well for me, so I’ll probably do it the same way next time
SO good! This is the second Sally’s recipe I’ve tried, on a whim, and it was another hit. I brought a plate of these to a gathering, and I had no leftovers to take him. Perfectly sweet and soft, and I love the sprinkles. I followed her rec and dipped the chilled dough in some more, for the top, before baking. Followed the recipe exactly and weighed all my measurements. Will absolutely make again!
I’ve made these multiple times. I was on call at Xmas time and had to be close to my computer for a week or so and was bored and found this recipe and I happened to have everything. They are so so good. I didn’t chill mine before baking and they’ve never over spread. I must just get lucky. I recommend these to everyone
I love this recipe, its always a favorite. I have an event coming up and want to use this recipe to make mini/bite size cookies (a little larger than a quarter). How long would you recommend I bake the mini cookies for?
Hi SN! You can reference this mini cookies post for details on making mini cookies.
I doubled the recipe, used a 1 TBL scoop made 67 cookies, a little larger than a quarter- closer to half dollar. I baked for 10 minute and let rest for 3 minutes. They turned out perfect.
Hope that helps
I made this recipe in a time crunch so I only chilled them for about 1.5 hours. The cookies still came out super good! They were more on the cakey side because I made the balls a little too big. Because they were bigger I baked them for 15min and they were yummy!
Can I double the recipe to make 2 batches, or should each batch be made separately?
Hi Tina, you can double this recipe. Enjoy!
I doubled the recipe because I thought I would get 30 -40g cookies but I only got 27. The measurements are still off but they are good cookies. Next time I’ll triple the recipe. I measured in grams
Hi R, this recipe makes 15 large cookies that are about 40g each. So if you double the recipe, you should get about 30 cookies. Are you saying that you weighed each dough ball at 40g but only got 27 cookies?
I made these with my son, and we both loved them. I did half brown sugar and half white sugar because that’s what we had on hand, and they were so tasty.
Wow! Made these cookies last night and they are delicious. I added a tsp of cake batter flavor, and they came out like cake batter cookies without the fuss of using cake batter. They were also so easy I think I will learn the recipe by heart and teach my sons how to make them. A+
These cookies came out so tasty. I added almond extract to the dough. It made the cookies taste fruity. I can always depend on you to have the best recipes.
These were so delicious! Instead of using jimmy type sprinkles I used sugar sprinkles to dye the dough. I doubled the recipe and did one batch with red sprinkles to turn the dough pink and one batch with green sprinkles and I made wicked themed cookies for a wicked party for my 8 year old daughter. These were absolutely perfect and I had a few of the parents tell me that they were the best sugar cookies they’ve ever had!
Wonderful! These turned out very much like the puffy cookies at walmart. But with far less chemicals. Great recipe!