These confetti cookies, aka funfetti sugar cookies, take us straight back to the bakery-bought sugar cookies of our childhood because if we were well-behaved while mom ran errands, we could choose our own sugar cookie. Seriously, these soft, chewy, easy funfetti or confetti cookies are just like the ginormous sugar cookies Mom would buy us—the ones that were smothered in sprinkles, natch. Many thanks, Joy the Baker.Renee Schettler Rossi

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A stack of confetti cookies.

Confetti Cookies

4.59 / 12 votes
These confetti cookies are made from a funfetti sugar cookie recipe that turns out soft, chewy, easy-to-make sugar cookies. We consider them to be the best ever thanks to their ability to instantly transport us to the bakeries of our childhoods.
David Leite
CourseDessert
CuisineAmerican
Servings18 to 24 cookies
Calories149 kcal
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time3 hours 5 minutes
Total Time3 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients 

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup sprinkles, (I prefer jimmies over nonpareils)

Instructions 

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat on medium until thoroughly combined.
  • Reduce the mixer speed to low, and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. The dough will be sticky and thick and you may have to finish incorporating the mixture with a spatula. Fold in 1/4 cup sprinkles.
  • Put the remaining 1/2 cup sprinkles in a bowl. Scoop up 2 tablespoons dough and roll it into a ball. Dip the ball into the bowl of sprinkles to cover lightly and then place the ball on a plate. Repeat with the remaining dough and sprinkles and chill for at least 2 hours.
  • Adjust your oven racks to the center and upper third positions and preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Transfer the chilled dough balls—which will be hard as hockey pucks—to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between them.
  • Bake until the cookies have spread and are just beginning to brown around the edges, but are mostly pale and soft, 8 to 16 minutes, depending on the precise heat of the oven and chill of the dough.
  • Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to wire racks to cool completely. The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Homemade Decadence Cookbook

Adapted From

Joy the Baker Homemade Decadence

Buy On Amazon

Nutrition

Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 149 kcalCarbohydrates: 23 gProtein: 1 gFat: 6 gSaturated Fat: 4 gMonounsaturated Fat: 1 gTrans Fat: 1 gCholesterol: 24 mgSodium: 100 mgFiber: 1 gSugar: 14 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe?Mention @leitesculinaria or tag #leitesculinaria!
Recipe © 2014 Joy Wilson. Photo © 2014 Jon Melendez. All rights reserved.

Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Yes! I’ve found the confetti cookies recipe I’ll be using to make sugar cookies for everyone this year. Depending on the color of the jimmies you use, these confetti cookies are suitable for every holiday you could imagine. They are beautiful and delicious. My son watched as I pulled them out of the oven and announced that they were “happy cookies!”

These made 21 one-ounce dough balls. Don’t ignore the author’s instructions to put the racks in the center and upper third of your oven. If you use the lower third, the bottom of the cookies will burn. Watch them carefully—8 minutes was the perfect amount of time in my oven.

This confetti cookies recipe was delicious. I had to take the cookies away from my boyfriend because he said that he would eat the whole batch. They tasted like a bakery cookie—one with depth of flavor and a delicate crumb. And they looked pretty to boot! The dough took roughly 20 minutes from start to fridge, and it was easy to work with.

I’ve never used a vanilla bean before but liked how it added a homey taste to this cookie. The batch made only 13 cookies and they had to bake for 12 minutes. Perhaps my 2 tablespoon scoop was larger than the recipe creators? All in all, I loved this cookie and will make it again and again! I made them for Halloween with Halloween colored sprinkles; I will make them again for other occasions. YUM!

These confetti cookies were some of the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had. The vanilla was almost assertive but in a totally good way. Even with the strong vanilla flavor, the butter came through loud and clear. The sprinkles added a nice crunch and a pretty pop of color.

We actually managed to make the cookies last a few days and they were as good on the third day as they were fresh from the oven. My husband reports that the dough was, “‘da vanilla bomb.” (His words.) In all seriousness, he and my son said the dough was perfect for sampling. I’m not a cookie dough eater—I know, I’m in the minority—so I can’t weigh in on that point. The cookies were a tiny bit sweet. I meant to bake a few without the roll in sprinkles, but I forgot. I also might like to try them with no sprinkles at all as a vanilla sugar cookie.

The cookies were pretty flat yet still soft and chewy. I was afraid they would be crunchy since they got so flat, but they weren’t. Personally, I would have liked the cookies to be just a tiny bit less flat. I chilled the cookie balls for the specified minimum 2 hours. I think I will chill them longer, or even freeze them, if I make them again. I used my cookie scoop that was closest to 2 tablespoons. The dough was sticky and the scoop was the easiest way to portion out the cookies. My cookies took 10 minutes to bake fully. I switched the pans top to bottom after 5 minutes. At 8 minutes when I checked them they were still liquidy in the middle, but at 10 they were just beginning to brown on the edges and were mostly set in the middle.

Bright, colorful, and yummy, this confetti cookies recipe is a definite crowd pleaser among the kids. Very easy to put together ahead of time and bake at the last minute.

I needed just about the entire 6.25-ounce bottle confetti sprinkles in order to coat all the cookies. The dough was rather wet and difficult to roll into a ball, so I just dropped it by the spoonful into the sprinkles and was able to roll them into a ball once they were coated in sprinkles. I tried to get by with only one cookie sheet which I now regret. The cookie balls spread significantly and need at least 2 inches spacing, if not a little more. The timing was 14 minutes to get a tad bit of golden brown around the edges. Fun recipe to try with your kids!

The title of this confetti cookies recipe made me think of the sprinkle sugar cookies in my local bake shop—you know, the ones that are crumbly when you bite into them and send sprinkles flying through the air and disintegrate if you squeeze them too hard. These confetti cookies are not those. But these are delicious, pretty little sugar cookies that have a bit of crunch and a bit of chewiness and lots of color. I love that there are sprinkles inside and out.

The ones in my local bake shop only have sprinkles on the outside. And these are easy to put together—some 20 minutes of hands-on time plus chilling and baking make these ready in just over 2 1/2 hours. These would be a great cookie to prep a day in advance, refrigerate, and pop in the oven when you want your house to smell great. If you bake regularly, you already have all the ingredients. I like to make consistently sized cookies, so I used a small scoop (my scoop says 402) and divided my dough into 18 balls before rolling them into the sprinkles. After 8 minutes I had raw dough. These required approximately 16 minutes in the oven before they actually appeared baked, though they remained pale and soft as indicated in the directions.

As for keeping them 4 days, sorry, I couldn’t really test that as my husband brought them to work and watched them disappear in minutes. These confetti cookies look different than any cookies in my repertoire and yet they are simple to put together. They would enhance any cookie platter and I think you could play with sprinkle colors for different holidays. And unlike the cookies from my bake shop, the sprinkles don’t fall off these as you eat them. A perfect addition to my baking repertoire.




About David Leite

I count myself lucky to have received three James Beard Awards for my writing as well as for Leite’s Culinaria. My work has also appeared in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Yankee, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and more.


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Recipe Rating




16 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I am in heaven. My favorite sugar cookie in the world is one I’ve eaten most of my life from a local baker—a melt-in-your-mouth confetti cookie rolled in colorful and crunchy sprinkles. My husband thinks it’s hilarious that I love these confetti cookies because they look like something a young child would lock eyes on and order from the bakery case. I’ve never found a sugar cookie recipe that even comes close to my favorite cookie until today. This recipe is it—a perfect make-at-home sugar cookie recipe! These confetti cookies have just the right amount of sweetness, are buttery, are crunchy on the outside and a little chewy in the middle, have a little pucker from the cream of tarter, and a lot of crunch from the oodles of sprinkles woven throughout. They would be a lot of fun to make with kids, but I have no shame in saying I’ll be making them for myself often. I didn’t have a vanilla bean, but substituted 2 teaspoons of vanilla paste (has the pod flecks in it) in place of the 1 teaspoon scraped vanilla and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Once the dough balls have been in the fridge for 2 hours, they are pretty much hockey pucks. I didn’t realize from the confetti cookies recipe that they would be so hard, and my inclination was to smash them down a little bit before baking. They will be solid, but that they will bake down into perfectly round cookies. I have a convection oven, and did bake two sheets at once. The bottom sheet baked more quickly at 12 minutes, and once I took it out, the top sheet baked for another 2 minutes until the cookies were cooked through (doughy right in the center of the cookie up until that time.) This is one of the best cookie recipes I’ve ever made, and I have made many cookies. Kids and adults alike would love these, and they are perfect for the holidays (just change out the color of the sprinkles.) I chose to use the sugar sprinkles that are the shape of jimmies, rather than jimmies. I love how they crunch and melt in your mouth when you eat the cookie.

  2. 5 stars
    I made these as part of a housewarming gift basket and they’re so festive and pretty! I LOVE sprinkles. In fact, I just had some on my pumpkin spice Cheerios (with cream lol). Something about the texture of these cookies with the sprinkles being on the inside as well as the outside was quite pleasing. Will be making these regularly. I’ll dip them in cream.

    Confetti Cookies

    1. Hah! Lovely, Christina, on all counts! Greatly appreciate you taking the time to let us know how perfectly sprinkles suit your palate.

  3. 5 stars
    I rarely end up genuinely loving the flavor of cutesy desserts, but these cookies are an exception. These were fantastic – absolutely perfect texture for a sugar cookie, crispy edges and chewy centers with a crackly top. The dough is fairly sticky before chilling, which makes it good for adhering to the sprinkles. I used a scoop for these that was 7/8 oz, a little less than the 2 tbsp called for in the recipe, and I got 30 cookies. I was on a time crunch, so I froze them for about 30 minutes and then refrigerated for another 30. They were very stiff after chilling, which is probably key to the cookie’s texture. I took them out of the oven before the edges were brown, but they were clearly “set up”. They cooled into the perfectly chewy cookie.

    I didn’t have a vanilla bean, so I used 2 tsp extract. In the future I’d up that to a full tablespoon, or possibly add some other flavoring like lemon zest.

    One last note – I ran out of sprinkles for coating the last two cookies and baked them alongside the sprinkled cookies. They baked much faster and were overdone by the time the sprinkles were finished, so be forewarned.

    1. Avi, first off, we’re so glad you love these as much as we do! And many, many kind thanks for taking the time to share your tricks and tactics. Love it. And hadn’t anticipated the cookies baking more quickly without the sprinkles, greatly appreciate the heads up on that front. Looking forward to hearing which recipe from the site you tackle next…