These chocolate sprinkle cookies are incredibly morish. From the soft, tender and almost fudgy cookie to the crispy outside and the perfect balance of sweet and salty, they just keep you wanting more.
- Thick and soft inside with a crunchy exterior.
- Intense chocolate flavour.
- Ready in under 30 minutes and so easy!
- No special equipment required.
- Freezer friendly for a quick fix!
- NO chilling! Woohoo.
As you bite into one of these babies, the crunch from the generous sprinkle coating gives way to soft ultra-chocolatey cookie. If you’re like me, you’ll love that texture, then you’ll get the punch of chocolate flavour, followed by just a touch of salt so that, even coated with all those sprinkles, these aren’t ridiculously sweet.
It all just works together in perfect cookie harmony and the fact that they take minutes to make just sweetens the deal even more. These are adapted from my chocolate marshmallow cookies and I could eat both forever and ever!
This recipe was first published here on April 5th, 2018. It has been updated with new images and more information.
Ingredients you’ll need
Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
All your cookie regulars are here in these easy sprinkle cookies:
- Unsalted butter for flavour and richness.
- Plain flour (aka all-purpose) for body and texture.
- White and brown sugar for sweetness and texture.
- Baking soda for rise, texture and spread.
- Egg for richness.
- Dutch processed cocoa powder for smooth, chocolate flavour and colour.
- Pure vanilla extract and salt both work to enhance the chocolate flavour.
- And sprinkles – lots’a sprinkles. I use what we call here in Aus, 100’s and 1000’s which are rainbow colour nonpareils. I also made half with some chocolate sprinkles (Queen brand choco flakes) and these cookies are equally amazing with both.
You can use any sprinkles you desire, though smaller styles work best. You can even colour co-ordinate them to any celebration. So fun!
How to make sprinkle cookies (step-by-step)
If all that flavour and texture talk didn’t quite get you in the kitchen yet, how about the fact they can be ready in less than 30 minutes and they’re freezer-friendly (so you can have them ready to go at a moments notice). Oh and you don’t need any special equipment.
Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Dry ingredients: We start by sifting, then whisking together all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl (photo 1).
- Wet ingredients: Now in a large bowl, whisk together melted butter and sugar, followed by egg and vanilla (photo 2).
- Combine them: Now add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir it together to a very soft dough (photo 3).
- Rest: Resting the dough for just 10 minutes allows it to firm up enough to roll.
- Shape and coat: I use a small cookie scoop (photo 4) (which is just shy of 1 ½ tablespoons) to take scoops of dough. Drop those, rounded side down, into the sprinkles and coat all over the top well.
- Bake: Space them out on a baking tray (photo 5) and bake them for 8-9 minutes.
No stand mixer, no electric mixer, just a simple mixing bowl, whisk and spatula are all you need! You have to love that.
Tips and tricks
- Whisk the dry ingredients: Whisking the dry ingredients make sure they’re all well dispersed, not lumpy and a little aerated too.
- You can freeze the dough: Make the dough and scoop it then sit on a baking tray. Place the tray in the freezer until the dough balls are solid, then transfer them to an airtight container. Cookie dough ready to go. They’ll defrost fairly quickly at room temperature or in the fridge overnight, then coat in sprinkles and bake when ready.
- Reshaping: Sometimes cookies can fall a little out of shape or flatten out more than you’d like in the oven. My favourite tip is to take a cookie cutter, slightly larger than the baked cookie and swirl it around the still hot cookie. It gives them a perfectly circlular shape and actually thickens the cookie up too.
FAQs
Sprinkle cookies are cookies that are either filled with candy sprinkles (throughout the dough) or encrusted with sprinkles like these chocolate sprinkle cookies.
It’s more than ok, it’s fantastic. Some cheaper quality sprinkles may lose colour as they bake so get some good quality or a well-known brand but yes, you can put them on before baking.
The sprinkles stay on these cookies purely by sticking to the wet dough before they’re baked. Sometimes, baked cookies are coated in chocolate and then dunked in sprinkles so when the chocolate sets again, they’re stuck on.
With these cookies, the sprinkles go on the unbaked cookies. The sprinkles won’t melt.
When the sprinkles or nonpareils are encrusting the cookie like these ones, moisture as they thaw can cause the sprinkles to lose their colour. If you thaw them in the refrigerator, you may have more luck but they are best not coated until thawed.
Yield and storage
This recipe makes 25 cookies and since both the dough and the baked cookies can be frozen, you can have some now and keep some for later.
Make sure the cookies are completely cool before storing, then transfer to an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to a week.
Freeze the baked cookies or the scooped dough (without the sprinkles) for up to 3 months.
If you do want to freeze them with the sprinkles, make sure to thaw them in the fridge overnight or the extreme change in temperature may cause steam and make the colour dissolve right off those sprinkles.
Perfect for a birthday party, Christmas or just anytime treats, these chocolate sprinkle cookies will be loved by all!
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Ingredients
- 113 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (1 stick / ½ cup / 4oz)
- 165 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (1 ¼ cups / 5.8oz)
- 55 g dutch processed cocoa powder (½ cup / 2oz)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda (bicarb soda)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar (135g / 4.8oz)
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar (50g / 1.8oz)
- 1 large egg, room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup 100’s and 1000’s or chocolate sprinkles (or any small sprinkles)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Flexible spatula
Instructions
- Make sure the butter is melted and set aside to cool a bit.
- Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan) / 350F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add both the sugars to the melted butter and whisk (using a balloon whisk) until well combined.
- Add the egg and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and fold it in with a spatula until just combined.
- Let the dough sit for 10 minutes before proceeding (this makes it easier to handle and helps the cookies keep their shape).
- Take roughly 1 ½ tablespoons of the dough, roll it into a ball (or use a small cookie scoop and there's no need to roll).
- Roll the tops of the cookie dough balls into the sprinkles (no need to coat the bottom but you can if you like) and place on the prepared baking sheet, keeping them about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes.
- Optional but recommended: As soon as you take the trays out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter, just slightly larger than the cookie, and swirl it around the cookie. This will make them perfectly round and also thicken them slightly.
- Allow them to cool on the trays for 10-15 minutes until you can move them to a wire rack without them breaking, to cool completely. Once cool, they will firm up.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Size: You can make slightly larger cookies using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop and they’ll take around 9-10 minutes. You’ll get about 19 per batch.
- Freezing: Both the dough (without the sprinkles) and the baked cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw the dough in the fridge overnight or at room temp for 30 minutes before coating in sprinkles an baking.
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
- All ovens vary: What takes 9 minutes in my oven may take 8 or 10 in yours. I always recommend keeping an oven thermometer inside your oven to check the temperature you set is the actual temperature inside.
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9 Comments on “Chocolate Sprinkle Cookies”
These are tasty and easy. I didn’t have enough cocoa powder so I melted some dark chocolate with the butter, they turned out great! We used Christmas sprinkles for our holiday cookie plate.
Great tip, Sam. So happy you love them.
OMG, these are outstanding! I added about a teaspoon of espresso powder to deepen the flavor. Don’t overbake!
So happy you love them, Jennifer.
These are silly easy and SO good. Bringing them into work tomorrow for a Pride-themed event, and I’m so excited! Will definitely be making these again and again.
I’m so happy to hear this, Allison. I love these too. Now I’m imagining doing them for pride month next year with a rainbow sprinkle pattern!
Have made these biscuits many times, they are my granddaughters favourites and very yummy
Thank you so much, Elaine. I’m so happy to hear this 🙂
Thanks for trying my recipe Naomi. So happy you love it.