How about adding some fun to your holiday celebrations with these awesome Fourth of July Sprinkle Cookies? They’re soft and chewy, with a surprise filling and topped with red, white, and blue sprinkles that everyone loves!
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It’s hot; it’s summer, and it’s time to have fun and be festive with these delicious red, white, and blue cookies. They are perfect for a patriotic treat on the Fourth of July, Memorial Day picnics, or anytime you like.
What’s not to love with this sprinkle cookie recipe? They are tasty, colorful, easy to make, and super kid-friendly. Set them out on a big platter for a festive July party.
There Is A Surprise Inside The Cookie
- The absolute best part of these cookies is the colorful inside filling, which surprises everyone when they bite into them.
- It takes just one extra step to get the colorful cookie layer inside.
- This recipe requires making a lot of cookie dough balls. It’s easy to do!
- I made the center a vibrant red for these cookies and flavored it with almond flavoring.
Cookie Ingredients
These cookies have simple ingredients, are easy to make, and are always a favorite. Seriously, who doesn’t like a cookie covered in sprinkles?
Making this cookie dough is a breeze using everyday baking essentials: all-purpose flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. These common pantry items combine to create a sensational base for your cookies and these extra ingredients.
- Unsalted butter – if you have salted butter, that will work too.
- Almond flavoring – this is used to flavor the red filling.
- Red food coloring – use red for the center filling; you could also use blue food coloring. I prefer to use gel food coloring for these cookies.
- Red, white & blue nonpareil sprinkles.
The sprinkles
There is quite an assortment of sprinkles available these days, but using these red, white, and blue nonpareil sprinkles works best for these cookies. They are just tiny sugar balls covering the cookie nicely and keep their color. Warning: They roll around a lot!
How To Make Sugar Cookies With Sprinkles: Step-By-Step
Making the dough
Step 1. Add the softened butter to a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. You can also use the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
Step 2. Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix on medium speed until combined
Step 3. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla and two egg yolks one at a time, and then add one whole egg and beat until combined.
Step 4. Add the flour to the bowl and mix on low until a soft dough forms.
Step 5. Remove 3/4 cup of the dough and place it in a small bowl. Mix in the 1/2 teaspoon of almond flavoring and a few drops of red food coloring with a spoon.
Cookie Tip
The dough may need some chill time if it is a warm day. Just pop it into the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Making the dough balls
Step 6. With a tablespoon, measure out 25 balls of the plain butter dough and 25 balls of the red dough with a teaspoon. What happens if you only get 23 dough balls? You can make 23 or take some dough from the other balls to make the amount you need.
Step 7. First, place the nonpareil sprinkles in a big bowl or a large plate to roll the balls in.
Step 8. Place one plain dough ball in the palm of your hand, then press down on the ball to flatten it with your fingers.
Step 9. Take one red dough ball and place it on the flattened dough ball. Start forming the plain dough around the colored dough until it is totally covered. Roll the sugar cookie dough between your palms until it is nice and round.
Step 10. Immediately, roll the dough ball into the sprinkles until it is covered. The dough must be sticky from rolling between your hands so the sprinkles will stick. Otherwise, the dough will be too dry, and the sprinkles will fall off.
Step 11. Place all the sprinkle-covered cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 375° F. for 10 minutes.
Step 12. Let the baked cookies cool on a wire rack, then eat and enjoy!
Decorating cookies with sprinkles adds so much color, and these cookies are so festive and make the perfect July 4th cookies and the almond-flavored red middle layer is such a fun surprise.
Baked and ready for your celebration, let the fireworks and cookie fun begin.
Want To Store For Later: Here’s How
- Store the cookies in an air-tight container for several days.
- To freeze the cookies, bake them as directed, let them cool and then store them in a freezer container for three months. When ready, remove from the freezer and let thaw before eating.
More sprinkle cookie recipes
There is more to these cookies than just this red, white and blue batch. These cookies can be made in lots of colors of nonpareil sprinkles, and you can change the color and flavors of the center.
Try these other fun and colorful sprinkle cookies
- The red, white, and green Christmas Sprinkle Cookies are pure holiday fun
- Bake these white and pink Valentine’s Red Velvet Sprinkle Cookies to show how much you love someone.
- The Cassidy family celebrates anything Irish, and these St. Patrick’s Day Mint Sprinkle Cookies have green and white sprinkles with a tangy, minty filling.
- Covered in pastel sprinkles, these Raspberry Cookies look so pretty in Easter baskets.
- Celebrate with the ghosts and goblins with these Halloween Sugar Cookies.
- Do you have a favorite sports team? We always make these Orange and Black Cookies for the San Francisco Giants, our favorite team.
There are so many possibilities and endless colors of sprinkles, so mix and match for your special occasion.
Baking tips
- If the doughs are too sticky to roll in the smaller balls, put them in the fridge for 15 minutes so they can easily be made.
- Word of caution: these sprinkles like to roll out of your bowl and all over your counter, so use a big bowl. I am still cleaning up spilled sprinkles.
- Once you roll both doughs together into one ball, you need to immediately roll the balls in the sprinkles while the dough is still warm and sticky from rolling in your hands; if you don’t do it this way, the sprinkles will not stick to the dough balls.
- The sprinkles I use are called nonpareils and are round sprinkles. The Jimmie-type strand sprinkles can be used, but they don’t look as pretty when baked.
More patriotic desserts for you
- It’s hard to celebrate July 4th without ice cream, am I right? Try this recipe for No-Churn Red, White & Blue Ice Cream Sundaes that is a real crowd-pleaser.
- Everyone loves how easy these 4th of July Sugar Cookie Bars are to make. And the creamy buttercream is pretty luscious. Don’t forget some fun patriotic sprinkles.
- For more baking on the 4th of July, make these Patriotic Red, White, and Blue Thumbprint Cookies for the cutest, bite-sized frosted cookies.
- Kids and adults love these Red, White And Blue Jello Cups with three layers of jello and a cherry for a festive dessert.
- These Fourth Of July Cookies with M&Ms can be ready in under an hour and make a perfect snack for watching fireworks.
More Sprinkle Cookies To Make
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4th of July Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ½ cups AP flour
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- red food color start with one drop
- 4 ounces red, white and blue sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. and prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone liner
- Add the softened butter to a large bowl mix on medium speed until the butter is light and fluffy.
- Add the sugar, baking powder and salt to the bowl and mix on medium speed until combined.
- Mix in the vanilla and add the eggs and egg yolk one at a time until combined, scraping sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour and mix at low speed until the flour is combined and it forms a soft dough.
- Remove 3/4 cup of the dough to a small bowl and add the red food coloring and the almond flavoring. Mix well to incorporate
- If the dough is soft and you can't make the dough balls, you can refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes.
- Measure out 1 tablespoon of the butter dough and make 25 balls with the dough
- Using a teaspoon measure out 25 balls of the red almond-flavored dough into 25 1" balls.
- Flatten the butter-flavored dough ball with your fingers and place a red dough ball in the center and mold the dough around it to make a round ball.
- Immediately roll the ball in the nonpareil sprinkles and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees. When done place the cookies on a cooling rack. Store the cookies in an airtight container for several days.
Notes
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Nutrition
First published: July 06, 2020; last updated: May 13, 2024, for better readability.
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About Jere’
From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing sweet and savory family-friendly recipes for your cooking and baking inspiration.
Sprinkle cookies are such a fun, classic, cookie recipe! I love how festive these cookies are.
These were such a hit at my Memorial day cookout! Super easy to make and so festive.
These are so festive! How fun – I love the colours, they just make me smile so much!
What a wonderful, colorful, and delicious cookie! Have already made and tasted them (couldn’t wait)! 😀 Delicious! Thank you!
I can’t wait to make these for Memorial Day Weekend!
These look so fun for the holidays!
What a tasty and fun recipe! I love how colourful they are and easy to make too. Thanks for sharing!
This cookie is so fun to make and those colors definitely attract kids. I’m sure I will be making this with my kids.
These are a lovely recipe to make with the kids, they are so pretty! I don’t think they would last long!
These gorgeous cookies are the perfect little bites for a 4th of July picnic. It would be so much fun to make with the kids!
I love sprinkle cookies! They are just the perfect, classic cookie in my opinion! I love how festive these are as well!
Thank you, I love sprinkles too!
These cookies are just so fun and festive! I love the red white and blue and the surprise inside!
What a great recipe to take to a 4th of July gathering. They look so fun to make.
These cookies look so beautiful. The red blue sprinklers are adding so much beauty and the texture of the cookies looks awesome. My kids would love this.