A wee little leprechaun asked for something sweet on St. Patrick's Day and these Mint Sprinkle Cookies have a surprise green center that makes these tasty sugar cookies extra delicious to eat and perfect a fun and festive celebration.
Just take a bite to find the surprise inside of these cookies!
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Who doesn't like a cookie covered in sprinkles? Actually, anything with sprinkles calls my name, donuts, cupcakes, and candies, I always pick the ones with the colorful toppings. These sweet little butter cookies have something besides the sprinkles on top of the cookie, take one bite to find a surprise middle layer of mint green cookie. Hey, how did that get in there?
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☘️Why we love these cookies
This recipe is kid-friendly, they like rolling the dough into balls and then rolling them in the sprinkles.
These cookies make great treats for school.
The best part about these homemade Sprinkle Cookies is that you can change the colors of the sprinkles on the outside and make the surprise middle layer different colors and flavors. I have a bit of an obsession with these cookies and have made seven different flavors to celebrate the holidays. There are even cookies to celebrate baseball opening day which should be a major holiday in my opinion.
Red Velvet Sprinkle Cookies for you Valentine
Raspberry Sprinkle Cookies that are perfect to put in an Easter basket
Red, White, and Blue Sprinkles Cookies to eat while watching fireworks
Orange and Black Sprinkle Cookies in honor of our beloved San Francisco Giants
Halloween Sprinkle Cookies for the ghosts and goblins
Christmas Sprinkle Cookies for Santa.
In honor of St. Patrick and my husband's family the "Cassidy's" I am baking our favorite cookie that is decked out in the prettiest green and white nonpareil sprinkles. If you are not familiar with nonpareils they are just little round balls made from sugar and starch. I find the nonpareils work better than the jimmie type sprinkles, and they keep their color during baking.
Ready, let's bake cookies!
- Unsalted Butter
- Shortening
- Sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Eggs
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla
- AP Flour
- Mint flavoring
- Green food color
- Green and White nonpareil sprinkles
Sprinkles, color and flavorings
For this recipe, you will need to buy green nonpareils and white nonpareils separately and mix them. It is hard to find the white and green together so I mix them. You need to have enough sprinkles to roll the cookies in, so buying a bottle of each color will be enough. And, you don't have to mix the colors you can make them all white and all green.
Let's make cookies
Step 1. Add the softened butter and shortening to a stand mixer bowl and mix on medium speed to incorporate. then add the sugar, baking, and salt and mix on medium speed. You can also make the dough with a handheld mixer, but you may have to finish the mixing with a wooden spoon.
Step 2. Mix in the egg and the egg yolks on medium speed until combined.
Step 3. Mix in the flour on medium speed until a soft dough forms.
Step 4. After you make the batter, measure out ¾ cup of the batter and put it in a small bowl. Add a few drops of green food coloring and the mint flavoring to this dough, Stir well to combine the color and flavor This dough will be the surprise middle layer.
How to Roll the Dough Balls
Step 5. Put the sprinkles in a large bowl that is big enough to roll the cookie dough balls around.
Step 6. Measure out 1 tablespoon of the plain dough and roll into balls. You should get 25. Then measure out the mint dough with a teaspoon to get 25 balls.
Step 7. Flatten a large ball in your hand then put the green/mint ball inside the flattened dough and then fold up the dough and roll back into a ball. Here is an important part of making these cookies. You have to roll that just-made ball into the sprinkles immediately while the butter in the dough is a bit soft, this way the sprinkles will stick to the cookie dough ball. Make sense?
Step 8. It's now time to bake the cookies. Heat your oven to 375 degrees F. and bake for 10 minutes.
Just checking, but do you have sprinkles all over your floor and countertop? There is just no stopping these little round balls from going everywhere.
Tips for making these mint cookies
- Have plenty of sprinkles to roll the dough balls in.
- Roll the dough balls in the palm of your hands to warm the dough, this way the sprinkles will stick better.
- If the dough is to soft to roll you can add just a bit more flour, like a ⅛ cup. Or you can chill the dough for 10 to 15 minutes just to firm it up before rolling it into balls. I rarely have too soft of dough except when it's blazing hot here.
- These cookies freeze well. After the cookies are baked and cooled place them in a freezer contain for one month.
It depends on the type of sprinkles you use. Mostly nonpareils and jimmies are the sprinkles used in baking. Nonpareil sprinkles don't melt when baked, but sometimes their colors bleed a little. Jimmies, melt slightly but will retain their shapes once cooled.
For sprinkles to stick to a cookie before baking the cookie dough has to be sticky. Make sure to add the sprinkles to the cookie as soon as you roll it, cut it out. or form it into a ball. When the butter or shortening in the dough is still tacky helps the sprinkles stick.
If the dough is covered in a lot of flour, this can also cause the sprinkle not to stick.
More favorite cookies
Recipe
Mint Surprise Inside Cookies
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Cookie Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 egg
- 2 egg, yolks
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 ½ cups AP flour
- 1 tsp. Mint extract
- Green food color
- 4 oz. Green nonpariel sprinkles
- 4 oz. White nonpariel sprinkles
Instructions
Making and Rolling the Cookies
- In a large bowl mix the butter and shortening until fluffy. Then add the sugar, baking powder and salt; mix until combined
- Mix in the egg, egg yolks, and vanilla until combined, scraping sides of the bowl.
- Mix in the flour until combined, forming a soft dough.
- Remove ¾ cup of the dough to a small bowl and add the mint flavoring and the green food color. Note: I just add a few drops of food color until I get the right color. Mix well to combine
Rolling the dough balls
- Measure out 1 tablespoon of the plain dough and roll into 25 balls. Then measure out 1 teaspoon of the mint flavor dough and roll into the same amount of balls as the plain dough.
- Flatten the plain dough ball and place a mint flavored dough ball in the center and mold the dough around it to make a round ball.
- Immediately roll each ball roll in the nonpareil sprinkles and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat rolling and molding each ball.
- Bake for 10 - 11 minutes at 375 degrees.
- Store these cookies in an airtight container for up to five days.
Notes
Nutrition
A delicious cookie for an Irish Afternoon Tea
The tea is ready and the cookies are baked for our afternoon tea and perfect for a St. Patrick's Day dessert.
I will leave you with one of my favorite blessing ~
Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog. Please leave a comment to say Hello or just let me know what you are baking these days, I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Have any questions or just want to chat about the recipe? My contact information is on my about page, and I’ll be happy to help.
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 both sweet and savory family-friendly recipes for your cooking and baking inspiration.
Amy Liu Dong
Sounds like a perfect treat to make for the kids on this St. Patricks's Day.
So delicious!
Kristina
These look and sound delicious for St. Patrick's Day and I'd like to make them for my kids. But I am curious- can I use something in place of the solid vegetable shortening? Thanks!
Rob
These cookies were fun to make, delicious to eat, and a total show stopper! The center mint portion was a fun surprise both in color and flavor.
Jan
These were so much fun to make and a really good talking point at the party I took these too. Thanks
Lathiya
This is such a cute idea to make cookies with hidden color. Sure the kids will love it.
Anindya Sundar Basu
We all love cookies and especially the kids. This one will be so exciting for the kids. Thanks for the recipe
Jacqueline Debono
What great cookies for St Patrick's day. Love the mint flavoured filling and all the green sprinkles!
Jere Cassidy
Thanks, I love the sprinkles too!
Beth
The recipe for these cookies is really quite simple, but you have made such a beautiful presentation with one color of dough inside the other and the festive sprinkles.
Jere Cassidy
This really is a simple recipe, just one dough and two colors.
Deborah
What a sweet idea for Saint Patrick's Day. I love the mint surprise in the middle. I'm sure children would love this! And it's pretty for a tea party, too.
Angela
Perfect cookie for St Patty's Day. I will remember these for Christmas too
Nisha
Such a fun idea to make these mint surprise cookies rolled in sprinkles. I am sure it tastes as awesome as it looks.