Gluten-Free Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

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Gluten-Free Sprinkle Sugar Cookies – Soft gluten-free sugar cookies with sprinkles are so cute! They’re perfect for celebrating holidays, birthdays, and special occasions.

Gluten-free sprinkle sugar cookies stacked on top of each other. One has a bite taken out, revealing a soft gluten-free sugar cookie center

I’m a big reader, and one of my favorite books from the last few year’s is Ingrid Fetell Lee’s book Joyful, in which she examines the ways ordinary things in our environment (color, design, shapes, elements, etc.) makes us happy. I love that her book looks at examples like colorful buildings and their ability to shape a neighborhood or city, or clothing that’s beautiful and functional, and even things as simple as the fact that humans love to see circles and repeated items.

It makes sense when you think about it–bubbles, gumballs in a jar, balloons, cookies lined up in a display, happy colored fingernails, confetti, sprinkles, etc. All so happy right? Well you know what can give you a double-dose of joy today? Sprinkle Cookies!

These gluten-free sprinkle sugar cookies are as delicious as they are joyful and charming. Their happy colorful look along with their gorgeous texture and signature flavor make them an absolute joy to make and eat.

These gluten-free funfetti cookies look fun and festive anytime, whether you’re dressing them up for a holiday or making them on a Monday. I love that they look a little more fun and fancy, but they’re INCREDIBLY easy to make. Like, it’s almost silly.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these soft gluten-free sugar cookies with sprinkles…

Overhead view of colorful gluten-free sprinkle sugar cookies on a white ruffled plate

Ingredients You’ll Need To Make GLuten-Free Sugar Cookies With Sprinkles:

  • Softened Butter. The base of these cookies is a basic sugar cookie dough. For this, we’ll start with butter which lends beautiful soft texture and flavor, along with some…
  • Sugar. Together, then sugar and butter will get creamed to be light and fluffy. It makes a perfect blank canvas for color (sprinkles) and flavor (coming right up!).
  • Eggs. To bind the ingredients together and give you those nice slightly chewy edges with soft middles.
  • Vanilla. Enter: flavor! Use the best-tasting vanilla you can, as most birthday cake cookies, funfetti cookies, and sprinkle cookies get their flavor from plenty of vanilla.
  • Almond Extract. Technically optional if you’re not a fan, but pretty classic in a good sugar cookie or birthday-cake flavored recipe. I love what it adds!
  • Baking Powder. Gotta get that puff!
  • Salt. To balance the flavor. Don’t skip it!
  • Gluten-Free Measure-For-Measure Flour.
  • Sprinkles. You can’t make sprinkle sugar cookies without sprinkles! You’ll want to use jimmies (the oblong/rectangle/cylinder shaped sprinkles) or quins (flat round circles or shaped sprinkles). These sprinkles won’t bleed their color into the dough and hold up well when baked. They’re the classic shapes for funfetti cakes and work well in gluten-free funfetti cookies, too!

Mix It Up! Make Your Sprinkle Sugar Cookies Work For Holidays & Celebrations all year long:

  • For Birthdays. I love using multi-color jimmies (pictured in these photos) that remind people of birthday cakes. Or, you can pick sprinkles in the birthday person’s favorite colors.
  • For Valentine’s Day. Try heart-shaped quins sprinkles or red, pink, and white jimmies.
  • For St. Patrick’s Day. Go for green! Pick shamrock quins or green and white jimmies.
  • For Mardi Gras. You can totally make sprinkle cookies for mardi gras! Use yellow, purple, and green sprinkles to mimic king cake.
  • For Easter. Think pastels. Use natural-colored jimmies in softer colors, or pick up some pastel jimmies.
  • For 4th Of July. Red, white, and blue! Use jimmies or find some star-shaped quins for an extra festive look. You can even mix + match the jimmies + stars!
  • For Halloween. Get spooky with oranges, blacks, greens, whites, and purples. Or pick up some jack-o-lantern, ghost, or bat quins.
  • For Hanukkah. Celebrate with blue and white!
  • For Christmas. Use classic red & green or red & white for a festive look!
A gluten-free sprinkle sugar cookie with a bite taken out of it, revealing a soft, tender center with sprinkles
Overhead view of gluten-fee sprinkle sugar cookies on a cooling rack

FAQ + Tips For The Best Gluten-Free Sprinkle Sugar Cookies:

What Kind Of Sprinkles Do You Use For Sprinkle Sugar Cookies? I recommend jimmies or quins. They won’t bleed their color and they tend to give you the look most people are going for with gluten-free funfetti cookies or gluten-free sprinkle cookies. Learn more in our Sprinkles 101 post!

Do You Put Sprinkles On Sugar Cookies Before Or After Baking? For sprinkle sugar cookies, you’ll add the sprinkles directly to the dough. You also have the option to dip the tops of the dough balls into additional sprinkles to coat the tops of the cookies as they bake. If you only want to use sprinkles for decorating with frosting, wait until the cookies have cooled and you’ve frosted them to add the sprinkles.

Can You Freeze Sprinkle Sugar Cookie Dough? Yes! You can freeze sprinkle sugar cookie dough! Prepare the dough as directed, all the way until after you chill the dough for 30 minutes. Scoop the dough into balls and place on a baking sheet in a single layer, in a freezer-safe bag in a single layer, or a freezer-safe container in a single layer. Freeze at least 1 hour or until no longer tacky. Then, you can transfer the dough balls to one bag or a large container together in the freezer. (You want to let them freeze a bit first individually so the dough balls don’t all stick together.) Learn more about how to freeze cookie dough & bake cookies from the freezer in this post!

3 Tricks To Make Your Cookies Perfectly Round:

  1. Chill The Dough. Don’t skip the chill time! It’ll improve the flavor and texture, but it will also help control the spread of your cookies during baking. (Chilled dough spreads less than warm or room-temperature dough)
  2. Use A Cookie Scoop. A medium cookie scoop like this is my go-to. It’ll help you get evenly-sized cookies, and help compact the dough just enough to spread well.
  3. Coax Them Into Circles While They’re Warm. Even the most carefully chilled and measured cookie dough sometimes goes rogue in the oven! To fix wobbly or wonky-shaped cookies, coax freshly baked cookies into perfect circles use a large round cookie cutter when they’re fresh from the oven. Gently move the cookie cutter around in a swirl/circular motion to just coax the edges back into a circle.

🌟 Leave a star review below when you try our Gluten-Free Sprinkle Sugar Cookies recipe! We can’t wait to hear what you think!

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Gluten-free sprinkle sugar cookies stacked on top of each other. One has a bite taken out, revealing a soft gluten-free sugar cookie center

Gluten-Free Sprinkle Sugar Cookies


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5 from 6 reviews

  • Author: One Lovely Life
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 2 1/2 dozen cookies 1x
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Description

Gluten-Free Sprinkle Sugar Cookies – Soft gluten-free sugar cookies with sprinkles are so cute! They’re perfect for celebrating holidays, birthdays, and special occasions. 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 185 g.) butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, ideally room temperature
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/41/2 tsp. almond extract
  • 3/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 2 1/2 cups (300 g.) gluten-free measure-for-measure flour*
  • 1/31/2 cup sprinkles (jimmies or quins), plus more for topping if desired

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine butter and sugar. Beat together until the mixture is smooth and cohesive, about 2 minutes.
  2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate each egg before adding the next.
  3. Add vanilla and almond extract and beat to blend in.
  4. Add baking powder, salt, and flour. Mix until the flour is mostly mixed in.
  5. Add sprinkles and stir or beat on low to incorporate the sprinkles into the dough. (The dough will be thick and sticky at this point. You may prefer to finish with a spatula.)
  6. Refrigerate the dough 30 minutes, while you preheat the oven.
  7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  8. When the oven is preheated, remove chilled dough from the refrigerator.
  9. Scoop or roll dough into 1.5” balls (i use a medium cookie scoop). 
  10. If desired, roll the tops of the cookie dough balls in more sprinkles before placing on a baking sheet.
  11. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until set around the edges and just underdone in the center.
  12. Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Category: Cookies
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
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15 Comments

  1. I made these for Christmas. They are so good, I can’t stop eating them! These will definitely make it into the cookie rotation.






    1. Hi Kirsten! These are drop-style cookies, so they won’t work well for cut-outs as written. I’m hoping to share a great cut-out cookie option soon!

  2. I make these dairy and gluten free and they are always a huge hit. Even those who think they won’t like them (cause of the dietary changes) rave about them. I love that I always have the ingredients available. Sometimes I ice them with a dairy free sprinkle buttercream.






  3. Made these tonight (8/13/2033) so easy and so delicious. Just like the Publix deli cookies. Absolutely amazing will be going into the regular rotation for treat. Thanks for sharing






  4. oh my goodness my GF grandson just can’t stop raving about how great these cookies are! thank you for a wonderful recipe and a happy Nana moment!






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