Carnival Cookies are an amped up version of a soft sprinkle cookie loaded with Circus Animal Cookies, sprinkles and white chips! The sprinkle cookies recipe is soft, buttery, thick and guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
I have been obsessed with Circus Animal Cookies my whole life. We all KNOW they’re superior to the plain jane Animal Cracker. I mean, a coating of sweet icing and a sprinkle of colorful nonpareils is certainly the way to a 7 year old heart. Well, the love has never died and while I definitely limit the number of Circus Animal Cookies I consume, they still hold a special place in my heart!
And so I did the most obvious thing possible. I made Circus Animal Sprinkle Cookies…aka Carnival Cookies!
I have used Circus Animal Cookies in before on my site…remember these Circus Animal Krispie Treats? But honestly they don’t get enough play around here. Today I’m ready to turn up the pink and white! These Carnival Cookies are the ULTIMATE Sprinkle Sugar Cookie Recipe!
What kind of sprinkles do you need?
The trick to these is to use TONS of sprinkles. I used this fun sprinkle combo from Fish’s Eddy when I made these. I love the combo of all different types of sprinkles in one place. Don’t worry about buying this specific sprinkle mix, though! You can make your own sprinkle mix at home or even just use a package of multi-colored sprinkles you have on hand!
There are a few totally easy steps to making thick, soft cookies!
- I like to use COLD butter. Cube it, so it mixes easily, but using cold butter is a quick way to create thick cookies without having to chill the dough! It’s a quick cheat to a faster cookie. You can absolutely chill the dough if your butter is room temperature and get the same results, but this is definitely a thick cookie hack!
- Bake your cookies at a slightly higher temperature. I bake these cookies at 375°F instead of 350°F. This will brown the tops and bottoms a little quicker, while leaving the insides slightly undercooked. Also baking at a higher temperature prevents your cookies form spreading as much! Just make sure not to over bake the cookies, because your bottoms can easily get too brown!
- Remove the cookies from the baking sheet immediately. If you allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet after they come out of the oven they will continue to bake from the heat of the tray. This is a great trick in some cookie recipes, but if you are trying to achieve thick cookies, allow them to cool as soon as they come out of the oven on a wire rack!
The sprinkle medley that I used tinted my cookie dough pink, because it had a lot of pink sanding sugar mixed in. If your sprinkles don’t tint your cookie dough like mine, and you like the look of this, go ahead and use a drop of pink food coloring right into your dough. This is totally optional.
I love these Carnival Cookies so much. They are the perfect combination of soft sprinkle cookie, Frosted Circus Cookie and white chocolate chip cookie!
And I know they sell holiday versions of Circus cookies with red and green sprinkles! These would be SO cute on a holiday cookie tray as well!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
Carnival Cookies are soft, thick sprinkle cookies loaded with white chips and chopped Frosted Animal Cookies!
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold butter, cubed
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup multicolored sprinkles
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 heaping cup coarsely chopped Frosted Circus Cookies + 20 whole cookies to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the butter and sugar together for 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Add in the eggs, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Mix for an additional minute on medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and add in the flour, mixing until just combined.
- Stir in the sprinkles, white chips and chopped Circus Cookies until evenly incorporated.
- Using a large (3- tablespoon) cookie scoop, portion out dough and place onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes until the edges are lightly golden.The tops of the cookies will feel set, but the insides will be slightly under-baked, this is fine.
- As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, gently press a whole Circus Cookie onto the top of each.
- Transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
I used a large cookie scoop for this recipe, you can use a small scoop if you prefer a smaller cookie, just reduce the bake time down 1-2 minutes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 324
- Sugar: 24.6 g
- Sodium: 214.3 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Carbohydrates: 41.2 g
- Protein: 3.5 g
- Cholesterol: 44.9 mg
LOVED THESE! I made them for my husbands birthday and they are every bit as good as they look. I used a little extra crushed cookies in the batter and added extra white chocolate chips to the top after they finished baking to make them pretty. I did them a little smaller so only baked 7 minutes. Pull them out before they look done.
So glad you liked them!!!
NM found it! 3T scoop. Making these today!
How big is your large cookie scoop? I have a red handle one that says 24 on it
So pretty!
In the write up it is stated to remove the cookies immediately from the cookie sheet to a wire rack to cool. The recipe states to wait 4 minutes. Which is it?
Hi Lori, sorry about the miscommunication. You remove the cookies from the baking sheet immediately.