I saw these cookies last week on the Smitten Kitchen blog, and simply HAD to make them. It was all I could do to wait until I found some Christmasy sprinkles. Then it was all I could do to make myself give them away (you know who you are, and you are loved!) So of course I made another batch. They do seem to be disappearing rather fast, so there may have to be more baking. Recipes from Smitten Kitchen rarely tempt me to tweak. These cookies are, unsurprisingly, superb. I’m just a hobby cook; Deb is brilliant. And her kitchen is even smaller than mine! By urban standards, I suppose my kitchen is huge. I think it’s just not that well designed. Nobody to blame on that score but yours truly. What can I say, I was young & relatively inexperienced!

I dove right into the recipe part of the post, since I was so eager to make them. Yesterday, as I rested up from baking that second batch, I finally went back and read the rest of the post. Wait, what?! There’s a shop in NYC where you can buy tons of sprinkles, by the individual color? And all sorts of other cookie decoration goodies? WANT!!!

If you’ve never tried lining your cookie sheet with parchment, these cookies are a really good place to start. It will help keep the cookies from spreading, and makes cleanup a breeze. That’s a lovely ending to a recipe that’s already pretty quick & easy! And these days, you can almost always find parchment right there in your grocery store, near the aluminum foil.  I’ve changed very little in this recipe. I love the almond extract in these, so made it permanent. “Generous” means you can let it overflow the spoon just a bit, but not enough to warrant upping the amount to ½tsp. And thanks to my friends for the new name! 

You can find the Smitten Kitchen recipe, which includes directions for making the dough in a food processor, here, and a printer-friendly version of my recipe at the bottom of the page.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

¼ cup (2 oz.) cream cheese

1¼ c sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp almond extract (generous)

1 cup sprinkles (6 oz. or more)

Preparation:

1.) Preheat your oven to 375°F.

2.) Whisk the first four ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3.) Combine the butter & cream cheese in your mixer. Add the sugar & mix until light & fluffy.

4.) Add the egg & extracts; mix to combine.

5.) Add in the flour mixture & beat just until combined. (Don’t overmix.)

6.) Scoop a generous Tablespoon of dough. Roll it between your hands to make a ball, then roll the ball in the sprinkles.

7.) Arrange the sprinkle-covered balls about 2” apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten to 1/2” high with the bottom of a glass. (The sprinkles keep the glass from sticking to the dough.)

8.) Bake 9 – 10 minutes; they’ll look a bit underdone, but the bottoms will just be starting to turn golden.

9.) Cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.