100% From-Scratch Funfetti Cookies
Like a funfetti cake in cookie form, my soft, chewy funfetti cookies are perfectly sweet and loaded with colorful sprinkles. They’re simple (sort of like drop sugar cookies) and so much fun to make! The sprinkles add a surprisingly addictive texture and lots of color, and the buttery, vanilla flavor comes 100% from scratch. You won’t even miss the cake mix! My favorite thing about these funfetti cookies (besides the sprinkles!) is that they come together without a mixer. Using melted butter makes it easy to mix everything by hand and replaces the traditional creaming step. Of course, this means you will need to chill your cookie dough before scooping and baking–but they’re worth the wait!
Important Tips for Perfect Cookies:
Make sure the butter isn’t too warm before adding the sugar. Butter that’s too warm will melt the sugar, leaving you with a greasy cookie dough and cookies that spread far too much. Let the dough chill! 30 minutes is the bare minimum, but 60 minutes is even better. Roll your cookie dough before placing it on the baking sheet for more uniform, round cookies.Remove the cookies from the oven while they still look slightly underdone. They’ll finish baking on the hot cookie sheet as they cool, leaving you with perfectly chewy funfetti cookies. Over-baking makes cookies that are tough, dry, and too-crisp, as opposed to soft, buttery, and chewy!
What You Need
This recipe uses pantry staples to make super buttery and soft funfetti cookies. Here are a few of the most important ones you’ll need:
Melted butter. Using melted butter ensures the cookies stay soft and chewy instead of cakey. It also gives them an incredible flavor (even better flavor if you use European butter!). I like to let my butter cool for about 10-15 minutes after melting to ensure that it’s no longer warm to the touch.Vanilla. A hefty pour of vanilla provides that cake mix flavor without all the additives. For even better flavor, use homemade vanilla extract!Cornstarch. Cornstarch helps these funfetti cookies hold their shape and stay soft. I use this in my funfetti Christmas cookies too, as well as many of my other cookie recipes. It’s one of my favorite secret ingredients!Sprinkles. Pretty much any kind will do–I use a mix of different types for a fun and whimsical look.
SAM’S TIP: Use unsalted butter! I have a separate post on why I like to use unsalted vs. salted butter, so I’ll be brief here, but essentially, you can better control the flavor of your cookies by adding the salt separately. It’s hard to know exactly how much salt is in each stick of salted butter (especially since there’s so many brands!), so using unsalted butter allows for precise and consistent results. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Funfetti Cookies
SAM’S TIP: Don’t add all of your dry ingredients at once! If you do, you could end up with a dry, crumbly dough. Adding the flour gradually allows it to absorb properly and makes your dough much easier to work with. I hope you have as much fun making (and eating!) these as I did! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook