Sprinkle Cookies

SPRINKLES!

In my 30 years on this earth, I've never met a child who didn't like sprinkles.  Growing up in New York, Italian bakeries were a staple!  Before any guests came over, before heading to a friend's home and especially every holiday, we'd run to the bakery and grab a few pounds of assorted cookies.  Everyone would quickly grab the delectable, buttery cookies.  The first to go were always the rainbow cookies. After that it was usually the butter cookies filled with jam or chocolate, dipped halfway in chocolate and covered in sprinkles.  Lace cookies were typically the third runner up. After a day or two, all that would be left were the sprinkle cookies.  My family would leave them sadly crumbling in the box.  Little did they know, those are some of my favorites!  I'd go to eat just one and 7 cookies and a bellyache later I'd finally put that box down.  These cookies were a huge part of my childhood.  Unfortunately, after moving to San Diego I never found a great Italian style bakery.  Rainbow cookies? Nobody's heard of them!  Every time a family member comes to visit from New York, they know they'd better bring a box of my childhood favorites.  Having a child with life-threatening food allergies; however, makes it a little trickier.  He can't eat any bakery cookies - let alone ones that have been sitting right next to cookies made with almonds and other nuts!  As such, I was determined to make him something even better!  Now, these aren't the buttery Italian cookies from my childhood (I'll save that for another post!) - those I'm still working on!  But in my experimentation and research I came across these and added my own little touch. So here we go... 

Sprinkle Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

heaping 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles (I used Cakemate brand)

2 tablespoons nonpareil sprinkles (I used Betty Crocker)

1 cup white chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's brand)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375°.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add in the vanilla extract and egg.  Beat until fully incorporated. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.  With your mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl of butter/sugar and mix until combined.  

Pour in the rainbow sprinkles, nonpareils and white chocolate chips.  Mix on low for 15-30 seconds, then mix the rest in by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula (to prevent the sprinkles from bleeding into the dough and to prevent the white chocolate chips from beginning to melt).  

Using a small cookie scoop (mine holds 2 tablespoons), drop the dough onto your baking sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes.  You'll want to slightly under-bake these so that they stay soft and chewy, so take them out before they turn golden.  Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet (while shooing away little hands that try to grab them) and then transfer to wire rack for to cool completely. 

If you're feeling extra adventurous, grab some Straus Family Creamery Organic Vanilla Bean Ice cream (one of the only ice cream companies that doesn't use ANY nuts in their facility! see note below), scoop and sandwich between 2 of the cookies and freeze for an awesome treat! 

Note:  Straus Family Creamery does not use any nuts or nut products in their ice cream; however, the chocolate that they use is processed in a facility with nuts. We stick to the Vanilla Bean ice cream which is what the company recommends for those with peanut and tree nut allergies.  

Source: Adapted from Tasty Kitchen.