I love a good sprinkled dessert. Sprinkle donuts? Yep. Sprinkles on cake? Count me in. Cookies covered in sprinkles? Yesss. The satisfying crunch! The festive colors! The sugary sparkle! And if you’re here, then there’s a good chance you at least feel half as enthusiastic as I do about sprinkles. This Sprinkle Cookie is a soft, chewy, traditional sugar cookie that’s been naturally dyed with activated charcoal and then rolled in sprinkles pre-bake for a lovely, festive look. And they’re delicious. You don’t taste the charcoal at all!
The recipe is simple, but in order to get the spread of the cookies just right, I don’t recommend subbing any of the ingredients. The sugars are interchangeable with one another – you can use 100% coconut sugar for a healthier cookie, or 100% granulated sugar for a sweeter cookie. I chose a mix of the two to get that traditional sugar cookie flavor without the kind of sweet that hurts my mouth. You’ll also need to chill the dough – don’t skip this step as it makes the dough easier to work with and helps create the perfect spread/cookie shape!
Some of the ingredients I like for this recipe:
Coconut sugar tastes less sweet that granulated sugar. For this recipe, the sugar is necessary for the proper texture and spread of the cookies, so I’ve added a bit of coconut sugar to lessen the sweet flavor. Plus, coconut sugar is an unrefined, low GI sweetener that tastes nothing like coconut – a win!
Oil makes these cookies so soft and chewy. You can use any vegetable oil you’d like. I used regular olive oil since the color and flavor doesn’t affect these cookies.
Activated charcoal coconut powder makes for a great natural dye. A little goes a long way in creating a dark gray dough that makes for beautiful (and festive!) cookies.
Eggs add moisture to these cookies, and the extra egg yolk brings chewiness to the cookies’ texture. I have not tried any egg replacements for this recipe.
Halloween Charcoal Sprinkle Cookies
Soft-baked, chewy sugar cookies naturally dyed with activated charcoal coconut powder and then covered in festive sprinkles!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp activated charcoal coconut powder**
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (or coconut sugar)
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, room temp
- 1/2 cup sprinkles (for rolling)
Instructions
- Bring your eggs to room temperature by placing them in a glass of warm water for around 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and charcoal powder; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugars, vanilla, oil, and egg + egg yolk. Add wet ingredients to dry and use a large wooden spoon or spatula to mix until everything is just combined. Cover and refrigerate dough for two hours.
- Preheat your oven to 325°F and line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper. Add the sprinkles to a small bowl. Remove dough from the refrigerator and scoop 8 dough balls 1 1/2 Tbsp in size. Roll the dough balls smooth and then dip the tops and sides of the dough balls in your sprinkles.
- Place all 8 dough balls on your parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them evenly apart. Then gently reshape them to make neater balls, if necessary. Slightly flatten each dough ball. Bake at 325°F for 5 minutes or until cookies have a spread.
- Allow cookies to set for 1 minute on the baking sheet, and then gently move them to a cooling rack. Cookies will de-puff as they cool. Repeat until all cookies are baked. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
**Disclaimer: activated charcoal may reduce or prevent absorption of certain medications, drugs, or supplements
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
18Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 109Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 136mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 0gSugar: 11gProtein: 1g
calculated nutrition information may not always be accurate
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Hi, Rachael! I’m having some difficulty with this recipe and hoping you can help! I’ve tried making it twice, but both times my dough seems to be pretty dry. Even after chilling in the fridge, it barely holds together when I try to roll it into balls. And when they bake, they aren’t spreading. Any idea what I might be missing? Thanks so much!
Hi Becca! Ahh I’m so sorry to hear you’re having trouble with this recipe – I know it must be frustrating. This recipe is based off of my standard sugar cookie recipe that I’ve made lots of times – the dough should be quite sticky prior to refrigerating. Have you substituted any ingredients? For me, adding charcoal powder to my original recipe made the cookies spread A TON. So I added extra flour and adjusted the leavening agents. You can try reducing the amount of flour by 2 Tbsp to a 1/4 cup to see how your dough turns out. You can also test to make sure your baking soda is still good – add a little to 1/2 cup of hot water mixed with 1/4 tsp of vinegar; good baking soda will cause a bubbling reaction. Hope this helps you out! Feel free to jump over to Instagram to DM me if you have other questions as I’m more active there 🙂
Thank you so much for the help! I’m glad to at least know my hunch was right, because the dough hasn’t been sticky at all. The only change I made was using regular sugar only, rather than mixing regular with coconut. I’ll try again tonight with less flour! I really, really appreciate your help! 🙂