These mini sugar cookie bites are the perfect sweet treats when you want something cute and mini! They’re soft, chewy, and simple irresistible.
My oldest doesn’t like chocolate. I don’t get it – I mean how can anyone not like these chocolate chip pudding cookies? Or striped delight. Or just chocolate period.
That means that when the holidays roll around we tend to enjoy a lot of cut out sugar cookies, cranberry orange muffins, and cherry cheesecake cookies. Well and I make these hot chocolate cupcakes for myself…
These sugar cookies bites are a new family favorite. They start with my favorite cream cheese sugar cookies but instead of doing frosting and decorations, you bake with sprinkles and skip the frosting.
Or if you really like icing, you can add some of this sugar cookie icing then sprinkles!
They’re kind of addicting if I’m being honest. And my toddler’s new favorite cookie!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- They’re adorable – even I was amazed at how cute a baking sheet full of these sugar cookie bites was! They’re yummy and super cute!
- They’re easy to make – instead of cutting out large cookies, you cut out tiny ones and sprinkle them for baking. No need to make frosting, frost the cookies, and decorate.
- They’re soft – the cream cheese in these keeps them soft and fluffy, just like good sugar cookies should be.
- They’re versatile – change up the sprinkle colors and these work great for any holiday or occasion. Add some pink and blue sprinkles for a gender reveal, orange and black sprinkles for Halloween, so many possibilities!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Butter – unsalted butter that’s been left out for about an hour before you start baking so it gets soft. As long as it’s not melted, it’s not too soft.
- Cream cheese – make sure the cream cheese is softened so it whips together nicely with the butter. I recommend taking the butter and cream cheese out and letting them come to room temp about an hour before baking.
You’ll also want either a miniature square cookie cutter or a regular square cookie cutter and a pizza cutter to cut the sugar cookie dough into small bite-sized pieces. Something like this set has both a regular square and a mini square.
Instructions
Using a hand or stand mixer, whip the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
Next add sugar, salt, egg, and vanilla and mix well, then slowly add the flour and baking powder and mix until fully incorporated.
Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Once the dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sprinkle your working surface and dough with a little flour and then roll out to 1/4″ thick.
Using a square cookie cutter, cut cookies into squares. Gather up any excess dough and roll it back out until you’ve cut all of the dough into squares.
Use a pizza cutter to cut each square into fourths – making four little sugar cookie bites.
Sprinkle each bite with holiday sprinkles, trying to cover most of the surface area with sprinkles. You may want to press down lightly on the sprinkles to get them to adhere to the dough.
Carefully transfer to a baking sheet with the sprinkles on top.
Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes or until the bottom starts to get slightly brown. Do not over bake!
Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to cooling rack.
Let cool completely then enjoy! These make great fillers for a Christmas cookie plate, a holiday dessert board, or honestly just as little snacks. And kids love how little and cute they are – they’re bite-sized!
Expert Tips
Work with half of the dough at a time so that the dough stays chilled and doesn’t get too soft.
If dough gets too soft while cutting out cookies, put the cookies in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes before baking.
Get a mini square cookie cutter if you can. It makes making these sugar cookie bites even easier! You just need to cut them out and place them on the baking sheet rather than cutting out the large square and cutting into four.
Lightly press the sprinkles into the dough after you sprinkle them on. This will help them adhere better to the dough for baking.
Don’t overbake the cookies. They may still feel soft when the timer is up, but they’ll come together on the baking sheet.
Store in an airtight bag and enjoy or freeze for up to five days for the best tasting cookies.
Make sure any sprinkles end up on your parchment paper, not directly on the baking sheet. If they end up directly on the baking sheet, you’ll end up with burnt sugar that not only smells bad but is a pain to get off.
Recipe FAQs
These sugar cookie bites freeze great. You can either freeze the actual dough before you cook them or you can cook the individual bites once baked. Just store them in an airtight freezer safe container like a plastic zipper bag with all the air squeezed out and eat within 3 months. Remove from the bag and let them thaw before enjoying.
I typically like to roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick so that they are nice and soft. Anything thinner and they’ll end up baking too quickly and be more crispy than you want.
The number of bites you’ll get out of this recipe depends on the size of your cookie cutter. I used a little mini one and was able to get a baking sheet full of little mini sugar cookie bites. If you use something larger, you may need multiple cookie sheets.
More Christmas Treats
If you’re looking for holiday treats to fill up your Christmas cookie plate, you’re going to love these!
- White chocolate cranberry cookies – a white chocolate cranberry cookie mixed with a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and oh so good!
- Gingerbread cupcakes – a sophisticated flavor that adults will absolutely love!
- Sugar cookie white chocolate fudge – an easy fudge that tastes just like sugar cookies!
- Oreo truffles – add a few holiday sprinkles to these classic treats for one yummy bite!
- Christmas tree brownies – boxed brownies get a festive upgrade with this delicious recipe!
Sugar Cookie Bites
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Using hand or stand mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese.
- Add sugar, salt, egg, and vanilla to butter/cream cheese mixture and mix well.
- Slowly add flour and baking powder and mix well.
- Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap then refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour working surface and dough.
- Roll dough out to 1/4" thickness then cut with a square cookie cutter. Then cut each square into fourths using a pizza cutter.
- Sprinkle dough pieces with holiday sprinkles then place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes until the bottoms start to brown slightly. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Serve in a bowl or on a platter and enjoy!
Karen Bryant says
Does the flour need to be sifted before adding to mixture?
Britni Vigil says
I never have, and they’ve turned out fine!
Jennifer Svec says
Such a big hit during the holidays!! Everyone raved about these cookies. These were preferred over the traditional sugar cookie.
Britni Vigil says
Thanks for the review, I’m so glad they were a hit!
Kim says
can I just lay full dough on cookie sheet and cut later?
Britni Vigil says
you can, but the edges won’t be finished the same way as if you cut it before. It’ll taste more like you just broke a cookie in half.
Jessie says
Can the dough be pre-made and baked later?
Britni Vigil says
Yes, it’s just like regular sugar cookie dough. You can refrigerate and roll it out and cut later.
Kristina Langer says
These look great! I don’t have a cookie cutter so will need to cut by hand – what size is “mini”?
Britni Vigil says
You can make them as small as you’d like – we did about a 1″ square.
Denise says
I’m anxious to try this, I love the idea of quick and bite-sized. I am wondering if I can just cut the dough with a pizza cutter or dough cutter and skip the cookie cutter altogether.
Britni Vigil says
Sure!
Debbie Graf says
Can a small star shaped cookie cutter be used? Do I need to spray the cookie cutter if it’s plastic? Thank you!
Britni Vigil says
It can, but the goal is to not have to cut these out! I’ve never sprayed my cookie cutters in the past.
Taryn says
My daughters made these for a tea party with a couple of their friends and they were a hit! They were so tasty.
Hanna says
These are absolutely adorable. We rolled them in some unicorn sprinkles and my girls LOVED them!