A friend said that eating these funfetti Oreo cookies made her feel like a kid again. If nostalgia had a taste, it would be these treats, packed with rainbow sprinkles for a guaranteed mood boost. They remind me how fun sprinkles were in birthday cake and pretty much any dessert when I was a kid (and - let's be real - now, too!). Perfect for a special occasion like a birthday party or an everyday sweet, these soft cookies are a total crowdpleaser.
If you're looking for more desserts packed with sprinkles, Oreos, nostalgia, or all of the above, I've got you covered. The below options are great for a birthday party or different special occasions.
- Birthday cake muffins - Find a cuter dessert for starting someone's birthday. I dare ya.
- Chocolate sprinkle cookies - When a cookie and brownie meet up for a party. 🎉
- Chocolate cookies and cream cookies - These taste like a childhood afterschool snack in the best way.
- Mini birthday cake - No mixer needed for the layers on this cute little homemade funfetti cake! And the insides are sprinkles galore.
- Chocolate sprinkle cake - This is another fun cake option to up the festive vibes! 🥳
Jump to:
What is funfetti?
If funfetti is new to you, I'm honored to make the introduction! Funfetti is a type of baked good containing sprinkles.
The term “funfetti” also can refer to the brand, Pillsbury, which first popularized funfetti by incorporating sprinkles into batters and frostings. You can read more about its colorful history in this piece by the New York Times.
Feel free to swap the sprinkle colors in and out for different occasions: rainbow for birthday, red and green for Christmas, or even use a pastel mix for spring. The colors give you so many ways to change up this recipe seasonally!
Looking for another way of saying "Happy Birthday" with baked goods? These homemade funfetti muffins are a great way to kick off someone's morning and birthday celebrations!
Simple Ingredients in these Sprinkle Cookies
I'm highlighting some of the key ingredients in these chewy Oreo funfetti cookies. Find all the details in the recipe card at the bottom of the post, too.
- Oreo crumbs - Like my Oreo coffee cookies, chocolate Oreo cookie pieces bring a distinctive taste and added crunch to these cookies! Be sure to keep the Oreo filling, too - bits of it all are going into this dough!
- Clear imitation vanilla extract (pure vanilla extract works but is different) – Not only does clear imitation vanilla extract tend to be cheaper, it actually creates a more authentic Funfetti flavor. It also keeps your cookies whiter (given that vanilla extract is brown) and retains more flavor when baked at higher temperatures. You can read more about it from Wilton’s blog.
- Almond extract – Taking a note from Molly Yeh’s funfetti cake recipe, use a hint of almond extract. In combination with the clear vanilla extract, it really brings in that nostalgic funfetti cake batter flavor.
- Rainbow sprinkles – Whether you’re making this recipe for birthday parties or a regular weekday, these cookies call for funfetti sprinkles! In addition to adding great color and playfulness to the dough, they can add a pleasant crunch or texture contrast to the cookies.
- Melted butter – Instead of creaming room temperature butter and sugar, we combine it and other ingredients with melted butter. Cookies made with melted butter often have a denser and chewier texture, helping them have soft pillowy centers. Melted butter coats the flour proteins more effectively, inhibiting gluten development. Less gluten formation leads to a softer, more tender cookie. The process of melting butter allows its water content to evaporate, concentrating the buttery flavor. This can contribute to a more pronounced butter taste in the final product.
How to Make these Oreo-Stuffed Cookies
After you’ve melted your butter, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Start measuring out all your ingredients besides your butter, which should cool on the counter for 15 minutes before you move ahead with the recipe.
Crush your Oreos into small pieces (filling included), and set aside about a dozen larger pieces. Ideally, none of the bigger ones are larger than about a quarter the size of a regular Oreo cookie.
Next, with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, cream cooled melted butter, vanilla and almond extracts, and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
Stop the electric mixer and add your salt, baking powder, and baking soda as well as your egg. Mix for about 45 seconds on medium speed.
Stop the mixer to add your flour. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all ingredients are coming together before mixing again for another 30-45 seconds.
Pause the mixer to add finely crushed Oreo pieces and rainbow sprinkles to the bowl, resuming mixing until they’re well-combined (about 30 seconds).
Scoop small (about ⅔ the size of a golf ball) round portions of your cookie dough onto an ungreased aluminum baking sheet (no parchment paper needed), with about 2 inches between each of them.
Press your remaining larger Oreo pieces into any cookie dough balls that could use more Oreo on top.
Bake for 10-11 minutes.
Transfer cookies to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the cookie sheet about 10 minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Tip for Round Cookies
Want cookies that are nice and evenly round?
As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, use a cookie cutter or even the open side of a glass that's slightly bigger than the cookies. Use it to gently slide the cookies into a more uniformly circular shape.
FAQ for Funfetti Oreo Cookies
Among many factors, brown sugar and browned or melted butter help produce cookies with soft centers and a hint of chewiness.
Also, toward the end of baking, remove your cookies from the oven once the edges are set but the centers still look slightly undercooked. The residual heat will continue to cook them as they cool on the sheet pan. This keeps them nice and chewy and more soft than crisp.
A cookie’s chewiness or crispiness depends a lot on the ratio of ingredients in it. Want a chocolate chip cookie with more spread (which will also tend to be on the crispier side)? Look for a recipe that uses mostly granulated (white) sugar. Brown sugar, on the other hand, contains more liquid in it, which is key in making a more moist and chewy cookie.
However, these aren’t hard and fast rules for *every* cookie recipe. The role of sugar changes a bit with the ingredients around it. You can read more about each kind of sugar in this fascinating article from Serious Eats.
These cookies will still taste fresh for 2-3 days at room temperature in an air-tight container.
Alternatively, the balls of dough freeze well. Store them in an airtight container in the freezer and bring them out to bake whenever cookie cravings hit!
You can also store already-baked cookies in your freezer for up to 3 months.
I'm such a fan of the classic chocolate Oreo that I didn't test these with the golden variety. But if you like or prefer that flavor, trying using them in lieu of the darker Oreos.
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More Cookies to Try
Looking for another sweet treat? Check out the cookies below!
Funfetti Oreo Cookies
Full of rainbow sprinkles and chocolate Oreo crumbs, these funfetti Oreo cookies would be perfect for a birthday party or special occasion.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 - 18 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 8 T butter (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (120 grams) white sugar
- ¼ cup (45 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 ½ tsp imitation vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups (200 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup (90 grams) crushed Oreos, filling included (about 8 cookies)
- ½ cup (85 grams) rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Melt butter and let it cool for 15 minutes before step three.
- Cream cooled melted butter, vanilla and almond extracts, and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and add your salt, baking powder, and baking soda as well as your egg. Mix for about 45 seconds on medium speed before stopping the mixer to add your flour. Mix 30 more seconds on medium speed before pausing the mixer to add finely crushed Oreo pieces and sprinkles to the bowl, resuming mixing until they’re well-combined (about 30 seconds).
- Scoop small (about ⅔ the size of a golf ball) round portions of your cookie dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Bake for 10-11 minutes.
- Transfer cookies to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the baking sheets about 10 minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Li Yang
Just made these funfetti oreo cookies and OMG, they're fantastic! Your step by step guide was super easy to follow, and the cookies turned out perfectly - soft, chewy, and super fun with those oreo bits and sprinkls. Also, the photos are so gorgeous, they're literally my desktop background. Makes me smile every time I look at my screen now 🙂 Can't wait to bake another batch. Thanks for sharing this recipe !!
Susan
Thank you so much! So happy to read that you enjoyed them as much as I had hoped!