These Soft Sugar Cookie Sandwiches are soft, chewy, and filled with a light vanilla butter free frosting. This is an easy small batch dessert that is perfect to celebrate any special occasion or holiday. Add fun sprinkles for a delicious, and festive, dessert!
Easy 4th of July Dessert
When it comes to the 4th of July – or any holiday for that matter – the last thing I want to be doing is working away in the kitchen! I’d rather enjoy the sunshine, barbecue, water games in the yard, and the occasional firework. But, to keep it real, I may be too old for water games. Or maybe not …
Any way you slice it, I like to keep my desserts pretty simple for summer holidays, and these Soft Sugar Cookie Sandwiches are a perfect example of that! I mean, all we are really doing is whipping up a small batch of soft sugar cookies and filling them with vanilla frosting – the Vanilla Butter Free Frosting – the be exact. And of course, some festive red, white, and blue sprinkles. I mean, anytime you adorn a dessert with sprinkles, it looks like you spent hours creating your baking masterpiece. Am I right?!
The inspiration for these easy sandwich cookies was in fact the sprinkles. I happened into my local Michael’s because I was ecstatic is was open again (thank you pandemic!). And ran across these sprinkles from Wilton. Too cute, right! Then and there in the sprinkle aisle of Michael’s, the frosting filled sugar cookie sandwiches were born.
Tips For Making Soft Sugar Cookie Sandwiches
- This is small batch recipe for sugar cookies – Small batch means no big mixer, and one bowl (see Instruction #3 for how to accomplish this).
- The cookie dough does not need to be chilled – You can certainly refrigerate the dough if you like (and that tends to be my preference for cookie dough). But it is not required.
- You can make the cookie sandwiches ahead of time – This is not a dessert that is best enjoyed straight from the oven. In fact, the frosting will melt if you do that.
- The vanilla frosting filling can be made ahead of time – Or, you could even buy a delicious tub of ready-made frosting. I won’t judge.
- No need for fancy piping or decorations – Unless you want to of course. But the frosting can be spooned on (you’re covering it with sprinkles), and the decoration star is the delightful sprinkles.
- These cookies are sweet – Sugar Cookie + Vanilla Frosting + Sprinkles = Sweet. If you want to cut back on the sweetness, I would recommend only piping/spooning/slathering a thin layer of the frosting on the cookie. What I did – I piped a single circle of the frosting on the cookie (rather than covering the entire cookie) – so the middle of the sandwich didn’t actually have any frosting.
Soft Sugar Cookies
I will be honest – I prefer soft cookies over crunchy cookies. Unless they are Biscoff or Thin Mints. However, if you prefer a crunchier cookie, you can simply bake these for a couple of extra minutes. I would advise you watch them closely though, so the bottom of the cookies does not get too brown.
The other thing I wanted to point out about these cookies, is they are not like the sugar cookies you’re accustomed to for Christmas cookies. The ingredients and ratios are different. We are only using an egg yolk in this recipe – as opposed to the whole egg in a cut-out sugar cookie recipe. Egg whites will help to dry out a bake. And, we are not using as much flour to the egg + butter ratio.
I can post more about the differences in the two cookies once I test and bake a batch of cut-out sugar cookies. Until then, enjoy your 4th of July, and some crazy good cookies!
More 4th of July Dessert Ideas
- Creamy Watermelon Popsicles with Magic Shell
- Patriotic Berry Vanilla Cupcakes
- Patriotic Berry Cake For Two
- Cherry Almond Galette For Two
- Red, White, and Blue Sparkling Popsicles
- Black Cherry Cream Sodas
- Black Forest Cupcakes
Soft Sugar Cookie Sandwiches
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter (softened to room temperature)
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk (room temperature)
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Vanilla Butter Free Frosting (or any frosting you prefer!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, add the butter and sugar. Use a handheld mixer on medium speed to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – about 3-5 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla, and continue to beat until fully mixed and smooth.
- In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. You can also sift the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients (to use one less bowl), using a mesh strainer or sifter.
- Mix the cookie dough on medium-low speed until no dry streaks remain. Using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop 10 even size cookie balls spaced at least 2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 9 minutes, or until the edges just start to turn golden. If you want a crunchier cookie, bake for 2 extra minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet set on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to the wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cookies are baking and cooling, make the Butter Free Frosting – Spoon, spread, or pipe equal amounts of frosting on 5 of the cookies to make the cookie sandwiches, and coat the edges of the frosting with sprinkles of your choice. Enjoy!
RECIPE NOTES
- These cookies are sweet – Sugar Cookie + Vanilla Frosting + Sprinkles = Sweet. If you want to cut back on the sweetness, I would recommend only piping a thin layer of the frosting around the edge of the cookie.