I don’t like rolling cookies into balls. With this hack, it’s not really necessary.
When my oldest daughter was three years old, she had one of her first playdates, and I decided to bake cookies with the kids. After we had made the dough, each one taking turns adding ingredients, one of the moms arrived to pick up their child. I suppose I was schmoozing by the door for a few minutes, because when I returned to the kitchen, my daughter had rolled all the dough on her own into balls, and they were neatly lined up on the parchment-lined tray.
I was incredulous. It was the first time any of my children had done something like that on their own at such a young age (there are only boys on top of her). I was also relieved. I really don’t like the tedious task of rolling cookie balls. I much rather make the type of sweet item I can pipe.
My daughter isn’t always around when I make cookies, but even when she is, this square cookie hack makes the cutest perfect little mini cookies…and there’s no rolling required.
Use this hack for any cookie recipe, whether it’s a drop cookie or a cutout cookie.
If your cookie has sprinkles or a topping, sprinkle the topping on now and press it into the dough using a piece of parchment.
Transfer each square to the parchment-lined baking sheet. How much room you leave between them depends on the cookie dough you’re using. These cookies don’t have eggs or leaveners, so I can place them fairly close together.
Tada! Adorable little perfect square cookies.
This is an easy, basic egg-free sprinkle cookie. Since there’s no leavener either, the cookies come out as perfect and even as they are when they’re sliced.
- 2¼ cups flour
- ¾ cup confectioners sugar
- 2 sticks butter or margarine, chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Lots of nonpareils
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour and sugar. Add butter and vanilla and mix until a dough forms, scraping the sides to incorporate all the flour into the dough. The dough will seem dry at this point, but keep mixing until it comes together nicely (you can add 1 Tbsp oil if you need).
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a piece of parchment into a rectangle (to roughly a 9x13 size), then transfer the parchment paper to 9 x 13-inch Pyrex. Press the dough until it evenly fills the entire pan.
- Add nonpareils and press with a piece of parchment so they stick to the dough.
- Lift parchment out of the Pyrex. Using a pizza slicer, slice into small squares.
- Transfer squares to a parchment lined baking sheet. You don’t have to place them far apart because they won’t rise significantly. Bake for 10-12 minutes. They won’t turn golden, so you can remove from oven when they’re slightly firm to the touch. They’ll continue to firm up as they cool.
Want to make these more grown-up?
*You can use any topping you like in lieu of rainbow sprinkles.
*Esti Waldman made a lemon version for a dairy sheva brachos and they were a hit! She swapped the margarine for butter and added a bit of lemon juice and lemon zest to the batter.
That is so cute! Can I do it with any cookie recipe?
You can! It works best with recipes that don’t have baking soda/powder or eggs because they don’t rise or change shape (they keep the same size and that straight edge). But any recipe would work for the most part.
Can you make this rd pie with instead of margarine?
Okay… Too many ez delicious recipes on my to do list.. Thanks BCP!
Just the perfect thing to do with my 3 year old today!! Thanks for all these great posts!!!
Do these freeze well? I want to make them for shalach manos, can I make them in advance?
Yes for sure.
“Yes for sure” is that the response to freezes well or you can use oil? Thanks
how would you decorate for shalch manos thats a little bit more classy?
You can match a color scheme with the other types of nonpareils and sugar crystals available in baking supply stores. There’s also nut crunch and other toppings in the supermarket.
would this be a good cookie to cut with a cookie cutter and roll fondant on top? I find many recipes end up with cookies that dont have sharp edges. Im thinking that this could work…
Would love a no mixer cookie recipe to make this even easier!
I made this without a mixer today with my toddler. We mixed by inane after softening the margarine in the microwave for a few seconds. Came out delicious!
Whoops! Meant by hand
Can i sub regular sugar for confectioners? And has anyone ever tried them with oil instead of margarine? Know thats more of a stretch. Thanks!
Where can I find this specific cookie jar?
Do these cookies need to be cut before or can you cut them once baked and still warm?
I never tried cutting them afterwards. If you try it and have success, let me know!
Can I make this egg free recipe into regular sugar cookies?
Of course!