Chewy Circus Animal Sugar Cookies
These Chewy Circus Animal Sugar Cookies turn a favorite childhood treat into one big, soft cookie. Chopped frosted animal cookies and colorful sprinkles are folded into a buttery sugar cookie dough, with brown sugar helping give the cookies their soft and chewy texture.
The bits of circus animal cookies add a little crunch to every bite, while the frosting and sprinkles make these especially fun for birthdays, parties, or whenever you’re in the mood for a colorful batch of cookies. Bonus: You can make the dough ahead of time and freeze for later use!
Make Ahead, Storing and Freezing:
- Room temperature: Once completely cool, keep the baked cookies in an airtight container for about 7 days.
- Refrigerator: Skip it for baked cookies. The cold dries them out, so use the freezer for anything past a week.
- Freezing baked cookies: Seal cooled cookies in a container or freezer bag for up to 3 months and thaw at room temperature.
- Freezing the dough: Freeze scooped balls solid on a tray, bag them, and keep up to 3 months. Bake from frozen and add a minute or two.
- Make ahead: Scooped dough keeps covered in the refrigerator up to 5 days and bakes straight from cold.
Yes. Unsalted butter should work in these cookies. Since the recipe was originally made with salted butter, you may want to slightly increase the added salt to compensate.
I have not had this issue. Since you are adding them in with the dry flour, the flour does a good job of coating them, BUT if you are worried about this, Rainbow jimmies generally hold their color better than tiny nonpareils. You can also mix the sprinkles in when you add in the crushed cookies to reduce bleeding.
You can, but the cookies won’t have quite the same flavor or colorful appearance. Frosted circus animal cookies are sweeter and have the coating and sprinkles that give this recipe its signature look. Regular animal crackers will give you more of a plain cookie crunch.
Ingredient Notes
Salted butter: Soften it to room temperature so it creams properly with the sugars.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the dough and helps the edges set crisp.
Light brown sugar: The molasses in it is what makes these chewy.
Egg: Binds the dough and adds richness.
Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla tastes noticeably better than imitation here.
All purpose flour: Spoon it into the cup and level it off.
Cream of tartar: Gives the cookies their chew and a slight tang.
Baking soda: Provides the lift and needs the cream of tartar to work.
Salt: Keeps a very sweet cookie from tasting flat.
Sprinkles: Use jimmies rather than nonpareils, which bleed color.
Circus animal cookies: Chop them into rough chunks, not crumbs, for crunch.
How to make Chewy Circus Animal Sugar Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars in a stand mixer or with hand mixer.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
- Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and sprinkles. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until combined.
- Mix in chopped cookies and continue stirring just enough to mix them in completely. Chill the dough for 20 minutes.
- Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to drop cookie dough onto an un-greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 10–11 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
More Cookie Recipes We Love!
- Circus Animal Cookie Rice Krispie Treats
- Andes Sugar Cookies
- Candy Corn Sugar Cookies
- Soft Brown Sugar Cookies
Chewy Circus Animal Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup sprinkles
- 2 cups chopped circus animal cookies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars in a stand mixer or with hand mixer.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
- Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and sprinkles. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until combined.
- Mix in chopped cookies and continue stirring just enough to mix them in completely. Chill the dough for 20 minutes.
- Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to drop cookie dough onto an un-greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 10–11 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
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Originally Posted July 2020
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Posted Updated: August 2026
So delicious! I subbed half the animal crackers for white chocolate chips. The first time I made these the sprinkles dyed the dough, so the second time I added them very last with the crackers and I didn’t have that problem. A wonderful recipe!
Can You Make This A Day Before You Need To Bake Them?
I haven’t tried that yet Claire, I have only made them right away.
I didn’t care for the sprinkles so the second time i made them i substituted choc chips. Also I had to bake them for 16 minutes before they looked cooked.
Can I use unsalted butter instead of salted?
I have only tested this recipe with salted, but I don’t think it will alter the recipe that much. If you only have unsalted on hand, you can always add a pinch of salt.
Didn’t think it woul be that good but they were delicious. we froze some batter for later. can’t wait