No-Bake Sugar Cookies

These no-bake sugar cookies are to die for and so simple to make, you’ll be whipping up batches whenever the mood strikes!

They are the perfect cookie to make during the summer when it’s just too hot to turn your oven on. 

Plus, they’re also a great treat to get the kids involved in making them!  All you need is a bowl and a wooden spoon and you’re good to go!

These sweet gems taste like a sugar cookie dough and a cake pop all rolled into one!  Kids of all ages are going to go wild for them.  They make a great addition to any cookie platter and would also make an excellent bake sale treat!

Ingredients for No-Bake Sugar Cookies

To make these no-bake cookies, you’ll need:  

• Brown Sugar
• Butter – unsalted butter works best in this recipe
• Flour – we used all-purpose
• Sweetened Condensed Milk – make sure you pick up the sweetened variety.
• Vanilla 
• Sprinkles – use your favorite kind. We like these rainbow sprinkles.
• Confectioners’ Sugar

You’ll start by adding the sugar and softened butter to a medium-sized mixing bowl and creaming them together with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth mixture. 

You’ll want to make sure that your butter is nice and soft before starting this process.  It’s also a good idea to remove any hard lumps in the brown sugar.  Give the whole thing 2 – 3 minutes to come together.

My Brown Sugar Is Hard, How Can I Soften It?

We’ve all had that moment when we’re getting ready to make our favorite recipe and we reach for the brown sugar to discover it has turned into…a brick.  We have a great trick to bring your brown sugar back to life.

Place your sugar in a microwavable bowl and lay a damp paper towel over the top.  Microwave in short bursts of 20 seconds at a time. 

After the initial 20 seconds, check to see if your sugar has softened.  If it’s still hard, microwave for another 20 seconds until it reaches the desired softness.

Next Steps For No-Bake Sugar Cookies

Next, you’ll add in the flour, condensed milk, and the vanilla.  Stir everything together with your wooden spoon.  The batter should look like regular cookie dough.  

Finally, throw in your sprinkles and stir to combine.  Use your favorite sprinkles here. We used the rainbow kind in our batch because we think rainbow sprinkles make everything better!

Now, because we aren’t putting these cookies in the oven, you’ll notice that we didn’t add in any eggs as you’d find in a traditional sugar cookie recipe.  No egg in the mix makes these cookies safe to eat without baking.  

The next part is where the recipe gets interesting…

How to Make No-Bake Sugar Cookies

Chill dough for 30 minutes.  Then take your bowl, and using a teaspoon, scoop out some dough and shape it into a round ball.  Place the balls on the cookie sheet, leaving an inch or so between each ball. 

Once the baking sheet is full, press down on the dough balls to make a flat cookie shape.  You’ll want to make sure that the tops are somewhat flat because you’ll be icing them later.

Pop the cookie tray into your fridge to let the dough chill for another 30 minutes.  In the meantime, you can get on with the million other things you have to do in your day!

The final step is to make the icing for the cookies.  Of course, you can eat the cookies plain, without any icing, but if you feel like being a little bit fancy, then why not add a little decoration!

The icing is very simply made with confectioners’ sugar and a few drops of water.  Add the sugar to a small bowl and sprinkle the water in, a couple of drops at a time, until you reach a smooth, thick consistency. 

If your icing is too thick, add more water.  If you think it’s too thin, add a bit more sugar.  If you’d like to add some color to your icing, you can add a drop of your favorite food coloring at this stage and stir to combine evenly.

It’s now time to put the whole thing together!  

Remove the chilled cookies from the fridge and add a ¼ teaspoon of icing to each one.  We like to use an offset spatula to make the job easier, but a regular knife would work just as well.  

Add more sprinkles on top of the wet icing and place the cookies back into the fridge to let the icing firm up.

Once the icing is firm, enjoy cookies!  You can store these cookies in the fridge for up to 5 days…if they last that long!

No-Bake Sugar Cookies – Step By Step

Step 1: Mix the brown sugar and butter in a medium mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy.

Step 2: Add the flour, condensed milk, and vanilla extract and stir until fully combined.

Step 3: Stir in the sprinkles and place the dough in the fridge and chill for 30 minutes.

Step 4: After the dough is chilled, remove from the fridge and using a teaspoon, shape dough into small balls, placing them 1-inch apart on your cookie sheet.

Step 5: Flatten the dough balls with your fingers until even.  Pop back into the fridge for another 30 minutes to chill.

Step 6: Prepare the icing: In a small bowl, add a couple of drops of water to your icing sugar and stir to combine. You want the icing to be thick and smooth.

Step 7: Once your cookies have chilled, remove from the fridge and frost with a small amount of icing and sprinkles.

Put your cookies back into the fridge for 15 minutes to let the icing dry completely before eating.

Up Next: No-Bake White Chocolate Cookies