Sugar cookies with sprinkles are a quick and fun treat for birthday parties, teacher gifts, or any type of celebration! They're soft, fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Use different colored sprinkles for different holidays - think red & green for Christmas or black & orange for Halloween!
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small glass bowl, microwave unsalted butter (¾ cup, i.e. 1 ½ sticks) until melted. Pour into large mixing bowl.
Add in granulated sugar (½ cup) and powdered sugar (½ cup) and mix for 10 seconds.
Add eggs (1 whole and 1 egg yolk), almond extract (½ teaspoon), and vanilla extract (2 teaspoons) then mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.
Turn mixer to low speed, and add baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons), baking soda (½ teaspoon), and salt (¼ teaspoon). Mix for 10 seconds.
Half cup at a time, add all-purpose flour (2 ¼ cups) and mix until flour is just incorporated (about 10-20 seconds). Do not overmix. Mix in sprinkles (¼ cup).
Immediately after mixing, scoop dough into (3 tablespoon sized) balls. Lightly flatten each ball before placing on cookie sheet. (Because this has melted butter, do not let the dough sit out before rolling into balls & baking, or your dough will become dry and crumbly.)
Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. (The magic number in my oven is 9 minutes) They may look underdone, but they will finish baking on the hot cookie sheet after you take it out of the oven. (Of course, because ovens bake differently use your best judgment to keep them in a minute longer if they look severely under baked.)
After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.
Enjoy plain or spread or pipe cream cheese frosting on cooled cookies and top with more sprinkles!