These 4th of July cookies are a soft, chewy and buttery sugar cookie base, topped with a creamy buttercream frosting and sprinkled with all the red, white and blue sprinkles. They are the perfect patriotic dessert for your 4th of July party.

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. For us, it’s always a holiday that’s celebrated outside with family and friends. We typically have a cookout. Nothing brings me more joy than being outside with the people I love most, celebrating and eating good food. I LOVEEEEEE grilled food. Burgers and hot dogs? Yes please! But a good cookout cannot be complete unless there are yummy dessert options.

These 4th of July cookies make the perfect 4th of July dessert. Not only are they delicious, but they’re super patriotic looking and what’s more perfect than a patriotic cookie on Independence Day? The cookie base is made from a sugar cookie dough. The cookie itself is soft and chewy. It also has a yummy buttery taste. The dough contains brown sugar and this allows the bottoms of the cookies to caramelize and have a beautiful (and tasty) light brown crunch.

As an extra bonus this 4th of July cookie recipe is super easy to make. It’s a one bowl for the cookie dough and one bowl for the buttercream frosting kind of recipe. You probably will have the majority of the ingredients, if not all of them, in your pantry. There also is zero chill time for the cookie dough. YAY! So, if you are looking for an easy and quick dessert recipe to throw together before a party, this is it!

[OTHER COOKIE RECIPES PERFECT FOR THE 4TH OF JULY: BLUEBERRY MUFFIN COOKIES & RED VELVET SANDWICH COOKIES STUFFED WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING ]

INGREDIENTS FOR 4TH OF JULY COOKIES

Cookie Dough Ingredients

unsalted butter
granulated sugar
brown sugar
egg
vanilla
all purpose flour
baking soda
baking powder
salt

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

unsalted butter
powdered sugar
vanilla
heavy cream or milk

Topping Ingredients

patriotic sprinkles

HOW TO MAKE 4TH OF JULY COOKIE RECIPE

Prepare. Preheat the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat. I used a silicon mat for this recipe. Parchment paper works just fine too.
Make the dough. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until you no longer see streaks of flour.
Roll into dough balls. Use a cookie scoop or spoon to gather dough and roll into balls. My cookie scoop holds 3 tablespoons of dough and that makes the perfect cookie size for us (about the size of my palm). If you’d like bigger or smaller, adjust the amount of dough in your balls accordingly. Keep in mind that you may need to adjust the baking time.
Bake in batches. Place 6-8 cookies on your prepared baking sheet and place into your preheated oven. You’ll know your cookies are done when the edges start to crisp and your cookie turns a light golden color. Your cookies will continue to bake while cooling on the pan. Do not over bake. This will make your cookie dry and crumbly.
Make the buttercream frosting. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and vanilla until smooth. Add the powdered sugar in a little at a time. You’ll also begin to add the heavy cream or milk in a little at a time. Mix until smooth. Add in heavy cream a tablespoon at a time until you reach a consistency you like. You do not want your frosting to be runny.
Cool. When the cookies are finished baking allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack or parchment paper to finish cooling.
Top the cookies. Put your buttercream frosting into a piping bag or a ziplock bag. Cut a decent amount of the tip off of the bag. Starting from the center of the cookie, swirl the frosting around the cookie. You can also just spread the frosting on if piping isn’t your jam. Sprinkle with patriotic sprinkles.
ENJOY! These are going to be a crowd pleaser!

HOW TO STORE 4TH OF JULY FIREWORK COOKIES

I’m telling you that these will be gone FAST at your party. If you do happen to have any extra, store them in an airtight container in your refrigerator. They’ll stay yummy all week. We think 4th of July cookies with buttercream frosting taste amazing straight out of the refrigerator, but if cold cookies aren’t your vibe, let them sit at room temp for 20 minutes before you dig in.

These cookies also freeze wonderfully. I personally would only freeze the cookie base and then make the frosting fresh. That’s just me though. Flash freeze the sugar cookie in a single layer before piling them in an airtight container or ziplock bag. This will allow you to stack the cookies without having them stick together.

You can also freeze dough balls. Again, flash freeze in a single layer before stacking them so the dough doesn’t stick together.

I hope my 4th of July cookie recipe is the perfect addition to your celebration. I’m 100% positive your friends and fam will LOVE these. Oh, and GUESS WHAT!? You can literally make these for ANY holiday. Just change the sprinkles. Okurrrrrr. BEST. RECIPE. EVER. Right!?!? Happy baking! Until the next cookie recipe, friends.

Hugs & Cookies,

Kayla

OTHER COOKIE RECIPES YOU MAY LOVE

Easy 4th of July Cookies

Author: Kayla Doseck | Little Mama Cookies
Total Time: 21 minutes
Yield: 14 cookies 1x

Print Recipe

Description

These 4th of July cookies are a soft, chewy and buttery sugar cookie base, topped with a creamy buttercream frosting and sprinkled with all the red, white and blue sprinkles. They are the perfect patriotic dessert for your 4th of July party.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat. Set aside for later.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix until light and fluffy.
Add in egg and vanilla. Mix until just combined.
Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until you no longer see streaks of flour.
Use a cookie scoop or spoon to gather dough and roll into dough balls. My dough balls were made with approximately 3 tablespoons of dough.
Place 6-8 dough balls onto your prepared baking sheet. Put the baking sheet in the oven. Baked for 11-12 minutes. You’ll know the cookies are done baking when the edges start to crisp and the cookie turns a light golden color. Cookies will continue to bake while cooling. Do not over bake! 11 minutes was the perfect bake time for my cookies.
While the cookies are baking, begin to make your butter cream frosting. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and vanilla until smooth.
Add in the powdered sugar a little bit at a time. Mix. Add in heavy cream or milk in a tablespoon at a time. Mix until you reach a smooth consistency that you like. Your frosting should not be runny.
Put the frosting in a piping bag or ziplock bag. Set aside for later.
When your cookies are fished baking allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack or parchment paper to finish cooling.
Wait until the cookies are completely cooled to begin frosting. Cut a decent amount of the tip off of your bag. Start in the center of your cookie and begin spiraling the frosting on the cookie. Top the cookies with sprinkles.
Try them out. They are delish!

Notes

You want your frosting to be thick enough to hold its shape but not so thick that you can hardly squeeze it out of the piping bag. Add the heavy cream or milk in 1 tablespoon at a time. If you feel that it’s too thick add more heavy cream or milk. Don’t go crazy all at once though, or it’ll be too thin.

Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 11
Category: Dessert
Method: Bake
Cuisine: American

Keywords: 4th of July cookies, 4th of July sugar cookies, 4th of July buttercream cookies