One year, Joey volunteered to help me make peppernuts.
As he helped me cut the tiny cookies, he suddenly asked, “What would happen if you just made a big peppernut?”
I was a little confused.
“I mean, it would just be a big cookie,” I said.
I could see his wheels turning.
“So, it wouldn’t taste different?”
“Well, I suppose the texture and cook time would be different, but the flavor wouldn’t change,” I told him.
“So why are we spending all this time making tiny cookies, when the bigger ones would be just as good,” he asked.
I didn’t have an answer for that one, outside of citing “tradition.”
Also, who doesn’t like eating cookies by the handful?
I thought about that conversation when I was making this week’s recipe, which features a different kind of tiny cookie.
Why are they tiny? Because it’s fun. There’s not really any other reason.
You can find the original recipe on the blog “Chelsweets” by Chelsey White at https://chelsweets.com/funfetti-shortbread-cookies/. I didn’t change anything other than using a slightly different style of sprinkles than the recipe called for.
Funfetti Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles divided
Instructions
- Add the butter, flour, powdered sugar and salt to a mixing bowl and beat for a couple minutes, until the dough comes together.
- Stir in about 3 tablespoons of the sprinkles to evenly distribute them throughout the dough.
- Place a large piece of plastic wrap on your countertop, and dump the dough onto it. Flatten the dough out into a rectangle about one-quarter-inch tall.
- Sprinkle the rest of the sprinkles on top and press them down into the top of the dough.
- Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least an hour.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare a couple baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper, and set them aside.
- Unwrap the cookie dough and cut it into about one-inch squares.
- Place the squares about one inch apart on the prepared baking sheets, and bake them, one sheet at a time, for 10 to 12 minutes or until the dough is set and the edges are just slightly golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool on the pan, and then slide them into an airtight container.
These were buttery and way too easy to snack on, thanks to their smaller size.
I poured these into a bowl with a scoop for a get together, and they looked super cute. If you need something fun for a charcuterie spread or a cookie/dessert table, these would fit the bill.
Just don’t think too hard about why the cookies are so small. You probably won’t find a satisfactory answer.
This first appeared in print Nov. 5, 2026.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
