This Easy Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Hack Uses Store-Bought Dough—and the Results Are Adorable

With holiday season around the corner, it’s time to bake, bake and bake some more! Whether you’re making chocolate chip cookies for Santa or looking to jazz things up with these Sweet and Salty Chocolate Reindeer, there’s no doubt that Christmas time is just made for lots of sweet treats.

Of course, when we’re running out of time, we often turn to stuff that’s easier to use, like ready-to-eat cookie dough—which makes perfect sense when you’re short on time. Our favorite for the holiday season is the Pillsbury Christmas Tree Shape Sugar Cookie Dough. It just screams festive cheer! And now, thanks to some searching and a little creative flair, we’ve managed to find a way to add it to our list of Pillsbury sugar cookie hacks.

The Best Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Hack for Holiday Bakers

This amazing recipe we’re about to share with you comes from the blog A Baking Wonderland, and it’s super delicious for something so simple. It makes sure that every cookie that your guests (and you) get will be unique!

Ingredients

1 package Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tablespoon black cocoa powder
Sprinkles

Directions

Step 1: Make your cookie dough

Preheat oven to 325°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Beat together butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy, then add egg and vanilla extract. Beat until well blended. Add flour and baking soda, then beat until dough forms a ball.

Step 2: Customize your cookie dough

Remove the ball from the mixing bowl and split into 3 equal portions. (You can use a digital kitchen scale for this step if you want to be precise!) Add 1/3 cup of sprinkles to one of the dough balls, add Dutch-processed cocoa to the second dough ball and add black cocoa to the third dough ball.

Step 3: Put it all together

Roll small dough balls with each type of dough, then roll the dough balls into long logs. Roll the logs around Pillsbury Christmas cookie dough (the kind with a holiday shape in the center).

Step 4: Bake and cool

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges start to become golden, then move cookies to a cooling rack.
This is just one of the Pillsbury sugar cookie hacks we have up our sleeves. Don’t forget to check out this chocolate chip-sugar cookie hybrid, too! And if you’re looking for more fun and easy Christmas treat ideas, don’t forget to check out Santa’s Trash cookies and Reindeer Bait snack mix.

More of Our Favorite Christmas Cookies

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This tender spritz cookie recipe is very eye-catching on my Christmas cookie tray. The dough is easy to work with, so it's fun to make these spritz cookies into a variety of festive shapes. This is hands down the best spritz cookie recipe ever. —Beverly Launius, Sandwich, Illinois Go to Recipe Fill your kitchen with holiday cheer with this Christmas songs playlist.

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