Learn how to spice up sugar cookies fast with these easy store bought sugar cookie dough hacks. Most of these ideas will take you no time at all and use less ingredients than homemade dough. Impress everyone this holiday season or at your next bake sale with these sugar cookie hacks.

4 kinds of sugar cookies on a white plate on wood — Store Bought Sugar Cookie Dough Hacks: Dipped Sugar Cookies

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I love hacking box mixes and store bought cookie dough.

While I cook from scratch, I often don’t bake from scratch.

Why?

It’s sort of a PIA to measure everything out when I have kids hanging from my legs, which these days I often do.

But I love to bake so I have to go all extra on premade mixes.

I hack cake mixes, brownies mixes, and of course I love store bought cookie dough hacks.

All of these store bought sugar cookie dough hacks, only need 2 or 3 ingredients. The result? A beautiful tray of cookies with minimal work and fuss that everyone will love.

Except maybe your picky toddler. They are the wild card.

Ingredients and Kitchen Supplies

You will need different ingredients based on the option you want to make below.

For each you will need:

Store Bought Sugar Cookie Dough – You can pick your favorite brand. And if you really want, you can make your own sugar cookie dough, but that will make it less hacky and more homemade – which is fine.

For the Nonpareil Sugar Cookies, you will need:

Chocolate Chips – Use your favorite variety of chocolate, like semi-sweet, dark, or milk.
Coconut Oil – This helps to soften the chocolate once it dries so that you don’t break your teeth when biting it.
Nonpareils – I use red and green nonpareils, but you could use other types of sprinkles.

For the white chocolate peppermint variety, you will need:

White Chocolate Chips – You can use your favorite brand for this.
Crushed Candy Canes – You can get precrushed or regular candy canes around November or December in most seasonal sections.
Coconut Oil – This helps to soften the chocolate once it dries so that you don’t break your teeth when biting it.

For the chocolate and M&Ms cookies, you will need:

Red and Green M&Ms -You could use other hard shelled chocolate candies, or if you prefer, you could use Reese Pieces or other candies.
Chocolate Chips – Use your favorite variety of chocolate, like semi-sweet, dark, or milk.
Coconut Oil – This helps to soften the chocolate once it dries so that you don’t break your teeth when biting it.

For the snickerdoodle sugar cookies, you will need:

Ground Cinnamon
Granulated Sugar

How to Spice Up a Store Bought Sugar Cookie

You have a lot of options to spice up your standard store bought sugar cookie.

I’ll walk you through some great options below.

For each option, you will want to preheat your oven to the indicated termpature on the package.

This is ussually about 350 degrees F but make sure to double check.

Nonpareil Sugar Cookies

Hand holding a sugar cookie dipped in chocolate and sprinkles — Nonpareil Sugar Cookies

1. Bake the store bought cookie according to the package instructions.

To start, bake the cookie according to the package instructions.

Once baked, allow it to cool before adding the chocolate.

2. Make the chocolate dip.

In a microwave safe-bowl, add semi-sweet or your favorite chocolate chips along with coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl.

Set the bowl in the microwave and cook for about 15 to 30 seconds.

Remove from the microwave, stir, and pop it back in the microwave to cook for about 15 more seconds.

Keep repeating this process until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.

*Make sure to remove the spoon from the bowl if you are using a metal spoon.

3. Dip the store bought sugar cookies in the chocolate.

To finish the sugar cookies, dip half of a cookie into the chocolate and then into a bowl of nonpareils.

Place the cookie on a piece of parchment paper.

Continue the process of dipping until all the cookies have a coating.

Finally, sprinkle with red and green nonpareils or other festive sprinkles.

Place the cookies in the fridge to help the chocolate set faster and then serve when hardened.

White Chocolate Peppermint

store bought sugar cookie dough hacks Hand holding sugar cookie dipped in white chocolate and crushed candy canes in front of holiday bulbs and lights — White chocolate peppermint dipped sugar cookies

1. Bake the store bought cookie according to the package instructions.

To start, bake the cookie according to the package instructions.

Once baked, allow it to cool before adding the chocolate.

2. Make the white chocolate dip.

In a microwave safe-bowl, add the white chocolate chips along with coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl.

Set the bowl in the microwave and cook for about 15 to 30 seconds.

Remove from the microwave, stir, and pop it back in the microwave to cook for about 15 more seconds.

Keep repeating this process until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.

*Make sure to remove the spoon from the bowl if you are using a metal spoon.

3. Dip the store bought sugar cookies in the white chocolate.

To finish the sugar cookies, dip half of a cookie into the white chocolate and then immediately dip into the crushed candy canes.

Place on a piece of parchment paper.

Continue the process of dipping until all the cookies have a coating of white chocolate.

To finish, I added candy cane pieces, but you can use festive sprinkles or other candies as a topping.

Make sure to add them before the white chocolate hardens.

You can place the dipped cookies in the fridge to help them set faster.

Severe once the white chocolate has hardened.

Chocolate M&Ms

I have two main options for making the store bought sugar cookies with M&Ms or similar candies.

A plate of sugar cookies dipped in chocolate and M&Ms on wood with holiday ornaments and lights store bought sugar cookie dough hacks — M&Ms and chocolate dipped sugar cookies

Option 1: Dipped Sugar Cookies with M&Ms

1. Bake the store bought cookie according to the package instructions.

To start, bake the cookie according to the package instructions.

Once baked, allow it to cool before adding the chocolate.

2. Make the chocolate dip.

In a microwave safe-bowl, add semi-sweet or your favorite chocolate chips along with coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl.

Set the bowl in the microwave and cook for about 15 to 30 seconds.

Remove from the microwave, stir, and pop it back in the microwave to cook for about 15 more seconds.

Keep repeating this process until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth.

*Make sure to remove the spoon from the bowl if you are using a metal spoon.

3. Dip the store bought sugar cookies in the chocolate.

To finish the sugar cookies, dip half of a cookie into the chocolate and place on a piece of parchment paper and then into a bowl of M&Ms or other candy.

Continue the process of dipping until all the cookies have a coating.

To help them set faster, you can place them in the fridge.

Serve the cookies once they have fully set.

Option 2: Sugar Cookie Dough Mixed with M&Ms

1. Mix the dough.

Before you bake these cookies, remove the sugar cookie dough from its package and place in a large bowl.

Use your hands to mix the M&Ms into the dough.

2. Bake the cookies.

Form the dough into small balls and place on a cookie sheet.

Leave a little room between each cookie.

Bake according to the package instructions.

You may need to adjust the time slightly, so check them a minute or two before the indicated end time to help make sure they do not burn.

3. Serve the M&Ms sugar cookies or dip in chocolate.

You can serve the M&M sugar cookies as is when cooled or follow the instructions above to make them chocolate dipped.

And if you’re not a fan of M&M’s?

Substitute Reeses Pieces for the M&M’s instead!

Snickerdoodles

Hand holding a snickerdoodle in front of a red cloth and holiday ornaments store bought sugar cookie dough hacks — Snickerdoodles from Store bought cookie dough

1. Make a cinnamon sugar mix.

Combine about 1 cup granulated sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.

You can use a fork to make sure it is well-combined.

2. Roll balls of store bought sugar cookie dough in the cinnamon and sugar mix.

Remove the store bought sugar cookie dough from the packaging.

Using a tablespoon or melonballer, make roughly equal sized balls from the dough.

Take a ball and roll it around in the cinnamon sugar mix.

Repeat for each ball.

3. Bake the cookies.

slightly flatten the snickerdoodles — Slightly flatten the snickerdoodles

Once you have all the sugar cookie dough balls coated, place them on a prepared cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.

Gently push them down to flatten the dough into discs.

Bake according to the package instructions, but check when they are about 1 to 2 minutes away from being done to check if they are done.

Serve when cooled.

Serving and Storing

These store bought sugar cookie dough hacks have a decent shelf-life.

They should stay fresh in an airtight container for about 5 to 7 days on the counter.

You can serve these along side other cookie desserts, like these stuffed chocolate chip cookie hacks.

Tips and Tricks for Store Bought Sugar Cookies

sugar cookie dough balls on parchment paper — Make 1 inch balls out of the cookie dough

I promise you- all these cookies are so easy to make!

But there are a couple of tricks and tips that will set you up for dipped cookie success.

All of these tips and tricks came from my own trial and error so you can get fantastic cookies on the first try.

Follow these tricks for your best dipped sugar cookies ever:

For all of the cookies, don’t slice and bake the dough the way you would for sugar cookies you were going to ice. The cookies will spread and wind up too big to dip well. When the cookies are too large, they are more likely to break in the chocolate.
Make sure you don’t skip thinning the chocolate with a bit of coconut oil or canola oil. It will help the chocolate coat the end of the cookies much more smoothly.
For the M&M cookies, I find that coating both sides of the cookie in M&Ms, while delicious, will not allow the cookie to lay nicely on a tray. Skip the M&Ms on the back of the cookies if you want pretty presentation.
Let the cookies cool fully prior to dipping. If you don’t let them cool, they will be very fragile while you dip them and may break apart.
Once you’ve dipped all the chocolate coated cookies, let them set at room temperature or in the fridge before serving.
Don’t want to dip them? Turn them into a festive cookie sandwich by spreading a thick layer peppermint frosting onto the bottom of one cookie and topping the frosting with another!

Other Store Bought Dough and Mix Hacks You Might Love

These cookie dough hacks are just the tip of the iceberg my friends. Try these other store bought dough hacks.

Cookies

Brownies

Cake Mix Hacks

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Store Bought Sugar Cookie Dough Hacks: Dipped Sugar Cookies

These easy hacks turn store bought sugar cookie dough cookies into festive, fun treats the whole family will love.

Print Recipe Rate Recipe

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: dipped sugar cookies, store bought cookie dough hack, store bought sugar cookie, sugar cookie dough hack

Servings:

Author: jfletcher