A super soft sugar cookie recipe that is a tried and true favorite. Soft and chewy sugar cookies bake up fluffy then are topped with buttercream frosting for any holiday or party!
Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
I’ve been using this delicious sugar cookie recipe for several years, and these really are the best sugar cookies with a super soft, fluffy and moist texture! If you love soft sugar cookies, try brown sugar cookies, copycat Swig cookies and sugar cookie truffles.
This recipe reminds me of bakery-style Lofthouse cookies my mom bought as a kid, but better! It’s one of my tried and true cookie recipes that is a big family favorite.
Ingredients for Soft Sugar Cookies
I’ve tried numerous ingredient combinations for sugar cookies and 2 secret ingredients for the best soft cookies are sour cream and butter!
Find the printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Unsalted butter and sour cream: Sour cream helps make them super soft and moist, while softened butter makes the outside edges crispy.
- Sugar: A MUST for sugar cookies that adds sweetness and texture!
- Large eggs: Eggs bind and help the dough hold shape.
- Extract: Vanilla extract for rich flavor and lemon or almond extract for additional taste.
- Baking staples: All-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt add structure and gives the sugar cookies lift and rise.
Variations
There are so many ways to make these soft sugar cookies your own!
- Sugar cookie bars: Super soft sugar cookies but in bar form with a sweet flavor, soft base and plenty of frosting and sprinkles.
- Celebrate the occasion: Cut out dough with shaped cookie cutters to match the holiday. Add food coloring to the frosting and festive sprinkles on top.
- Skip the frosting: Roll cookies in colored sugar, granulated sugar or even cinnamon sugar before baking. Fold multi-colored jimmies into the dough like I do in funfetti cake mix cookie recipe.
- No cutting out: Make my no roll drop sugar cookies!
- Half batch. This recipe makes bout 2-3 dozen cookies, so you can easily cut it in half to make less. Or store half of dough in freezer to make fruit pizza.
How to Make Soft Sugar Cookies
The first thing everyone looks for in a sugar cookie is the softness then the flavor, these have both!
- Make sugar cookie dough: In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.Add in eggs, extracts and sour cream then mix until combined. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix just until combined.
- Chill: Split dough in two and place in saran wrap dusted with powdered sugar. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.
- Roll dough: Roll out dough on a baker’s mat or parchment paper to about 1/4″ thick. Add up to another 1/4 cup flour if dough is still sticky.
- Cut into shapes: Cut the cookie dough with a cookie cutter that has been dipped into flour.
- Bake: Bake at 350°F for 8-9 minutes, until edges are slightly golden.
- Cool then frost: Allow cookies to cool on pan for 2 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Tips for the Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
Here are some extra tips to help you make the softest cookies!
- Don’t overmix. Mix the dough until just combined. Over mixing causes them to dry out, and your cookies won’t be as soft and fluffy.
- Chill the dough. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 to 2 hours before cutting shapes to prevent spread in the oven. Just like my easy butter cookies you can also make it a day or two ahead of time.
- Thickness. I like to roll my dough out about 1/4 inch thick. It gives the cookies the perfect width and makes them rise beautifully in the oven.
- Perfectly shaped cookies: Roll out your dough on a baking mat or between two pieces of parchment paper (so you don’t have to peel up the shapes) then dust cookie cutters with powdered sugar or flour and cut out perfectly shaped cookies.
- Cool before frosting. As tempting as it is, let them cool completely before frosting the tops. If they are still warm, the frosting can melt and change texture.
Decorating Soft Sugar Cookies
I love to top these cookies with lots of frosting and sprinkles!
- Buttercream frosting: A light and fluffy buttercream frosting is the perfect compliment. A simple vanilla frosting also tastes great.
- Cream cheese frosting: If you like a tangier frosting, this is a favorite. You will need to refrigerate the cookies due to the addition of the cream cheese. You could also use a sour cream frosting.
- Sugar cookie icing: I especially love using this icing when making Christmas sugar cookies. It’s perfect for decorating, has a beautiful shine and is a bit easier than a royal icing.
Make Ahead and Freezing
- Make ahead: Sugar cookie dough can also be made ahead and kept frozen for up to 3 months. Just wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then stick in a freezer zip lock. Thaw for 2 hours at room temperature to soften before rolling out. You can also keep dough in the fridge and use with 2-3 days.
- Store: These cookies will keep for about 3 weeks, if stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Freeze: Store them with or without frosting in the freezer. Just wrap them in plastic wrap and place in a zip top bag for up to 3 months. Just be sure to freeze them the same day you bake them.
More soft cookie recipes include cream cheese cookies recipe, snickerdoodle cookies, gooey butter cookies and chocolate crinkle cookies!
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Sugar Cookies
Video
Equipment
- Cookie Sheet
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter , at room temp
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs , at room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon lemon or almond extract , whichever flavor you prefer
- 1 cup sour cream
- 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
Buttercream frosting:
- ¾ cup butter
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the cookies:
- Cream sugar and butter. In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup butter and 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar. Beat until creamy. Add in 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract and 1 cup sour cream and mix together until combined.
- Dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together 5 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix just until combined.
- Chill dough. Split dough in two and press flat in saran wrap (this will make it easier to roll out later). Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.
- Cut-out cookies. Once dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough on a baker's mat to about 1/4" thick. Add up to another 1/4 cup flour if dough is still sticky. Cut with floured cookie cutter.
- Bake. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until edges are slightly golden. Then allow to cool on pan for 2 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
For the Frosting:
- Combine. For the buttercream, combine 3/4 cup butter, 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a medium-sized bowl. Feel free to add in food coloring. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Frost. Frost buttercream on cooled cookies and serve. :)
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Recipe FAQs
It is a balancing act! You don’t want to have too much butter because that will make your cookies to spread when baked. Chilling your cookies is also helpful.
I don’t recommend ever opening the oven, but getting a closer look and feel with a touch from the spatula, you can tell if they still need a few extra minutes. Looking through the glass and using an oven light this will help to see
Usually if the cookie dough is dry or crumbly it usually means the dough was over mixed or too much dry ingredients are added in the dough. To reverse this process add in one to two tablespoons liquid. Use either water, milk, or softened butter to help.
You will want to make sure that the butter is not too soft but also not melted when you are mixing. Once the cookies are baked, you can use a circular cookie cutter and place around the sugar cookie. In a circular motion, circle to the cookie a few times until it begins to make a perfect circle shape.
Categorized as: American, Birthdays, Christmas, Cookies, Desserts, Freezer-Friendly, Frosted Cookies, Holiday Cookies, Kid-Friendly, Nut-Free, Valentine's Day, Vegetarian
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
I just wanted to send you a huge thank you! I am a crunchy sugar cookie, decorate before baking sort of girl. My husband is a soft sugar cookie, frost and sprinkle sort of guy. I have tried to make his mom’s recipe, but it just never tasted quite right to me. Also, I could write a book on failed buttercream frosting attempts. But this recipe, for both cookies and frosting, is so delicious I might be changing my sugar cookie ideology. The dough was really, really sticky so I might add 1/4c to 1/2c flour extra next time, but if the taste is at all affected, I’ll gladly work with sticky dough again. Thank you for this delicious treat.
I’m so happy you had success with this recipe! We’ve been using it for years and it is a favorite! :)
Quick question, do these have to be refrigerated afterwards due to the ingredients in the frosting?
I don’t refrigerate, but you could if you’re concerned. :)
I love all of your recipes!! These are scrumptious!
Thank you! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
I have made a lot of sugar cookies in my day and these are by far the best….EVER! I used a large heart-shaped cookie cutter and got 34 cookies out of that batch and I used unsalted butter and they came out perfect. Thank you for such great recipe!
Do these work well with Royal icing or are they too “puffy”?
I don’t know about puffy, but they are very, very soft. Typically, Royal Icing is used on a harder cookie for the stability.
These are my youngest son’s favorite !
after chilling the dough I made yesterday I is like a rock! any suggestion on how to soften it enough to roll out?
I usually let my dough sit on the counter for 20 minutes if it’s too hard to roll out – you still want it cold, but you want it to be malleable, too. I’ve found wrapping a flat disk (instead of a ball) helps both for storing the dough in the fidge, and needing less time on the counter before rolling out. Happy baking! :)
I have tried these 2 times. The first dough I thru away it was to sticky to work with. This time was the same except I added at least 1 more cup of flour just to separate it and I’m guessing I will have to add another cup to cut them. I am following the directions and getting frustrated . any idea why I can’t make this work?
Hi Tracy! There’s a couple of things it could be… the temperature and humidity of your home could be vastly different than here. Also, refrigerating to chilled to a huge step. If the dough gets too warm, it can become a sticky, goopy mess. Make sure you’re working with a really cold dough (to the point that it seems it will break if you try to bend it) when you start to roll it out. Also, before when you’re wrapping it to chill – go ahead and make it a flat disk. I like to wrap it in plastic as a square, then pound it down with my hands (when it’s already wrapped) to make it as uniformly flat as possible. Hope these tips help! :)
Hey there, I was wondering why you split the dough in half before you refrigerate? and do you wrap into a ball or flatten it?
Hi Chelsea! You don’t have to refrigerate beforehand, I just like to work with half the dough at a time. Sometimes I will freeze half the dough.
i have been practicing making cookies and everytime they taste great but never stay in their same size as the cookie cutter. Do you have any suggestions on how to achieve this?
Refrigerating the dough helps hold the shape and the tip about the powdered sugar helps too! :)
thank you so much for posting this recipe! They are delicious! Is it possible to bake and frost then re-freeze the cookies for several days until I need to serve?
Hi Rebecca! I’m sure that would work great. I have also froze half the dough, let it thaw, and then baked and that worked great as well. :)
love your recipes and anxious to try the sunny cupcakes, your daughter is adorable.
Looking forward to receive your tips.
Helen
Are there separate directions for the frosting that I am overlooking?
Hi Angela! Just scroll a little bit father and there will be two different recipes for frosting. :)
Loved these sugar cookies!
Hi! I’m wondering if I make the dough the night before I plan on baking and decorating is that too long to chill the dough for?
Hi Nikki! You can make the dough the night before if you would like. I usually make it the day of and chill for about an hour. :)
Delicious
Ingenious, so good
The best part about your posting, is the expression on your little girl’s face. What a cutie she is!
Thank you Kathy! She is my best baking partner! :)