A secret ingredient in this sugar cookies recipe makes these cookies the SOFTEST and most flavorful cookies of your life! And they even hold their shape after baking, so you get exactly what you want instead of sad blob cookies. (Frost them with The BEST Buttercream Frosting for Sugar Cookies or Royal Icing!) Originally posted March 15, 2017.
Table of Contents
- The best soft sugar cookie recipe I´ve ever tried
- Soft sugar cookie ingredients
- How to make soft sugar cookies
- What thickness is best for cutout cookies?
- How do you keep a Sugar Cookie soft?
- FAQ about this soft sugar cookie recipe
- What makes this sugar cookie recipe so soft?
- Can you freeze soft sugar cookies after frosting?
- How I mass produce this soft sugar cookies recipe
- Buttercream frosting versus Royal icing
- Cut out sugar cookie recipe for every holiday
- More frosted cookies you will love!
- Soft Sugar Cookies Recipe
I’m doing dishes in the kitchen when all a sudden I hear the saddest, most piercing cry come out of 4 month old Valentine. Slightly panicked, I asked Eric what happened, and he said, “I kissed her.” Oh, the drawbacks of having a beard. This actually happens all the time. Poor baby-faced Valentine!
I went running last week for the first time in a very long time (like, pre-pregnancy…) I ran for 20 solid minutes and probably only went a mile and a half. (Picture a slug glorping along on the sidewalk and you pretty much have an idea of me running.)
Anyway, when I got home both of my big toes were killing me, and since then they have developed dark bruises underneath my nails. You know what this means, right? Get new shoes? Learn how to run the right way? No. Listen, people, it’s a sign. The sign says DON’T EVER GO RUNNING AGAIN KAREN.
Instead, eat alllll the sugar cookies.
The best soft sugar cookie recipe I´ve ever tried
I’m super excited to share this recipe with you guys today! I’ve been working on this post for a while now. The recipe is adapted from my sister-in-law Sandi. I wrote it down in pencil in a notebook years ago and have been tweaking it ever since. They are good sugar cookies, for sure, but I was on the hunt for a secret ingredient that would make them next-level.
Here’s the thing. Sugar cookies for me MUST be super soft. No crunchy edges, please. I want a THICK cookie with a THICK layer of frosting. And please, none of this royal icing business. Give me the goods. Go buttercream or go home. (Update 2024: I stand by this sentiment in general, but have recently expanded my thinking 😂 Royal Icing can be easy, tasty, and such a fun project to do. Here is my Royal Icing recipe!)
So, here it is. A sugar cookie that is moist and soft and does not dry out or crunch! It’s magical! How is it done? Cream cheese. I know, what?? Didn’t our grandmas only use butter for sugar cookies? Why yes, yes they did, and guess what, their cookies were hard and crunchy ;)We are still using butter, oh yes. But we are replacing half of the normal amount of butter used in sugar cookies with dreamy creamy cream cheese. The resultant cookies are tender and soft and have a delicious flavor, with a tiny bit of a tang from the cream cheese.
I tested this recipe several times and didn’t make frosting every time. I enjoyed the cookies all by themselves. They are sweet but not overwhelming. (The buttercream frosting for cookies takes care of that.) They have tons of flavor from the butter, as well as the almond and vanilla extracts. Let’s dig into the details!
Soft sugar cookie ingredients
Make sure you have the following on hand. Don’t forget the secret ingredient: cream cheese!!! (Quantities are given in the recipe below.)
- cream cheese
- salted butter. (Unsalted butter will work just fine, but remember to add a ¼ teaspoon of salt for every stick (½ cup) of unsalted butter.)
- flour
- granulated sugar
- egg
- vanilla
- almond extract. (You can sub the almond for vanilla if you want. But I’m telling you, the combo of almond and vanilla is what makes this cookie.)
- salt
How to make soft sugar cookies
These cookies are soooooo good. You can literally make them for any holiday or occasion and people will love them. But there are a few key steps you´ll need to know so they don´t come out hard and overbaked. I also recommend you use silicone baking mats on your cookie sheets for baking. Silicone baking mats help with even heat distribution for perfectly baked cookies, which in turn helps keep these cookies extra soft.
Your dough will be sticky, which is good!
Here’s the bottom of a baked cookie. It’s not browned at all and okay, okay, you may want to let it go a minute or two longer than this, especially if you plan to gift them to someone (as opposed to eating them over the kitchen sink, which was my plan for this cookie). Baking them longer makes them a bit more sturdy but also a bit more dried out (read: crunch). Do you see that dark spot in the center of the cookie? Perfectly underbaked. THAT’S the sugar cookie I want to eat. Yum.
What thickness is best for cutout cookies?
I researched sugar cookies for quite a while before landing on today’s recipe and method. One of the things I learned is that it doesn’t matter how great your sugar cookie recipe is, the rolling technique is where most people go wrong. Make sure you have a good rolling pin for this part.
This is 3/8 inch. Thiiiiick.
To get a THICK, soft sugar cookie, the dough needs to be rolled out, you guess it, MEGA THICK. We are talking about ⅜ of an inch, and yes I’ve provided an actual measuring tape for all you people like me who have a hard time with the maths. You can see in the picture on the left about how thick this is compared to my fingers.
When you are cutting the cookies, don’t forget to put some flour on your cookie cutters, especially if it’s a very intricate design. On the right: I use my finger to get the excess flour/dough off the outside of the cookie cutter. I used a knife to get it out of the corners of the shamrock. If you don’t do this, you won’t have sharp edges on your baked cookie.
I like to use a pastry brush to get the flour off the tops of the shaped cookies. The one on the right is already baked. It still looks like a shamrock!
Here’s another example. Snowflakes, not snow blobs.
On the left: this is half the dough rolled out. On the right: all the cookies from an entire batch. How many you get depends on what shape cookie cutters you use.
How do you keep a Sugar Cookie soft?
One of my biggest tips is to make sure you care for your final baked cookies! If you put the sugar cookies into a Tupperware right after they have cooled a few minutes on the pan, they will stay softer longer. Letting sugar cookies sit out is what makes them get dry and crunchy. Don’t do it! Put your treasure into a Tupperware or ziplock asap!
FAQ about this soft sugar cookie recipe
Absolutely nothing! If you use unsalted butter, your cookies will be exactly the same as if you had used salted butter, but they will have less salt, which will make them a little more bland. No thanks. Just add in an extra 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and you are good to go!
Want to keep your dough from spreading? Try humming Ice, Ice Baby the entire time you’re cooking. Or go ahead and rap it. You might have skills I lack.
COLD dough, people. COLD. Cold dough holds its shape in the oven, preserving the adorable shapes you so painstakingly cut them into. If you bake your cookies when the dough is not chilled, they will not hold their shape as well, and the texture of the final cookies will be wrong.
You will also notice that there is no leavening agent in this recipe. No baking soda, no baking powder. Just flour and eggs to help these cookies rise a minimal amount. This is on purpose! We do not want our sugar cookies rising, we want them to keep their shape. Chocolate Chip Cookies go into the oven in a ball, and the baking soda helps them rise and spread out. Exactly the OPPOSITE of what we want for cut out sugar cookies.
Cut the dough before baking. There’s pretty much no way to get a consistently clean edge if you bake first and then try to cut.
You know how most cookie recipes say to cook until the edges are golden? Just say no! No, I tell you! They’ll be hard and crunchy instead of soft, tender, and chewy. You do not want the edges or tops to brown at all.
The cookies should be barely browned on the bottom. When the cookies are baking, they will have a shiny surface on top. When they are fully baked, they will appear completely matte across the top, but not at all brown. Watch carefully! Overbaking is a death sentence for soft cookies.
What makes this sugar cookie recipe so soft?
I will only accept soft cookies. Soft!!! In case you’re skimming this post and haven’t been bossed around enough on SOFT COOKIE RULES, here’s the short version:
- Use cream cheese in the dough to replace some of the butter
- CHILL the dough!
- Roll out the dough mega thick, like ⅜ inch.
- Do not overbake the cookies! They should be just barely matte on top, but not golden on the edges.
- Transfer to a sealed container within minutes after cooling.
- Frost with Buttercream Frosting. I know I said earlier that you can use royal icing, but if you want truly soft sugar cookies, royal icing just is not going to cut it, my friends. The buttercream locks in moisture and makes your cookies ultra-soft!
Can you freeze soft sugar cookies after frosting?
Bless us all, yes! So much yes. You can bake all throughout November to get Christmas cookies ready, or bake weeks before that wedding you’re providing treats for. Trust me, I always do this!
After removing your cookies from the oven, let them set on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cooled, place the cookies on a cold pan and put the entire pan in the freezer for 1-2 hours. After they are frozen, transfer the cookies into a large food storage container. Unfrosted cookies can be stored for up to 2 months, while frosted cookies should be stored for no more than 4 weeks. More details on frosted cookies follow below.
How I mass produce this soft sugar cookies recipe
Everybody’s got their way of doing things, right? When I need a ton of sugar cookies, here’s how it goes down:
- Day 1: Make the dough and chill for at least 2-3 hours, if not overnight. (You can freeze the dough in a ziplock for up to 3 months at this point! Let thaw in the fridge)
- Day 2: Roll out the dough and bake ALL the cookies. Immediately remove cookies from the pan to a cooling rack and cool completely.
- If you are freezing before frosting: Immediately after cooling (don’t let them dry out! Time is of the essence!) transfer all the cookies to a large food storage container, the kind that is flat and rectangular and holds about a gallon. You can leave these in the freezer for about 4 weeks.
- If you are frosting and then freezing: Once the cookies are cooled, frost as desired and place them back onto a baking sheet. Cram on as many as you can without messing them up. Flash-freeze the cookies for about an hour until the frosting has hardened. Then transfer the frosted cookies to a large food storage container. I like to line them up on their sides so that the frosting has less of a chance of getting messed up. Pack ´em in like sardines.
- At this point, you can leave the cookies in the freezer for up to 4 weeks.
- On the day you want to serve them, take them out of the freezer at least two hours beforehand. Make sure you move them to a flat surface before the frosting gets to room temperature, otherwise all the cookies will start sticking to each other.
- CHRISTMAS: When I am putting together cookie plates at Christmas, I add frosted sugar cookies to the plates completely frozen, along with any other cookies, fudge, or candy that is going on the plate. By the time I’m done assembling all the plates, wrapping them up in cellophane tying them with ribbon adding name tags, and taking them out for delivery, the cookies will have thawed, but all the jostling and wrapping happened when they were still quite chilled and stiff.
Buttercream frosting versus Royal icing
I’ve figured out my absolute favorite buttercream frosting to top these cookies with! This simple recipe has a few secret ingredients that give it the best, most nuanced flavor. I love it and it will always be my favorite!
BUT. This is a January 2024 update. I recently decided to try out Royal Icing, just to see if it was as scary and hard as I always thought. Guess what, it’s not! It’s definitely a project, but can be a really fun one, especially for a group. And I added a few special ingredients to my icing to make it a bit more like my favorite buttercream (and to pair perfectly with these cookies!) It’s really good!
So the choice is yours:
- Make Buttercream if you are looking for a rich, decadent cookie that you have to treat a little bit more like a cupcake (because the frosting is sticky), or
- Make Royal Icing if you want a delicious frosting that is super fun to make intricate designs with, and hardens into a candy-like shell, meaning you can stack or ship your cookies easily.
Cut out sugar cookie recipe for every holiday
I’ve had this sugar cookie recipe on the blog for years now, and I’ve been surprised at the level of traffic on this recipe for EVERY holiday. People just want sugar cookies for every occasion! They are a classic!
I’ve picked out a few of the holidays and linked to cookie cutters that would work for each one, just in case you’re looking for some cute ones. Sugar cookies are so fun to make all year long!
- Valentine’s Day cookie cutters
- St. Patrick’s Day cookie cutters
- Easter cookie cutters
- 4th of July cookie cutters
- Halloween cookie cutters
- Thanksgiving cookie cutters
- Christmas cookie cutters
To be honest, though, I often don’t even make shapes with my sugar cookies, especially if I’m making a massive amount for my kid’s class parties or Christmas gifting. I just use a circle biscuit cutter and have fun with colored frosting and sprinkles.
And that’s it, folks! The best, softest sugar cookies of your life, with no sinister crunching going on. Make it! Love it! Repeat for every holiday! (PS If you want to play with holiday shapes but want a more dainty, sophisticated-looking cookie with a shortbread-like texture, go check out my post on the Perfect Linzer Cookies!!)
More frosted cookies you will love!
- The Softest Chocolate Sugar Cookies >> a chocolate version of this recipe
- Pariserwafiers (Swedish Cream Wafer Cookies) >> these are the tiniest, most delicate buttercream sandwich cookies of your life. Try to eat fewer than 4 in one sitting, I dare you!
- Coconut Frosted Sugar Cookies with Strawberry Hearts >>the most perfect Swig-style sugar cookie
- Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies >> these are one of the top recipes on my site!
- Homemade Oreos with Cream Cheese Frosting >> probably the easiest, fastest cookies ever
- Pumpkin Cookie Recipe (Soft Cookie with Brown Butter Icing) >> super soft, fluffy, and THICK pumpkin cookie that just melts in your mouth
- Peppermint Meltaways from 5 Boys Bakers
- Frosted Gingerbread Cookies from Baker by Nature
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies from Dessert Now Dinner Later
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Soft Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup salted butter, softened (1 and 1/2 sticks)
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 & 3/4 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups flour, spooned and leveled
Instructions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it is soft and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
- Add the softened cream cheese and continue to beat for 1 minute, until well incorporated.
- Add the sugar and beat well, 1-2 minutes, until fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat well. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. This is my spatula that I love and use for every baking project.
- Add salt and flour and beat until just barely combined, scraping the sides and bottom again. Do not stir too much or you will make your dough tough. The dough is pretty sticky!
- Scrape the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap (or into a ziplock or tupperware). Cover or wrap tightly and put it in the fridge for 2 hours (or overnight) or in the freezer for 1-2 hours. (If I am in a hurry I will split the dough in half and wrap separately so that it will chill faster.)
- When the dough is completely chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line 2-3 baking sheets with silpat baking mats or parchment paper.
- Prepare a work surface with a light dusting of flour.*
- If you have not already split the dough in half, do so now. Put any dough that you are not working with in the fridge.
- Use floured hands to flatten out the dough a bit, then use a rolling pin to roll it and smooth it out a little bit. Don’t go too crazy here, remember we want the cookies to be THICK, about 3/8 inch. I actually busted out the measuring tape for this step. No crisp cookies, please.
- Lightly dust your chosen cookie cutters with flour. Press firmly into the dough, utilizing your space wisely. Use your finger or a knife (depending on the shape) to wipe away the excess flour/dough on the outer edge of the cookie cutter before pushing them out onto the pan. This helps you get clean lines.
- Place the shaped dough on the prepared baking sheet. If you are using multiple cookie cutter shapes, bake all of the same shape on the same pan. Otherwise your smaller cookies will get over baked. Leave at least 1 inch in between each cookie.
- If you’ve taken long enough that your shaped cookies are no longer chilled, place the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer for a couple minutes.
- Scrape together the excess dough and knead it together once or twice (as little as possible), then roll it out again to 3/8. Don’t overwork the dough! (It will get tough.) Continue until the dough is gone. Refrigerate the dough as necessary. They should go into the oven cool.
- Bake the shaped cookies at 350 for about 9 minutes for smaller cookies, and about 10-11 minutes for larger cookies. Do NOT over bake. You do not want the edges or tops to brown at all. The cookies should be barely browned on the bottom. See photos.
- Leave the cookies on the pan for 5 minutes, then immediately transfer to a large tupperware and cover until they are completely cooled and you are ready to frost.
- Frost cookies with The BEST Buttercream Frosting for Sugar Cookies or with Royal Icing!
Love love love this recipe! I finally found my GOTO recipe for sugar cookies. I did everything exactly as stated. I even used the parchment paper to roll out my dough. I made three pans, one pan of cookies actually came out all brown on the bottom and I was worried that batch was going to be like a rock. But to my pleasant surprise, they were still so soft in the center, yes a little more firm than the other two batches but still soft none the less. This recipe is my NEW, now and forever, Christmas, valentines, Easter, and rainy day cookies.
Oh and just to add. I didn’t use any almond extract due to an allergy in the family.
I made these today for the first time. Soft and delicious BUT …. the Almond extract overpowers the cookie. I even added Less than the recipe called for. Ugh. I will be giving these cookies away. Warning! Unless you really love the taste of almond, you’re better off leaving that ingredient out!
Bummer Edith! Next time replace with vanilla!
Hello! Just brought these out of the refrigerator and they seem so hard :( how will I roll them! LOL
Hi Tina! Just leave it on the counter for a few minutes, it will soften up and roll out just fine. Enjoy!
I feel the same way about frosting! We must be sisters in a former life!!!
What type of flour did you use? I noticed no baking powder in recipe.
Hi Dana! Regular all purpose flour. and no powder! We don’t want these cookies spreading so no leaveners in sight :) enjoy!
I make these cookies every year at Christmas time and sometimes even in between!!! They are my family’s favorite!!!!!
Do these freeze well?
Hi Danielle! Yes I freeze the frosted cookies every year when I make massive amounts of these for Christmas! Freeze frosted in a sealed container, they will stay fresh at least two weeks. (Or freeze unfrosted!) Let thaw in the sealed container at room temp. Enjoy!
These are terrible. There is no baking powder to give them rise and make them fluffy so they are super dense, and also underbaked if you follow the suggested baking times. There is a way to make soft cookies, but not baking them long enough is not that way. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time or ingredients on this recipe.
Oh so sad Jenn! I’m sorry they didn’t work out for you! I stand by my no-leavening-agent in this recipe. it’s what makes them chewy! I’m literally on the computer right now to grab the recipe to make a quadruple batch of these for my kids classrooms tomorrow, haha. Bummer you didn’t like them. Merry Christmas!
These are wonderful. There is no baking powder in them and that is what gives them their great chewy texture. And not over-baking makes for a softer cookie. Do yourself a favor and make these cookies now! Thank you, Danielle for sharing this amazing recipe. Everyone loves them! :)
Why even comment so negative ? These cookies are amazing every time. They don’t need to rise because they are thick to begin with. Definitely not underbaked. I guess I don’t understand the negative response. If you hated them how about just move on.
What is the textural difference between your cookies and the ones you mentioned from Mel? I just wanted to know how they compare or differ. Thank you!
Hi Bambi! I’ve actually never tried Mel’s recipe! I just saw that she had added cream cheese to sugar cookies and adapted the idea to my own recipe.
I’m currently in a country where I can only get basic baking ingredients. So far, the only extract I can find is vanilla. I’m not a baker but I’d really like to make these for an upcoming event. Any recommendations for substituting the almond extract with vanilla extract when vanilla extract is already in the recipe?
Hi Dhalia! Just replace all the other extracts called for with vanilla extract! This goes for the buttercream frosting recipe too, if you’re using it.
Hi! My mom makes these and they are delicious! Wondering if you can freeze these, but already cut into their shapes? Would you have to let them thaw or could you just bake them? Thanks!
Hi Britania! You can bake these straight from frozen! You will probably need to add a couple minutes to the bake time, so keep an eye on it. Great question! Enjoy!
Hi!! I tried a recipe fairly close to this one. My dough was so incredibly sticky that it wouldn’t roll out, it wouldn’t come off my fingers and it stuck using the cookie cutters. I did the basic stuff to help like placing flour on my baking mat, on the cutters, my fingers, rolling pin, etc. Your picture and your directions state this recipe will be sticky. Any suggestions?, as I am afraid to try this recipe though it looks fabulous!!
Hi Cindy. It’s definitely not THAT sticky! Try it out, I think you will have a better experience. Tell me how it goes!
After attempting sugar cookies for years and getting that hard crispy too brown bland cookie I had almost given up hope. But THESE… these are unbelievable – this is now my go to sugar cookie recipe forever. Thank you so much for sharing. And I loved your icing recipe as well – thick and soft and super flavorful. I do have a question on if you have a recommendation for a royal icing recipe that would be a bit thinner and more importantly allow you to flood the icing onto the cookie to make more of a thin “shell”? I’m thinking about making these and shipping them and I think that would work a bit better? I could google a royal icing recipe, but honestly after trying your recipes I’d prefer your recipe for royal icing if you are willing to share? :)
Hard crispy too brown bland cookies are really the worst right?? And sadly the norm for most sugar cookies!! I’m so glad these worked out for you. I don’t have a royal icing recipe on the blog yet, but thank you for your trust :) Here is a recipe from my friend Amy, who has great recipes. Enjoy!
There isn’t baking powder or soda in this? Please tell me now 🙄 I’m baking these now
Hi Heather! Nope none at all! It’s what makes them so chewy!
Thank you so much, these are great! :) thank you.
I tried a different blogger’s recipe last week and it was thin and crunchy and brown. I hated them. I had a glorious cookie from a local bakery and have been trying to recreate them. This recipe is to die for! I will be trying royal icing with them tomorrow but I made a test batch and I am in love! My 1 year old and I ate more than we should have and now we are going to bed full and happy! This is definitely my new go to recipe for cookies and it was so easy!
I’m so glad you loved the recipe Ashley! And oh, I think we’ve all had the sad crunchy brown cookie experience before. Such a tragedy ;) So happy you have a new go-to recipe! Thanks for reviewing!
First off, I have been using this recipe for almost a year and it is PERFECT!! Perfect every single time.
Today I used it in a 12” pizza pan to make a cookie cake. It was amazing again. No tweaks! Perfection. Just needed extra time in the oven. I recipe filled the pan. Thanks so much!
Oh hooray, I’m so glad the recipe is a staple for you Annie! And I LOVE the pizza pan twist! How awesome is that? What a great idea. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Hi Annie,
Any tips on cooking larger sugar cookies? I always find that my dark center is quick large and if I bake any longer, the edges get brown/crispy. Thanks in advance!!
-Cindy