Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe
These chewy Soft Sugar Cookies are topped with a dreamy cream cheese frosting and loaded with colorful sprinkles! They’re easy to make, fun to decorate, and perfect for parties, holidays, or just because!
Servings: 26 cookies
Cost: $7.32
Equipment
- Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk discard or save the white for another use
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour see note 1
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Optional Sugar Coating
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup white sparkling sugar or additional granulated sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese full-fat, at room temperature
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Optional Coating: Stir the granulated sugar and white sparkling sugar together in a small bowl (optional but gives the cookie a nice crunchy exterior and extra flavor!).
- Place melted butter in a large bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature before adding sugars. If butter is hot, it will melt the sugars and cause greasy cookies. Add granulated and brown sugar and stir until smooth. Add in 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Stir until just combined and smooth.
- In another bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Add all the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix the dough.
- Roll tall balls of dough (see the photos in the post). If you have a kitchen scale, the dough balls should be about 1.2 ounces (or 2 full tablespoons each). Roll dough balls generously in the granulated/white sparkling sugar mixture. Cover and refrigerate the dough balls for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Place dough balls on a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat, spread far apart (I only bake 6–8 cookies at a time; they spread a lot) and bake 9–14 minutes. Watch carefully, being sure to not overbake. Slightly underbaked sugar cookies are the best! Remove and let stand on sheet pan for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
- Frosting: Prepare the frosting while the cookies bake. In a large bowl, beat together room-temperature butter and cream cheese until completely smooth. Add vanilla and salt. Mix to combine. Add powdered sugar and beat until frosting is smooth. It will seem like you need more liquid, but just keep beating; it will come together!
- Frost each completely cooled cookie and add with your favorite sprinkles.
Video
Notes
Note 1: If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour and scoop, you will pack in way too much flour, resulting in dense cookies. Instead, spoon the flour into the measuring cup until it’s overfilled. Then use the back of a table knife to level the measuring cup at the top. (Video visual here).
Storage: Store leftover cookies in an airtight container in the fridge. Cookies are best enjoyed within 2–3 days. Freeze the cookie dough by freezing dough balls on a sheet pan until solid. Transfer frozen dough balls to an airtight bag or container and freeze up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Calories: 343kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 172mg | Potassium: 65mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 32g | Vitamin A: 380IU | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 1mg