Soft-baked sugar cookies topped with sweet and creamy frosting and garnished with sprinkles. These delicious cookies can be made in under 30 minutes; no chill time, no rolling dough. Decorate with colored frosting and sprinkles to make these festive cookies for any occasion.
Who loves sugar cookies? This recipe is inspired by soft-baked Lofthouse style cookies, but these are even better. These soft and buttery cookies have a secret ingredient that gives a bakery-like flavor to both the cookies and frosting. Make them for any special occasion (or no reason at all!). You’ll love them.
Prefer a different flavor? Try Sugar Cookies with Strawberry Frosting, Kitchen Sink Cookies or Brownie Cookies.
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Recipe overview
Sugar cookies: This sugar cookie dough comes together in minutes. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and extracts. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl then add to the wet ingredients. Allow the dough to rest at rom temperature for 5 minutes. Then scoop into balls and bake.
Bake: The cookies should be baked at 375°F for 9-11 minutes. They should still be pale and slightly under-baked when you remove them from the oven. This will ensure a soft texture.
Frosting: This is our favorite sugar cookie frosting. It’s sweet and creamy with a delicious flavor from a combination of vanilla and almond extract. Add a couple drops of food coloring (if desired) to make this frosting festive for any occasion.
What makes this recipe the best
- Better than store bought
- Real flavors
- Easily adaptable
- Soft and tender (melt in your mouth!)
- Easy
- No chill time
Secret ingredient
If you’ve been around here for a while you know my go-to “secret” ingredient: almond extract. Adding almond extract to the cookie dough and the frosting gives these cookies an extra layer of flavor. They still taste predominantly of vanilla but a touch of almond extract is what sets them apart from other cookie recipes.
Recipe tips
- Butter should be softened to cool room temperature. Your butter should be soft, but still cool to the touch.
- Use a cookie scoop. This ensure your cookies are equally sized and perfectly round.
- Place the dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets. This helps the cookies from spreading too much and ensures easy cleanup.
- Underbake the cookies slightly. The cookies should still be slightly underbaked when you remove them from the oven. They should be so soft that you cannot remove them from the baking pan right away or they will fall apart. They will firm up as they cool.
- Watch the cookies closely during the last few minutes of bake time. Depending on the size of your cookie dough balls and your exact oven temp (some ovens run a bit warmer or cooler that stated on the display) you might need to to adjust the bake time by a couple minutes in either direction.
Make ahead option
You have several options for making this recipe ahead of time:
- Bake the cookies and freeze (double wrapped and unfrosted) for up to 2 months. Thaw the cookies, prepare the frosting, top with frosting, and serve.
- Prepare the cookie dough, scoop into balls and store the unbaked dough balls in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or the freezer (double wrapped) for up to 2 months. Thaw frozen dough balls in the fridge overnight. I recommend smooshing the dough balls down a little bit to encourage spreading since the dough will be cold. You might also need to add a minute or two to bake time.
- Frosting can be prepared up to 2 days in advance and stored tightly covered in the refrigerator. Bring to cool room temperature until easily spreadable.
Recipe
Frosted Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to cool room temperature
- 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ¾ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- ¼ cup full fat sour cream
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Frosting:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to cool room temperature
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar, plus more if needed
- 2 teaspoons milk, plus more if needed
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
- pinch salt
- 1-2 drops food coloring, if desired
- colored sprinkles, for decorating
Instructions
Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (this helps the cookies from spreading).
- Using a hand mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes, until light and creamy. Add extracts, egg, egg yolk, and sour cream and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. The mixture might look a little curdled, that’s ok.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until combined.
- Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Scoop the dough into 2-tablespoon balls (briefly rolling them in your hands, if necessary, to make the dough balls smooth). Place the dough balls a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes (see note), until the edges are set and the center is still slightly underdone. The cookies should still be light in color, not brown. Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool completely; the cookies will firm up once cool.
Frosting:
- Using a hand mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and half of the powdered sugar until well-combined (starting out the mixer low and increasing to medium-high). Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar (while beating), followed by milk, extracts, food coloring, and pinch of salt.
- Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat well. Depending on how thick you want the frosting, you can easily adjust the consistency by adding more powdered sugar (to thicken) or more milk (to thin).
- Spread the frosting on top of the cooled cookies and top with sprinkles.
Video
Notes
- Bake the cookies and freeze (double wrapped and unfrosted) for up to 2 months. Thaw the cookies, prepare the frosting, top with frosting, and serve.
- Prepare the cookie dough, scoop into balls and store the unbaked dough balls in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or the freezer (double wrapped) for up to 2 months. Thaw frozen dough balls in the fridge overnight. I recommend smooshing the dough balls down a bit to encourage spreading since the dough will be cold. You might also need to add a minute or two to bake time. Note: the colder the dough is the less they will spread.
- Frosting can be prepared up to 2 days in advance and stored tightly covered in the refrigerator. Bring to cool room temperature until easily spreadable.
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Justine says
This is my favorite cookie recipe! They’re so light and fluffy!
Diana says
Soft-baked Lofthouse-style cookies have always been a weakness of mine. So having this recipe around is dangerous for my waistline 🙂
Chelsea says
I LOVE this recipe! Have made it several times and it has actually replaced my grandma’s! I’m wondering: could this be used as a crust for a fruit pizza—as in pressed into a pan and baked. And, if so, what size pan, baking temp, and baking time would you think?
Allison says
You can try doing that with my sugar cookie bars.
Chelsea says
Thank you so much!
Kathryn says
These were a hit!
Do you think these would work for cutout shaped cookies?
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! I don’t think they will hold their shape well enough for cutouts. You can try this recipe: Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe