This soft sugar cookie recipe are melt-in-your-mouth, soft and chewy cookies, perfect for snacking, sharing, and leaving out for Santa! They’re made with simple ingredients and coated in simple sugar coating that’s perfect to customize for any holiday!
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Easy Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe
Like classic sugar cookies, these cookies are simple and classic and a fantastic addition to your holiday baking list! They’re buttery soft, slightly chewy, and a favorite of ours to coat in red and green sanding sugar for a festive look. These and cream cheese cookies are both classics fluffy cookies we love.
The dough comes together easily then you simply roll in sugar before baking and chill for a bit. This way, they don’t spread too thin. Much like snickerdoodles and other kinds of crinkle cookies, they bake and expand, forming a crinkled top that exposes cracks through the sugar crystals.
This cookie recipe is great for all kinds of occasions, from an afternoon snack or an after-dinner dessert to Christmas cookies on a holiday cookie tray. And the best part is they’re easy enough to get the whole family involved!
Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookie Ingredient Notes
The complete list of ingredients with amounts are listed in the full recipe card below.
- Granulated sugar: You can’t have sugar cookies without sugar!
- Unsalted butter: Use unsalted butter or salted; however, if salted butter is used, omit the added salt. You’ll need room temperature butter, so bring it out of the fridge about 30 minutes early. It needs to be soft enough to cream easily.
- Large egg: For binding the ingredients. Eggs also add to the chewy texture and moisture in the sugar cookies.
- Vanilla extract: A warm flavor. You can try a different extract, like almond extract, for something a little different.
- All-purpose flour: Measure the flour properly using a spoon and level method or a kitchen scale. All-purpose flour is what I use for these cookies, but if you’ve got bread flour on hand, you could use that instead.
- Salt: To enhance the flavors of all the other ingredients.
- Baking powder and baking soda: Both leavening agents help to give the cookies a nice lift, a chewy texture, and a soft consistency.
- Sanding sugar: For Christmas, I like to make both red and green coated cookies. You can also use different colors of sprinkles for other occasions. You can roll in white sugar for an everyday treat, or spread them with your favorite buttercream frosting and add sprinkles on top.
Make Them Vegan Sugar Cookies
You can use vegan butter in this recipe. I used Miyokos vegan butter to test them and it works beautifully!
How to Make this Sugar Cookie Recipe
This recipe will come together in a few steps, with simple pantry staples and a bit of chill time that makes all the difference!
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter (regular or vegan butter which is picked above) and sugar together with an electric hand mixer for about 3 minutes (or use the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment). Then, add in the egg and vanilla and blend until combined.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together until combined. Now, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend until the flour is barely incorporated. You don’t want to overmix the dough.
Step 3: Use a 1.5-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough and roll them into balls. Roll each one sugar, making sure the entire surface is nicely coated. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Step 4: Freeze the tray of dough balls for about 20 minutes. This will help to keep them from spreading too much as they bake. (or in the refrigerator for an hour) Towards the end of the freeze time, preheat the oven.
Step 5: Bake the cookies for 12–15 minutes until they form crinkles on top. Let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Tips
Do not skip the chill time. Doing this, along with making sure to line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats, will help to prevent spreading.
Do not over mix. For best results, just mix until combined. Overworking the sugar cookie dough will result in tough cookies.
How to Store Leftovers
Store: You can store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. They should stay soft and chewy for that long; however, if you notice they are starting to harden, you can place a piece of bread in the container with them.
Freeze baked cookies: Place the cooled cookies to a freezer bag or container. Keep them frozen for up to 3 months, well past the holiday season!
Freeze cookie dough balls: If you’re not ready to bake yet, once they’ve had their time in the freezer, place them in a freezer bag, layered with parchment paper (so they don’t freeze stuck together), and keep the dough balls frozen for up to 3 months. You can bake them straight from frozen; just tack on an extra minute of bake time.
More Soft and Chewy Cookies:
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Best Soft Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Sanding sugar to roll in red and green for the holidays or any other color
Instructions
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use a silicon mat.
- In the large mixing bowl, add the softened butter and sugar and cream together with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes until fluffy. (you can also use the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment)1 cup white granulated sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and blend unti; combined.1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In another separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine.1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and blend until the flour is just barely incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix the dough.
- Place the sprinkles in shallow bowls or on plates.
- Scoop the dough with a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop and roll the dough into balls.
- Place each ball in the in sugar and roll to coat all sides very well. Then place them on the prepared baking sheet.Sanding sugar to roll in
- After the cookies are all rolled in the sugar, place the entire tray in the freezer for about 20 minutes to keep them from spreading too much when baking.
- While they are in the freezer, preheat the oven to 350° F.
- After the dough balls have chilled, place them in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until they have crinkles in the tops.
- Remove from oven allow them to cool on the sheet for 2-3 minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
too. After flash freezing them on the baking sheet, place them in freezer bags with parchment paper in between layers so they don’t stick together and freeze for up to 3 months! Bake as directed and add 1-2 more minutes to the baking time. Roll them in any favorite sprinkles. Add ½ teaspoon of almond extract. Swap the regular butter for vegan butter like Miyokos brand.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclosure
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.
Deb Carmicheal
These are my favorite sugar cookies and I always make them at Christmas as gifts.
Sherri
I love hearing that!