Soft Sugar Cookies

Are you looking for a festive treat? This soft sugar cookie recipe has sweet buttercream frosting and colorful sprinkles. They’re a favorite during the holidays!

If you like this recipe, check out my other fun favorites: M&M cookies and thumbprint cookies.

I made a few ingredient swaps to my classic sugar cookie recipe to achieve a soft and chewy texture. They are perfect to enjoy as-is, but for the holidays they make an excellent blank canvas to add buttercream frosting and decorative toppings.

This version is inspired by those Lofthouse cookies that are always prominently displayed at the market during the holidays. However, I have a few enhancements that make these taste so much better. Ingredient selection is key to nailing just the right light and fluffy consistency.

Cornstarch makes cookies softer

Cornstarch is a very finely ground corn endosperm made of starch and protein. It also helps with thickening and reduces spread. Cornstarch interferes with gluten bonding, making the cookies more soft and tender instead of dense and crisp.

Powdered sugar also contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent to wick up moisture and keep it dry. Therefore, I add only 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to the dough.

Use two chemical leavening agents

Lofthouse Cookies are very thick. They don’t have a short textured crumble. Instead, they are more cake-like and soft throughout. To help mimic this texture, I use baking soda and baking powder. These ingredients give the dough two chances to form gas bubbles that create hollow pockets in the cookie during baking.

Don’t add too much, or it can overproduce bubbles and cause the cookies to spread.

Use two types of fat

Use unsalted butter and margarine for a delicious cookie with minimal spread. Butter has a subtly sweet flavor that is tastier than margarine alone. Plus, the milk solids lightly brown for more depth. It also contains moisture, whereas margarine does not. There is between 13 to 18% water, which creates steam during baking that softens the texture.

Margarine is made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, typically palm oil, with a high melting point. This type of solid fat helps lift and gives a domed shape while limiting the spread. If you want to skip the margarine, you can go with all butter, but the results may not be as thick. Most vegetable shortening is no longer made with trans fats from the hydrogenation process, so make sure to read the labels.

Soften the fat, but not too much!

Whip air pockets into the fats to soften the structure for a cake-like texture. The fat crystals best trap the air between 64 to 67ºF (17 to 19ºC), just below room temperature. If too warm or melted, the cookies will not hold their shape. I recommend leaving the fats on the counter for about an hour, but there are various ways to soften butter and margarine.

Cream the fat and sugar

I use powdered sugar because the granules are so tiny that they dissolve quickly on the tongue. However, you’ll have less lingering sweetness and no crisp edges compared to granulated sugar. This recipe is not overly sweet like most cookies. Don’t worry. The additional frosting slathered on top will balance the taste so it doesn’t overwhelm the palate with sugar from both components.

Use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer or the beaters on a handheld mixer to aerate the cookie dough. Creaming the softened fats with powdered sugar will create a fluffy mixture with lots of tiny air pockets. You don’t want to overwhip, or it will warm up too much and slightly deflate. The process only takes about 2 minutes at moderate speed.

Ingredients to thicken the texture

Egg whites and yolks help thicken and leaven the cookies. Use them at room temperature to make combining the creamed butter and sugar easier. Doing so also prevents the butter from clumping up from using cold ingredients.

Sour cream provides extra tenderness. It contains no less than 18% milkfat for richness. It also has lactic and citric acid, enhancing the sweetness and improving the vanilla and almond flavor. Most importantly, it provides acidity to activate the baking soda, resulting in more bubbles generated for a taller, domed cookie.

Flour selection

A critical ingredient in determining the cookie’s structure is the type of flour. I use cake flour similar to Lofthouse. It’s low in protein (6 to 8%), which means less gluten formation. It’s milled extremely fine and typically bleached for better absorption of moisture and fat, keeping the cookie tender over time. As the name eludes, you’ll get a cake-like experience.

I tested all-purpose flour at 10 to 13% protein, but they did not rise as much due to a more robust gluten network, making it harder for the dough to lift and puff up. You can use all-purpose flour if it’s all you have, but that is better for crisp classic cut-out cookies, not a soft-baked style.

Mix then chill the dough

Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture, then combine at low speed. This process gently hydrates the flour without over-mixing. The goal is to minimize gluten formation while still getting a rollable consistency.

You’ll notice that the dough is a little tackier than normal. This is good! More moisture creates more steam for lift. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour to give the flour, sugars, and starches time to hydrate. Afterward, the surface will be dry, but it should still be soft enough to roll out and cut easily.

Rolling and shaping

Make sure to flour the board, rolling pin, and both sides of the cookie dough with cake flour to prevent sticking. The dough will be pliable but higher in moisture, so it will be softer to work with. Lofthouse cookies are about 3 inches wide and ½-inch tall. Roll out to a ¼-inch thickness, and they will almost double in height after baking.

I find this recipe spreads about ¼-inch, so I chose a cutter that is slightly smaller than the target diameter. A 2 ½ to 2 ¾-inch round cutter works great. You can use different cookie cutter shapes but avoid highly detailed cutters as the design won’t be as sharp on the edges.

Baking tips

Bake the cookies on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. It’s safe to place them about 1 to 2 inches apart. They don’t spread too much. The dough will be soft, so work quickly to transfer them to the pan when still cool. Bake at 375ºF (191ºC).

Bake only until the surface sets. It won’t turn golden brown and crisp. Only about 8 minutes are needed. Immediately transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to stop the cooking process. The longer you leave them on the hot tray, the harder the bottoms will become.

Make a decorative frosting

After thoroughly cooling the cookies, I use my go-to sugar cookie frosting recipe to spread on top. It combines whipped butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract for flavor, and milk. You can adjust the consistency to be thick or thin with liquid. Otherwise, royal icing also works.

To color the frosting, I prefer concentrated gel colors to achieve a vibrant hue. It also uses less water than food coloring dyes like the ones for easter eggs, so it doesn’t dilute the consistency of the topping. Pink is a classic appearance, but the fun part is that you can easily switch it up, like making them green for Christmas. Of course, don’t forget to top it with sprinkles, sanding sugar, or jimmies.

Frost the cookies

Frequently asked questions