Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: The perfect amount of sweetness.
Texture: My favorite part, each bite is the ideal balance between soft and chewy.
Ease: Super easy 30-minute sugar cookie recipe with no chilling required.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Fun, simple, and perfect for holidays from Christmas to Valentine’s Day, even 4th of July. Everyone LOVES these cookies.
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Not to boast, but everyone who has tasted or made this sugar cookie recipe has said it became their instant favorite!! It took weeks of testing to get it just right.
These Soft & Chewy Sugar Cookies require NO CHILLING and are incredibly easy to bake up.
This recipe is perfect for your Christmas cookie boxes or just enjoying with a glass of milk. If it’s a warmer time of year, it also makes a great base for ice cream sandwiches!
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
This recipe is featured in my cookbook, The Ultimate Cookie Handbook: Your Guide to Baking Perfect Cookies Every Time, which has sold out multiple times!! It makes me so glad to see you guys adore cookie baking as much as I do.
Originally, I had created a sugar cookie recipe with cream cheese that was ultra-soft. However, I found that it would become claggy, and each bite would get stuck to the roof of your mouth. I happened to grab a sugar cookie at a bakery one random day and instantly became inspired by its texture.
It was simultaneously soft and chewy. Each bite was so incredibly satisfying! I knew I had to recreate that texture for my cookbook sugar cookie recipe. I’m SO happy with the results… mostly because this recipe turned out to be so easy to make, and they taste utterly delicious.
People will think you went to an expensive bakery when you show up with a box of these cookies. Especially if you stock up on some cute homemade cookie gift packaging.
How to Make the Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients For the Perfect Sugar Cookie Recipe:
- All-purpose flour – Make sure to weigh your flour accurately. If you add too much flour, your cookies won’t spread at all and won’t be soft or chewy.
- Baking powder – This gives the sugar cookies lift, without adding too much spread or browning.
- Fine sea salt – So important to balance the sweetness!
- Unsalted butter – It’s important that your butter is at a cool room temperature, otherwise your cookies may spread.
- Granulated sugar – The star ingredient! Don’t reduce the sugar – find out why here.
- Eggs – One whole egg with an extra egg yolk lends richness and chewiness to the texture. Make sure they’re at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract – No sugar cookie recipe is complete without vanilla extract.
How to Make SOFT Sugar Cookies
- The extra egg yolk helps to add more moisture and richness, for a soft and chewy texture.
- The other trick is found in the size of the dough ball…. a whole 3 tablespoons in each! This creates larger cookies that spread out perfectly with ultra-soft centers.
- Whatever you do, don’t overbake this sugar cookie recipe. They should still look ever so slightly ‘wet’ in the center when you pull them from the oven.
Why Did my Sugar Cookies Spread?
To prevent flat sugar cookies that spread into little puddles, it’s important to make sure your butter is at a COOL room temperature.
Your sticks of butter should give slightly when pressed with your finger but still hold their shape. To be precise, your butter should be 67°F.
How to Get a Crinkly Top in Sugar Cookies
Baking powder is one ingredient that gives these cookies their characteristic cracks, so make sure your baking powder is fresh. Check out my Baking Soda vs Baking Powder article for more details and instructions on how to test for freshness.
You also want to make sure that your butter is at a cool room temperature (67°F) as that can affect the appearance of these sugar cookies as well.
PLUS, rolling the cookies in granulated sugar is important! The sugar helps to draw moisture out from the surface of the cookies while they bake, which dries out the tops before the interior sets, resulting in pretty cracks.
Roll Your Sugar Cookie Dough Balls in Sugar Before Baking!
Roll each ball of dough in a shallow dish filled with granulated sugar. This creates that slightly crispy exterior and beautiful sparkly appearance.
Can I Make This Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe With a Hand Mixer?
Yes! A hand mixer will work just as well as a stand mixer.
What Kind of Baking Sheet is Best for Cookies?
A light-colored aluminum half sheet pan is my favorite for baking cookies. Avoid dark nonstick pans altogether, they brown too much and may burn the bottoms of your cookies. The below photo features cookies from the same exact batch of dough, baked for the same amount of time at the same temperature. The only difference was the baking pan!
Check out my Baking Pans 101 post for all the surprising details. Or, just click here to score my favorite baking pans for cookies (and everything else!)
Should I Line my Baking Sheets with Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats?
I prefer parchment paper for cookies over silicone mats, to line my cookie sheets. Parchment is easier and quicker to clean up. Silicone mats like Silpats can actually lead to more spreading and browning. Check out the details here.
Whatever you do, never spray your baking sheet, parchment paper or silicone mat with nonstick cooking spray when baking cookies. This will lead to too much browning and spread (hello, burnt cookie puddles).
Why Use a Cookie Scoop?
- One of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped cookies.
- Saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough.
- Ensures each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly.
- No small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies.
- I love using a 3-Tablespoon size cookie scoop for this sugar cookie recipe.
- Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
Do You Need to Chill Sugar Cookie Dough?
It’s not required for this sugar cookie recipe. Immediately baking after mixing will result in absolutely delicious cookies; however, if time permits, chilling the dough for 24-72 hours does result in cookies that are thicker, chewier, and more flavorful. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap before refrigerating. When ready to bake, let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop. Learn more about chilling cookie dough here.
How Long to Bake Drop Style Sugar Cookies
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the sugar cookies are set and are just beginning to brown around the edges. The longer you bake, the crispier your cookies will be.
Can This Recipe be Used For Cut-out Cookies?
No, this sugar cookie recipe was designed for simple drop-style cookies. If you want cookie cutter sugar cookies instead, check out my Cut Out Sugar Cookie recipe here.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies
This is totally optional, as these cookies are so pretty by themselves – but if you want to make them a more colorful treat, here are my top tips:
- Roll the balls of dough in colored sugar before baking. I like to have one bowl filled with green-colored sugar and a separate with red, for easy Christmas sugar cookies!
- You can also fold in 1/4-1/2 cup of multi-colored jimmies or holiday jimmies or sprinkles as a last step before rolling the dough balls in granulated sugar, to add even more festive colors to this sugar cookie recipe!
- Use my Best Buttercream Frosting recipe for decorating. You can get creative with the flavor suggestions in that recipe post or use gel food coloring to add colorful flair.
- Another favorite is my Best Cream Cheese Frosting recipe!
How to Store Sugar Cookies
Store sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Store cookies with a tortilla, apple wedge, or piece of bread to keep them soft for longer.
Can You Freeze Sugar Cookies?
Yes! This sugar cookie recipe freezes beautifully. Freeze the uncoated, pre-portioned balls of cookie dough in a freezer-safe container, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, or in a Ziploc bag. Allow them to thaw overnight in the fridge or for 30-60 minutes at room temperature, then bake as directed below.
You can roll the cookie dough balls in the sugar before freezing – however, the dough will absorb some of the sugar, and it won’t have quite the same visual or texture impact compared to rolling in sugar right before baking.
Check out my How to Freeze Cookie Dough article for step-by-step instructions (and how to bake from frozen).
More Easy Cookie Recipes:
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Crispy Gingersnaps
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft & Chewy M&M Cookies
- Soft Batch Double Chocolate Cookies
- Black and White Chippers
Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients
- 2½ cups (318 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1¼ cups (250 grams) granulated sugar, plus ¼ cup (50 grams) for rolling
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt to combine.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed to beat the butter and 1¼ cups sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and beat until combined, scraping the bowl down as needed. Slowly beat in the flour mixture.
- Place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a shallow dish. Using a large (3-tablespoon) spring-loaded scoop, divide the dough into balls, then roll in sugar to coat evenly. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart, and flatten slightly with the bottom of a measuring cup.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies set and begin to brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Recipe Notes
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
I was wondering if I can use salted butter and just not add any salt or possibly reduce the amount of salt that needs to be added I already have several pounds of salted butter and I would like to use it rather than buying unsalted butter if possible. I’d appreciate your opinion on this before I try this recipe
Hi Ann Marie! I would recommend omitting the salt entirely if using salted butter. Learn more about salted vs. unsalted butter here! Let us know what you think once you’ve given this recipe a try 🙂
At first I was scared they were undercooked, but as they cooled they became beautifully soft and solid! My mom loved them (so did I) and my dad said they reminded him of his grandmother’s. Such a great recipe, thank you for sharing!
Fantastic!!
I don’t want to be the negative one, but want to post so that people don’t only see raving reviews and anticipate something better than you’re getting. I have very high cookie standards, and these were just okay. My rolled sugar cookie recipe took too long to make between batches of other cookies, so I whipped these up while another batch of cookies was cooling. Half of this dough had to be refrigerated so I could resume my other cookies, and I didn’t find a difference in flavor between the ones that were baked right away and the ones refrigerated (the texture was different, but neither were noteworthy). My kids all took a bite and grabbed other cookies in the platter. They’re not bad, but I wouldn’t recommend these.
These turned out absolutely amazing! I swapped out the butter for a plant based butter because I can’t have any kind of dairy and I added just a tiny amount (maybe 1/4 tsp) of almond extract. My family LOVES them! I’m definitely keeping the recipe.
Terrific recipe. I baked for 8 minutes. Soft chewy delicious recipe followed exactly with the exception of vanilla which I eyeballed. Thank you for sharing this was one of the best sugar cookie recipes I’ve made
Note I cut this down not shapes for Christmas and they turned out just fine! Just remember to cool long enough they don’t fall apart
I used an ice cream scoop and froze the balls before baking and they take much longer than 13 minutes to bake. The texture is really soft and buttery, I didn’t love the flavor.
can this recipe be doubled?
oh, I see that it can!
Glad you found your answer, Lilly! Let us know what you think of these cookies once you’ve given them a try 🙂
Hi, where do you see the recipe can be doubled at?
Hi Brittani! You can absolutely double the recipe, just make sure that your mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) is large enough to handle the extra dough, and be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl extra well, so everything is incorporated thoroughly 🙂 Let us know what you think when you give this recipe a try!
thank you! I’ve made this recipe several times and love it! my cookies do t turn out as textured as Tessa’s. Could I be doing something wrong?
Hi Brittani! Without knowing more specifics, and without baking alongside you, it’s hard to say exactly what is going wrong – but I’ll mention a few of the most common issues that could be happening, and hopefully something here helps!
– How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here!
– You could be letting your butter get too warm before creaming, and when creaming, you could be over or under creaming the butter and sugar. Both have a huge impact on a cookie’s outcome. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses both and the repercussions on the resulting baked goods!
– How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall after baking, and much more. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
I hope something here is helpful, Brittani! If not, feel free to reach back out to us and we will be more than happy to continue troubleshooting! Happy baking!
Hi!!
I’m wanting to make Christmas cookies tonight (first time) but wanted to know if these can be cut into shapes?
I’m assuming so but figured I’d ask
Hi April! This recipe was created specifically as a drop-style cookie, so they won’t hold their shape super well. If you want cookie-cutter sugar cookies instead, check out our Cut Out Sugar Cookie recipe here. 🙂
Can you make the cookies smaller to get 32 cookies?
Hi Jennifer! Yes, you can make these smaller if you prefer – you will just need to experiment a little in your oven to get the bake time right. I recommend just baking one cookie at a time, until you have the perfect bake time for your chosen size 🙂 Enjoy!
Thanks! I love all your recipes that I’ve tried. I truly enjoy your website!
you mention remaining 1/4 cup sugar. doesthat mean you use only 1 cup in the recipe or the full 11/4 cup sugar.
Hi Jihn! As the recipe states, you will need 1¼ cups (250 grams) of granulated sugar, plus ¼ cup (50 grams) for rolling. I hope that helps! Let us know what you think of these cookies once you’ve given them a try!
They were surprisingly very good, most times I make sugar cookies they don’t turn out well but if you cook them to where you can barely see some brown on the edges they turn out soft and slightly crunchy when they cool.
Great tip, Alexus! Glad you enjoyed these cookies! 🙂