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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.
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.
Reader Love
Delicious! Just made these with my 3 year old daughter. Easy to follow recipe and will be my go-to for sugar cookies! Only difference was adding rainbow sprinkles (the round ones) to the sugar to roll the balls in before baking.
Absolutely amazing cookies, A great recipe, and the cookies turned out so well too, just like your photos. Definitely a recipe to repeat.
I tested versions with cream cheese, but found they became too claggy. I also tested smaller sized cookies, but found they didn’t stay as soft and chewy in the center.
After many rounds of recipe testing, I finally nailed an easy sugar cookie recipe that’s soft and chewy (and STAYS soft) and has that perfect sparkly crackled top.
Recipe Ingredients
All-purpose flour – Make sure to weigh your flour accurately. This is KEY. 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! I prefer the taste of sea salt over table salt, but you can use that too. Don’t use kosher salt, it won’t dissolve as readily and you might end up with salty pockets.
Unsalted butter – It’s important that your butter is at a cool room temperature (around 67°F), otherwise your cookies may spread. If using salted butter, reduce the salt added to 1/4 teaspoon.
Granulated sugar – The star ingredient! Don’t reduce the sugar – find out why here and peek the Sprinkle of Science section below.
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 the flavor of vanilla extract. Feel free to experiment with other extracts!
How to Make Sugar Cookies (Step-by-Step)
Cream butter & sugar. Use butter at a cool room temperature (about 67°F) and beat with the paddle attachment (not the whisk) until lighter in color and larger in volume.
Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Room temperature eggs will incorporate more easily. Beat very well until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides & bottom of bowl and paddle as needed.
Add dry ingredients. Don’t overmix, this will create stronger gluten networks and may result in tough cookies.
Scoop into balls. A spring-loaded scoop makes quick and efficient work of this.
Roll in sugar. Don’t skip this step, it’s key to those crackly, sparkly tops! Only skip if you plan to frost the cookies.
Flatten slightly. Gently press down each cookie dough scoop with the bottom of a measuring cup or your palm. This ensures proper spread.
Bake. At 350°F for just 10-12 minutes. Don’t overbake! The cookies should be set at the edges but look just slightly ‘wet’ on top. They’ll continue cooking from the heat of the pan.
Let cool. For the chewiest texture and best flavor, allow the cookies to cool completely before enjoying.
Keys to SOFT Cookies
- Do not over-measure your flour. For best results, use a kitchen scale (I promise you this is a game-changer). If you don’t have one, use the spoon-and-level method. Too much flour is the #1 cause of dry crumbly cookies that don’t spread properly.
- 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.
How to Prevent Cookie Spreading
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.
Crinkly Tops in Sugar Cookies
Besides rolling in sugar, baking powder is one ingredient that gives these cookies their characteristic cracks, so make sure your baking powder is fresh.
TIP: When the cookies are piping hot out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter to swirl around the edges of each cookie to re-shape into a perfect circle and enhance those crinkly tops.
Do You Need to Chill the Dough?
It’s not required, baking immediately after mixing will result in absolutely delicious cookies.
However, if time permits, chilling the scooped dough in an airtight container for 24-72 hours does result in cookies that are thicker, chewier, and more flavorful. Roll in sugar after chilling otherwise the sugar will absorb into the dough. Learn more about chilling cookie dough here.
Sprinkle of Science (open me!)
If your cookies spread too much, it may be the temperature of your butter. Many home bakers allow their butter to get too warm, soft, and even greasy before creaming. This leads to excess spreading, which can even can occur even after you’ve chilled the cookie dough! Butter is an emulsion of water and fat and once it breaks by getting too warm, it can wreak havoc. Learn more about butter temperatures on my Instagram here!
In experimenting with sugar ratios for this recipe, I found that reducing the sugar led to cookies that didn’t spread and were dry, crumbly, bland, and staled much faster. Adding too much extra sugar led to cookies that over-spread and were overly sweet.
Learn more about the science of sugar in baking here.
For cookies that stay soft but develop enough flavor, 350°F proved the best baking temperature in my testing. Any hotter, and the cookies became too crisp and hard. Any cooler, and the cookies had underdeveloped flavor and were more delicate. Not all ovens are accurate, so check yours with an oven thermometer to make sure!
Storage & Make ahead
How to Store to Keep Cookies Soft: Store 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.
Freeze: Freeze the uncoated, pre-portioned balls of cookie dough in a freezer-safe container, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, or in a Ziploc bag up to 6 weeks. Allow them to thaw overnight in the fridge or for 30-60 minutes at room temperature for best results, then bake as directed below.
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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, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Avoid dark-colored baking sheets, which may cause too much browning.
- 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, about 3 minutes. The mixture should increase in volume and become paler in color.
- 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 until just combined. Don't overmix.
- 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 edges are set and very lightly brown, but the centers still look soft or 'wet'. Do not wait for the centers to brown unless you want a crisper texture.
- 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.
Notes
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! A hand mixer will work just as well as a stand mixer.
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.
It makes quick and easy work of portioning the dough uniformly so no one fights over the biggest cookie. 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!
Yes! Feel free to add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon almond extract for a fun twist.
Yes, reduce the amount of added salt in the recipe to 1/2 teaspoon.
This is totally optional, as these cookies are so pretty by themselves – but if you want to make them a more colorful treat, here some ideas:
-Roll the balls of dough in colored sugar before baking.
-Fold in 1/4-1/2 cup of multi-colored jimmies or holiday jimmies or sprinkles as a last addition to the dough.
-Use my Best Buttercream Frosting recipe for decorating.
-Another favorite is my Best Cream Cheese Frosting recipe!
I prefer parchment paper for cookies over silicone mats, it’s easier and quicker to clean up. Learn about parchment vs. Silicone mats here.
Whatever you do, never use nonstick cooking spray when baking cookies. This will lead to too much browning and spread (hello, burnt cookie puddles).
I made this and it was hard and crunchy do you have any tips to make it more chewy like turn down the temp or to put it in for a less time?
Hi Aiko! This could be a few things, but it sounds like your oven might be running too hot. Check out this article: Oven 101: What You NEED to Know and this one too: Best (and WORST) Baking Pans 🙂
Wonderful! I actually added a drop of almond extract to the vanilla to give it a less obvious, vanilla flavor. However, the most important thing is that I need to thank you for having the measuremtns in grams and not all in “sticks” or “tbsp” or “tsp”, etc…..as I am in Europe and here, like the rest of the world, things are done in thre metric style. I won’t even consider a recipe if there are in the US style….not using any grams or ml, etc…as measurements. I could, and have looked up the ratios, myself but it is so much easier for we Americans living, especially, in Europe, where cups, sticks, tbsps and such are not used or even known. I thank you for that.
These turned out perfect!!
Will these be soft and chewy if made ahead and frozen?
They sure will, Vicki – but we recommend freezing the dough, not the baked cookies. Check out the pink tip box (above the recipe) for tips on this 🙂
Hello! I’m looking to make this for a cookie exchange. I’m using a mini cupcake pan then after it cooks, dropping a Reese’s peanut cup in the center of each cookie. So, we’re getting together on the 16th. I have frozen cookies made from packaged sugar cookie mix. Do you think this type of cookie with your dough might freeze ok?
Hi Kristy! Please check out the freezing tips and info Tessa included in the pink tip box (just above the recipe) for everything you’ll need to freeze this cookie dough! I can’t speak to packaged cookie dough, and we haven’t tried baking these in a mini cupcake pan with a PB cup, but feel free to experiment and let us know how it goes 🙂
when you said add the 1 and 1/4 cup in then it says put the rest of the 1/4 cup aside. do i add the 1 and 1/4 cup in or just the 1 cup?
Hi Kloe! As mentioned in the ingredients list, you’ll need 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup (50 grams) for rolling. So the cookies get 1 1/4 cups, and the other 1/4 cup is for rolling your cookie dough balls in prior to baking. Let us know what you think of these cookies once you’ve given them a try – and be sure to read through the pink tip box (above the recipe) for tips and info to ensure you nail this recipe 😉
Delicious! My husband says it’s like eating a cloud.
HAHA Thank is such a husband thing to say. My husband said it was like eating and big juicy steak!
Hands down the BEST sugar cookie recipe out there! Texture and flavor are both outstanding. I doubled the recipe and used 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste for the double batch. Scooped them with a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, got 24 cookies. Rolled them in granulated sugar and sprinkled some sanding sugar on top for texture and crunch. Amazing! Thank you for this recipe! ❤️
genuinely the best sugar cookies I’ve ever eaten
So thrilled to hear this, Angela! 🙂
What if I don’t have flaky sea salt can I still make them???
Hi Lucy! These cookies don’t need flaky sea salt, but rather fine sea salt is the recommended salt in the cookie dough. Learn more about different types of salt here!
what if I don’t have sea salt? can I use regular salt but less of it?
Hi Nancy! More info on that here 🙂
This is the best recipe I have found for soft sugar cookies. I made balls about the size of ping pong balls and the cookies came out great. I found that they still stay soft even if you smash them down too flat. Again Great recipe.
Love these! I have made these a few times now and they have turned out great everytime. Such an easy recipe to follow. I love adding sprinkles. I even just made some with Halloween sprinkles for a party and they turned out so well!
I made these and I added a packet of Lemonade Kool-Aid, and a packet of cherry Kool-Aid. They were amazing!! Best sugar cookies ever!!! They were also a beautiful color.
My husband makes batches of peanut brittle and has a lot of crumbed left after he cracks it. Can I use them to roll cookies in.
Hi Betty! We’ve never tried that, so I can’t say for sure! I’d recommend giving just a couple a try like that and bake those off, to see how it goes, before committing to the rest of the batch – just in case the brittle burns or creates an unpleasant texture. Let us know how it goes 🙂