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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).
Great tasting cookie
These were definitely everything I was hoping for! I prefer them on the underdone side and noticed that to achieve this you actually have to pull them out BEFORE the edges start to brown, like the recipe in the book says. They do still need to look slightly wet in the centers. This was right around 11 minutes at 350′ for me. Will be making again for sure!
Glad you enjoyed them, Erica 🙂
These are so yummy and festive! We loved how chewy and sweet these sugar cookies are.
Wonderful to hear this!
These cookies turned out so good! Very easy. Came together quick. A nice little treat for the kids when they get home from school today. Rolled them in red sanding sugar to be a little festive for the holiday. Will definitely make again!
Yay! I’m so thrilled you enjoyed these cookies.
These are the most well balanced soft sugar cookies I have ever baked. The recipe is clear and the instructions are so easy to follow.
So glad you love these cookies, David!
These look delicious! I do have a question. If I wanted to make more than 16 cookies, would making them smaller affect how soft and chewer they are? How long would I cook them? Also, if I were to double to recipe, how do I double the egg + egg yolk? Thanks for your help!
Hi Lucy! Making the cookies smaller shouldn’t affect the softness or chewiness, but you would want to reduce the timing. For a medium scoop (size 40), while we haven’t tried this, you’ll want to reduce the timing by 2-3 minutes. A small scoop (size 60) would be even less. Just keep a close eye on the cookies and follow the sensory indications, taking them out when the cookies have set and have begun to brown.
To double the recipe, you would double all ingredients exact, so 2 large eggs + 2 egg yolks. I hope that helps! Let us know what you think of this recipe 🙂
I’m excited to make these tomorrow for the first time with my son, i was just wondering if you or anyone had a recipe for an icing that hardens that is great on a sugar cookie .. i’m learning to bake
I hope you love these cookies! Check out my easy cookie icing recipe here: https://handletheheat.com/easy-cookie-icing/
They were good but I wish the recipe had stated “room temperature” next to the eggs. I know you usually use room temp eggs but I second guessed myself since butter was listed as cool room temp, and eggs were not.
Are these good without frosting or is it best to frost them?
These cookies are great with or without frosting! I love them both ways. Check out my frosting recommendations in the pink tip box in this post!
Very soft and delicious sugar cookie!
So glad you loved these cookies!
These cookies are perfectly soft on the inside and crispy on the outside; the key is to take them out when the middle is still soft and the edges are a tan color—they bake for the 5 minutes on the pan once out! I loved the butter tip—I swear that’s why these tasted so buttery; I had my butter very cold. I have this recipe in my cookie cookbook and remember baking them with my mom when Tessa did her zoom baking class to everyone who pre-ordered her cookbook. The way Tessa loves to bake, and genuinely cares that others 1) bake well and 2) enjoy it like she does really inspires me and makes me enjoy the process a whole lot more. Literally everything I have baked from Tessa’s recipes have turned out amazing, and I never fail to have full confidence in her recipes when I start baking, knowing that the final product will be exquisite. I was a college athlete, so sweets were pretty sparse for me, but Tessa really made me enjoy baking and find a love for sweet and all things chocolate and carbs.
This recipe is a 5/5! This is the second time I’ve made it, and the first time was good, but I was able to perfect the crispy edges and soft middle part of the cookie, and it tastes super buttery—the part about cool butter really makes a difference I believe! I have this recipe in my cookie cookbook and remember baking them with my mom when Tessa did her zoom baking class to everyone who pre-ordered her cookbook. The way Tessa loves to bake, and genuinely cares that others 1) bake well and 2) enjoy it like she does really inspires me and makes me enjoy the process a whole lot more. Literally everything I have baked from Tessa’s recipes have turned out amazing, and I never fail to have full confidence in her recipes when I start baking, knowing that the final product will be exquisite. I was a college athlete, so sweet we’re pretty sparse for me, but Tessa really made me enjoy baking and find a love for sweet and all things chocolate and carbs.
*sweets were
Wow, thank you so much for the incredibly kind words, Madeline! We’re so, so thrilled to hear how much you love these cookies as well as baking just as much as we do here at HTH 🙂