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’m new to baking, but these are the best sugar cookies I’ve ever made. Taste just like the ones from our local bakery. So soft and perfectly balanced with butter and sweetness. I used a 2 tbsp scooper for the first batch and they came out a little more done than I’d prefer. I eyeball measured 3 tbsp balls for the second batch, and the size was perfect, but I could have cooked them a smidgen longer. I will be making these again soon, hopefully perfecting the size and time.
Can kosher salt be used instead of sea salt? If so, would the measurement change?
Hi Janna! We recommend using sea salt in this recipe for best results. Check out more details on how salt works/if they’re interchangeable in our Salt 101 article here. Hope that helps!
I am wondering how to encourage the nice cracks on the cookies? I have good BP, and used a sanding sugar on the outside. I tried tapping the cookie sheet before the end of baking time, but not quite the look I was wanting. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thank you
Hi Andrea! Tessa talks about this in the pink tip box (above the recipe). Check out the answer to your question under “How to Get a Crinkly Top in Sugar Cookies”, along with countless other great baking tips for this recipe, there! Let us know what you think of this pie once you give it a try! 🙂
Easy to make and delicious
The amount of time it took to scroll down to find this recipe I could have bought a cow, raised it, milked it, and made my own butter
Sorry to hear that! For ease next time, please click the “Jump to Recipe” button at the top of the page to be taken directly to the recipe 🙂
I made these cookies and I softened the butter in the microwave- they felt room temp but my cookies spread a lot and turned out really thin. They all spread into each other. What did I do? They taste great!
Hi Violet! It sounds like you softened the butter too much, unfortunately! You want to make sure that the butter is at a cool room temperature, which is about 67°F. You should be able to push your finger into the butter, but just slightly. Tessa recently shared her favorite way to soften butter on Instagram here, if you’re interested! I’ve also found that microwaving in 5-second increments and then flipping the butter to a new side each time until just softened works well too 🙂 I hope that helps for your next batch!
Fantastic!
Rolled them in colored sanding sugar sprinkles before baking. so delicious, soft and buttery..
I usually love everything of Tessa, but these were def a miss. I’m not sure if I did something wrong, but I did use metric. they were more so cakes, than soft and chewy.
Sorry to hear you experienced issues, Shelisah! It’s so difficult to know for sure what went wrong without having baked right alongside you, especially if you used a digital scale to measure your ingredients. Did you substitute any ingredients? Typically when cookies become cakey, it’s due to too much flour being added or not enough sugar being added. Is it possible your butter was too cold or your leaveners were expired? Again, it’s tough to say for sure, but hopefully these thoughts put you on the right track for solving this mystery. I’d love for you to try our recipe again some time. Please keep us posted if you do!
first attempt to bake sugar cookies, so I could do Xmas cookies to neighbors. I currently live in Ecuador, so no good trays, cooling racks and no mixer. I doubled the batch and was able to get the wet mix really fluffy just with a a whisk and by hand. the whole dough was very light and fluffy and didn’t spread out I was very impressed I was thinking I had to put dough in the refrigerator because was just out on the counter. The dough stayed together all the way till the end very good I give it a five stars
I don’t have a standing mixer with a paddle. I have an old fashioned electric hand mixer. Do you have recipes that use an electric hand mixer?
Hi Isabel! All of our recipes were created and tested using a stand mixer, typically using the paddle attachment; however, most cookies, cakes, and other desserts can be done with either a hand mixer or stand mixer. I’d recommend staying away from recipes that call for cold butter (it’ll go flying out of the bowl!), and I’d use a spatula to fold in chocolate chips or other hard add-ins like nuts. You may also need to adjust the mixing time depending on the strength of your mixer, so pay attention to the visual cues rather than the times listed for mixing (i.e. “until light and fluffy”). Tessa actually experimented with a stand mixer vs hand mixer when creaming butter and sugar in this article here. I think you’ll find it helpful!
Can the cookies be decorated without them crumbling?
Hi Sophia! Sorry for the delayed response, our office was closed for the holidays! These are a drop-style cookie, so we don’t recommend rolling and cutting the dough out; however, if you’re looking to frost them after they’ve been scooped and baked, that will work just fine! You could even add a bit of frosting between two cookies for the ultimate sugar cookie sandwich 🙂 We list a couple of our favorite frosting ideas in the pink tip box above the recipe. Hope that helps!
Why were my cookies kinda bland and salty? I didn’t add any salt and used self rising flour.
Hi Marlena! We don’t recommend using self-rising flour for this recipe. Each self-rising flour manufacturer is different in terms of its makeup of ingredients (ratios of flour and leavener/salt), so some may be saltier than others, which would certainly overpower the flavor of these cookies. I hope you give this recipe another try with the correct flour and salt! 🙂