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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’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 tap 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! 🙂