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.
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.
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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!
Originally, I had created a 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.
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.
Sprinkle of Science
Ingredients Notes
- 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 (around 67°F), otherwise your cookies may spread.
- Granulated sugar – The star ingredient! Don’t reduce the sugar – find out why here and peek the image 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.
Keys to SOFT 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.
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.
The Best Baking Sheet for Cookies
The below photo features cookies from the same exact batch of dough, baked for the same amount of time at the same temperature.
2. Wilton Non-Stick: browned heavily with less spread
3. Walmart Mainstays: pale cookies, pan warped and rusted
4. Viking Ceramic Lined: cookies burnt on the bottom
5. Nordicware Unlined Aluminum: my favorite Goldilocks pan*
6. OXO Gold Nonstick: browned heavily with less spread
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. Check out my Baking Pans 101 post for all the surprising details.
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.
What Temperature and How Long to Bake
Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minute, or until the sugar cookies are set and are just beginning to brown around the edges, for classic thick & chewy sugar cookies.
The higher the temperature and/or the longer you bake, the crispier your cookies will be.
If you like really soft, almost dough-y cookies, bake at 325°F, adding a few minutes to the bake time.
How to Store Cookies to Keep Soft
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.
Freezing
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.
FAQs
Can I Make This Recipe With a Hand Mixer?
Yes! A hand mixer will work just as well as a stand mixer.
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.
Why use a cookie scoop?
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!
Can I add almond extract?
Yes! Feel free to add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon almond extract for a fun twist.
Can I use salted butter?
Yes, either omit the salt entirely, or reduce the amount to 1/2 teaspoon.
How to Decorate Drop-Style 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 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!
Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats for Cookies?
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).
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.
I love love it just made those are amazing
I am a 14 year old girl who loves to bake! And let me tell u something these are the best sugar cookies I have ever made or ate they are so good warm with milk too 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/5 recommended these are fire! But one thing I wish is that you had a icing respie for those who also like frosted sugar cookies
Hi Raya! So happy to hear how much you enjoyed this recipe! If you need a fantastic frosting recipe for your sugar cookies, I highly recommend checking out either our Best Buttercream Frosting recipe here, the Best Cream Cheese Frosting recipe here, or our Easy Cookie Icing recipe in this post. All options are absolutely delicious! I hope that helps 🙂 Happy baking!
They’re perfect!
Made these tonight: delicious. Mine did seem super big, I microwaved my butter just a tiny bit because I took it straight from the fridge, oops! Is that why they spread a bit big? And why the dough came out suuuuper sticky/almost wet making it hard to roll into the sugar & sticking to my hands?
Also, if I used this recipe but did smaller cookies, would they be just as soft? Wanting to make a big batch of smaller ones for a babyshower! Thanks!!
Hi Katelyn! Yes, if you melt your butter in the microwave, even just a little, your cookies can spread more than if you used cool room temperature butter. This can also cause the other issues you mentioned with your dough. So, it’s best to wait until your butter reaches a cool room temperature (about 67°F) before making your cookies, for best results 🙂 As for making smaller cookies with this recipe, you can definitely do that! Just keep in mind that smaller cookies will bake faster, so you might need to adjust the baking time accordingly, depending how small you make them – try shaving 2-3 minutes off the suggested bake time and adjust from there. Let us know how it goes! Happy baking!
I love the sound of these cookies but my Husband feels the need to have frosting on all his cookies! Please tell me that it would be great to please Mr. Persickade!
Hi Sheree! You can definitely add frosting to the top of these cookies! Check out some tips and links to our favorite frosting recipes in the tip box, just above the recipe. I hope you and your husband enjoy them! Happy baking!
They’re so good! 😊 👍 I made them and all my friends and family said they were the best cookies they’ve ever had.
So easy to make and so good! My grandkids love them! Thank you for the recipe!
These cookies were amazing!! I didn’t even know there was a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop, mine is a 1 1/2 inch scoop so I scooped twice to make these and they came out perfect…slightly crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. I have been searching for a perfect peanut butter cookie recipe that would come out just like these did…do you happen to have a peanut butter cookie recipe that would come out like these…crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside that come out the size these? Thank you so much!!
Hi Shannon! So glad to hear you enjoyed our sugar cookie recipe! For some amazing peanut butter cookies, check out our Best Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe here. If you prefer the PB/chocolate flavor combination, check out our Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies here. Both of these recipes produce soft, tender, and chewy cookies with the perfect amount of peanut butter flavor – and they’re even chewier if you let the dough chill in the fridge for 24-72 hours before baking! Learn more about that here. Let us know if you give them a try! Happy baking! 🙂
Highly recommend chilling dough, otherwise it’s an absolute mess. But quite delicious!
I made these for my grandsons graduation party…..what a hit….they were gone in a flash….thank goodness I made 2 batches….this is a keeper. I have been searching for a sugar cookie recipe for years!!
Can you add sprinkles and/or choclate chips?
Hi there! Yes, you can add absolutely add sprinkles to these sugar cookies! We haven’t tried adding chocolate chips, but that should work just fine too – though mini chocolate chips might be best. You can fold in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sprinkles or chocolate chips as a last step, before rolling the dough balls in granulated sugar. Let us know what you think of these cookies once you have given them a try! Happy baking! 🙂
Soooo good!