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.
Pros: Fun, simple, and perfect for holidays from Christmas to Valentine’s Day, even 4th of July!
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? I’ve made this recipe many times, everyone raves about it.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
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!
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
Become a Baking Genius!
Sign up for our free email newsletter for NEW recipes & baking science secrets.
Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
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
December 2021 Baking Challenge
This sugar cookie recipe was the December 2021 selection for our monthly baking challenge! Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s cookies:
These are awesome cookies. Easy to put together and they taste so good. Best sugar cookies ever!!
FANTASTIC EASY RECIPE!!
Came out perfect! This is the best recipe!!
I am baking sugar cookies for a wedding. Can these be frozen? I wanted to make them the weekend prior bc I am also baking cupcakes the day before. Please advise!
Hi Cassandra! These cookies can be baked and then frozen, but for the best taste and texture, we’d recommend prepping and freezing the cookie dough balls ahead of time (up to six weeks!), and then baking from frozen 1-2 days ahead of time, storing them in an airtight container with a tortilla to ensure they retain softness. Check out the instructions here. Good luck!
Extremely disappointed because of this recipe. At first I thought I did something incorrectly but it always has this disgusting, chemical tasting after taste and I’m not sure where it came from. I am incredibly disappointed and would love to know if I was doing something wrong.
If you’re noticing a chemical taste to your baked cookies, I’d double check your leavener. Sometimes, a metallic taste can be due to the strength of the aluminum in the brand of baking powder you’re using. I’d recommend trying an aluminum-free baking powder and see if that helps! Our team loves using Argo. Or, if you live at a high altitude, it’s possible that the amount of leavener may be too much for your location. If this is the case, you could try reducing the leavener by 1/4 teaspoon to see if that helps. Please let me know how your next batch goes!
i use this recipe and add home dried brewers yeast to make them into lactation cookies! because my dehydrated yeast is a bit goo-y i find i dont have to add any extra ingredients to balance it back out and they turned out so good that now i have my husbands coworkers asking for samples!
Sooo I took it upon myself to use this base sugar cookie recipe to add an interesting (but incredible) competent to the cookie, gochujang. The gochujang was inspired by Eric Kim’s NYT Caramelized Gochujang Cookie recipe.
These cookies were the BIGGEST hit at work. Everyone was so amazed about how the flavor profiles complemented each other. This recipe will give you 12 perfectly textured cookies (thanks to Tessa). Also, I strongly recommend you chill this recipe for 24hrs. It tastes SOOO much better!
Caramelized gochujang mixture:
(1 TBSP gochujang, 1TBSP dark brown sugar, and 1 TBSP softened butter all mixed together).
Separate the batter of this sugar cookie recipe into 2 bowls and blop 3-5 dallops of the gochujang concoction on top of each batter. Swirl until you get those nice strip/ribbons of red. Be sure to use a 3 tbsp cookie dough scoop, no exceptions.
In the batter, you’ll get some orange ribbons too, but be mindful that the batter shouldn’t turn colors. It should still have the sugar cookie feel to it if that makes sense.
Note, I did use a cookie rounding mold equivalent to shape the cookie after it came out the oven. Sometimes the caramelized mixture would spill out of the cookie during baking and burn on the baking sheet pan. You might find that you’ll have to trim the excess runs of caramelized gochujang off the ends of the cookie to make it look more aesthetically pleasing haha. If you don’t use gochujang, it will turn out fine (yes I can’t even count how many times I’ve made this recipe). You’ll see what I mean if you make these haha. It won’t stop you from having a wonderful tasting cookie though!!!
Gochujang or not, (literally stop what you’re doing and make these) enjoy!
Wow, thanks for sharing your experiment and your recipe with us, Emory! These sound INCREDIBLE, and I love the gorgeous caramel-orange color! How fun and creative. I’ll be sure to share this with Tessa, she’ll be so excited to see your results!
Can I substitute 1 to 1 gluten free flour to make gluten free without impacting the recipe?
Just made these using the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour (318 g despite what packaging listed) and they turned out AMAZING. You can’t even tell they are GF! Delicious 🙂 Thank you!
So happy to hear that, Melissa! Thanks for letting us know!
Just made a batch and tasted the dough… Delicious!!! Might too it with buttercream icing, Mmmm. Thanks for the recipe.
My family absolutely loved these cookies. We will be making again
worked well!
I made these for my daughter and grandchildren, Although my cookies didn’t look as pretty as yours, they were a big hit.Everyone plowed through those cookies. I tried refrigerating the dough overnight and perhaps it wasn’t at room temperature yet when I started baking, With that aesthetic detail aside, they were absolutely scrumptious! Next time I’ll skip the refrigeration first.Great recipe.
Just made a batch. Turned out wonderful. Wouldn’t change a thing
I just made these and they were fabulous. BUT I added cinnamon to the sugar.cause I am a cinnamon freak. Lol