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Easy Soft Sugar Cookies – a classic drop sugar cookie, no cookie cutters or rolling needed! With the buttercream cookie frosting on top these are perfect for any holiday or occasion – or because you can’t get enough sugar cookies!
Drop sugar cookies are a go-to recipe for the easiest soft sugar cookies. These cookies are an all-time favorite because they’re so soft and chewy with the perfect frosting. While I love a cutout sugar cookie I also value my time so a drop cookie is where my mind is at 99% of the time. I absolutely love that these don’t need rolling or chilling either! This is my go-to soft cookie recipe I’ve been making for over 10 years (for every holiday, as sugar cookie bars, and even as grinch cookies!)
Sugar Cookie Ingredients
- Butter: a good sugar cookie uses real butter. Butter-flavored shortening is okay, but to get that traditional sugar cookie flavor, you need butter. Use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt. If you’re using salted butter, reduce the amount of salt in the recipe by 1/4 teaspoon.
- Sugar: this drop cookie recipe uses granulated sugar, unlike my cutout sugar cookie recipe, which uses powdered.
- Egg and Egg Yolk: 2 eggs was too much egg, but one egg made them a little too cakey, so I added an egg yolk to add a bit more chew to these soft cookies.
- Leavening: the combination of baking soda and cream of tartar create a pillowy soft cookie without it being cakey.
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Dorothy’s Testing Notes
- Use real butter, not fake or margarine. The quality of butter matters too, especially in a cookie like this. I recommend Challenge or other name brand.
- Cream of tartar is a great thing to have on hand for baking (I use it in my cut out sugar cookies too, and it helps meringue form stiff peaks) but in a pinch you can use a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar. The baking soda needs some acid to activate and get puffy, otherwise the cookies will be flatter and chewier (like my chewy sugar cookies).
- You can make these dairy-free sugar cookies by using Earth’s Balance Vegan Butter Sticks in place of the butter.
- Skip the frosting and roll these in granulated sugar before baking – they’re perfect with or without frosting!
Soft Drop Sugar Cookies
Video
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract, optional
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (248g) all-purpose flour
For the Frosting:
- 3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (339g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5-7 teaspoons milk, (any kind)
- Sprinkles and/or food coloring, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.
- Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat in egg and both extracts. (Almond extract is optional, but adds amazing flavor!) Mix in baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Slowly mix in flour.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of dough onto cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes (10 for slightly underdone, 11-12 for more done). I like to take them out as soon as the bottom starts to turn brown (about 10 minutes for my oven). Cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheets. Place on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Make the frosting: Beat butter until creamy with a hand or a stand mixer. Mix in salt if desired. Slowly add in powdered sugar until mixture is crumbly. (It will be very crumbly if using a hand mixer, more smooth if using a stand mixer.) Add vanilla and 3 teaspoons milk. Mix until the frosting comes together and becomes smooth, adding additional teaspoons of milk as needed for consistency. If you want your frosting to be a color, tint it now.
- Frost cookies and decorate with sprinkles. Store at room temperature loosely covered.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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How to Make Soft Sugar Cookies
- The butter and sugar should be light and fluffy after creaming.
- It will be pale yellow and almost like cake batter before you add the flour.
- Once the flour is mixed in the cookie dough is easy to handle and scoop. I like using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop but you can use bigger or smaller. For perfectly round cookies, roll the dough balls between your palms to smooth.
- Mix up the creamy frosting while the cookies are cooling.
Variations
- Frost these with chocolate buttercream or cream cheese frosting instead.
- Decorate them for any holiday: pink for Valentine’s Day, red and green for Christmas. Or do black and orange for Halloween or pastel colors for Easter.
FAQs
No. For cut-out cookies you will need powdered sugar to stop the spread. In cut-out sugar cookies or snowball cookies, you don’t want spreading. Powdered sugar includes cornstarch, which helps with binding and reducing spread, thus no spreading.
Yes – you can freeze the baked cookies unfrosted OR frosted! Freeze plain cookies in a gallon-size resealable bag with paper towels between layers. Freeze frosting in an airtight container. You can freeze frosted cookies in a single layer in an airtight container.
Other Easy Cookie Recipes
- Make chocolate chip sugar cookies by adding 1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter and skipping the frosting.
- Make M&M Sugar Cookies by adding 1 cup of M&Ms to the batter, skip the frosting.
- Add 1 cup of sprinkles to the batter to make a sprinkle cookie (omit frosting).
- Roll the cookies in sugar or cinnamon sugar (reminiscent of snickerdoodles) and skip the frosting.
- Flavor your frosting with lemon juice or a bit of cocoa to make a new flavor!
Just wondering, are these cookies soft or crunchy?
Soft with a chewy exterior!
I love the story of how you and Lisa met, that is so sweet and yay for this virtual baby shower. The frosting and sprinkles make these perfect for this special occasion and they really do look like the perfect sugar cookie 🙂 I love that you don’t have to chill or roll them and they still come out nice and thick – pinned 🙂
These are so good! I made these last night for my family and they ate them all in 5 minutes. I have to say that I ate quite a few myself. Thank you for all the recipes. I use them once a week for a treat for my family! Thank you for adding a little sweetness to my week!
They look wonderful! I’m right there with you – love them but hate rolling and cutting. I’ll have to try these next. Thanks!
Dorothy, I’m SO incredibly happy for you to have found such a sweet friend! It’s hard to live far apart from each other, but with how kind and thoughtful you are, Lisa will definitely love and appreciate your gorgeous cookies. Almond extract is my favorite thing ever! Back when I was a chemist, I worked with this chemical called benzaldehyde, and it smelled exactly like almond extract. I would always take an extra long time measuring out the liquid and putting the cap back on the jar. It’s still my favorite scent! If only they made a perfume that smelled like almond extract…
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