Colorful Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe

Your old traditional soft sugar cookie recipe gets a new makeover with colorful sparkling sugar making it incredibly festive! It’s soft, crumbly and chewy in the center, perfect cookies for parties. 

A great addition to holiday cookie exchange.

Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe

• Holiday season always sparks the baker in me. No better time to bake all your favorite cookies than holiday season.
• And the simplest and easiest cookie recipe would undoubtedly be the classic sugar cookies. It never gets old, does it!
• No matter how many times I bake these soft sugar cookies, I always get appreciation from my family. Clearly, sugar cookies are their favorite too. But I do have a tip to share with you guys that I learnt from experience, whenever you bake these cookies, make BIG batch, because there is never enough cookies.
• What makes sugar cookies so absolutely amazing is it’s texture. Though I love soft chewy texture you can even make them thin and crispy and it’ll still taste incredibly delicious!
• There is no chilling or rolling required. And the flavors and texture is spot-on.

These are ‘almost’ drop style cookies. You scoop out cookie dough, and drop but first in sugar and then on to baking tray.

Since the cookie dough gets rolled in sugar, I preferred to shape them into round balls with gentle hands (Tip – do to press dough between you palm, be very gentle).

Rolling into balls mainly helps the cookie dough get an even coat of sugar sprinkles.

For true scoop and drop style cookie you can really skip this step of rolling into round shape and directly drop cookie dough into sugar, the shape will be rustic, but so so good!

Wondering if this classic sugar cookie recipe makes overly sweet cookies as cookie dough is rolled in sugar sprinkles; NO it’s not overly sweet. We reduced the amount of sugar added into the cookie dough.

Sugar Cookie Ingredients

Readily available pantry ingredients are all you need for these classic cookies. That’s 7 main ingredients and colored sugar sprinkles that are optional.

Flour – When it comes to baking cookies, ensure you measure everything exact. Too much flour will make cookies hard, too little will make it difficult to work with the dough.

Sugar – Use granulated sugar. You can use colored sugar sprinkles to roll in the end or use plain white granulated sugar.

Salted Butter – make sure butter is at room temperature. In case you use unsalted butter, ensure you add ½ teaspoon salt to the dry flour mix.  A pinch of salt always enhances the taste of sweet cookies.

Baking Powder –  Using too much baking powder leaves a bitter aftertaste in the cookies. Too old baking powder will make cookies spread and turn flat. Use right amount of fresh/new baking powder.

Baking Soda – will help rise the cookie.

Egg Yolks – We used only egg yolks in this recipe. Egg yolks will give a rich taste to the cookie.

Vanilla Extract – Use pure vanilla extract.

Sugar Sprinkles – You can use white granulated sugar for sprinkling or roll cookie dough before baking. Or use colored sugar sprinkles that would makes these cookies perfect for holiday season. Red, green and a mix of red-white-green sugar sprinkles make our cookie platter colorful and pretty!

How To Make Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe

Sugar cookies made with butter is better! Anything with butter is always better! And these cookies are completely no chill! You don’t have to wait long to make these cookies; simply mix all the dry ingredients with beaten wet ingredients, scoop and drop.

To make it a little fancier and holiday apt cookie, roll cookie in sugar before dropping it on to the baking tray.

The process for sugar cookie recipe is pretty straight forward.

No need to chill, no need to roll!

Pre-Prep : You’ll need to have room temperature butter for this recipe. Plan ahead and leave butter on the counter for atleast an hour.

Pre-heat oven tat 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Line baking tray with parchment paper or silicon mat.

Dry Ingredients: Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda into a dry bowl.

Wet Ingredients:  Using stand mixer or hand blender beat softened butter and granulated sugar in large bowl. Beat until well combined.

Add egg yolks and pure vanilla extract, beat until just combined.

Mix-In Dry Ingredients: Add flour in parts and mix until just combined. Do not over beat.

Scoop & Roll: Using ice cream scoop, portion cookie dough and roll it in sugar.

TIP : To make it easy to roll in sugar, I lightly shaped the cookie dough into round balls using gentle palm.

Roll in just white granulated sugar or to make it fancier and apt-for-holidays use red, green and a mix of red-green-white sugar sprinkles.

Bake: Place sugar coated cookie dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper or silicon mat. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit for about 9 to 11 minutes.

NOTE : Baking time can vary. If you are after soft chewy cookies bake until just cookies start to crack. If you want crumbly cookies, bake a bit longer. Baking time will also differ depending on size of the cookie.

Cool & Store: Once baked, remove baking tray from oven. Allow cookies to rest on the baking tray for about 5 minutes, until it’s safe to handle without breaking cookies. Place cookies on wire rack and cool completely.

To store cookies, first let it cool completely. Then store in air tight containers sealed properly for about 4 days at room temperature.

NOTE : if not sealed properly, cookies will turn hard.

You can freeze cookie dough for about 3 months.

Tips For Best Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe

1. Use softened butter to make sugar cookies. You’ll get soft chewier cookies.
2. Do not overmix the dough.
3. If you want cookies to spread, give them a little nudge. I did not press down my cookies, as I didn’t want them to spread.
4. For uniform sized cookies, use ice cream scoop. Using ice cream scoop will ensure all cookies are portioned evenly and they bake evenly in oven.
5. Roll in sanding sugar is optional step, but it does add a crunch on the outer. I reduced sugar added to cookies by ¼ cup as I rolled them in sugar before baking. If you skip rolling in sugar add that ¼ cup sugar while making dough.

Variations and Decoration Tips For Sugar Cookies

For slight variation in flavors, you can add almond extract along with pure vanilla extract.

Egg yolks will make rich tasting cookies. Don’t like that slight egg yolk taste, add 2 whole eggs instead.

Decorating Tips – Sanding sugar (colored sugar sprinkles) adds not just a delightful crunch on the cookies but also makes it look pretty. One of the easiest decorations you can have on your holiday cookies.

Other ways to decorate these cookies is by using cream cheese frosting on top.

LOOKING FOR MORE COOKIE RECIPE?

Check these out –

Gingerbread Man Cookies

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Christmas Wreath Cookies

Cornflake Cookies

Irish Shortbread Christmas Tree Cookies

Christmas Candy Cane Cookies

Cashew Snow Cookies

Snowflakes Shortbread Cookies

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