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This soft sugar cookie recipe tastes just like the big, frosted sugar cookies from the grocery store. They are melt-in-your-mouth soft!
Featured with this Recipe
Have you ever been tempted by the big frosted Lofthouse cookies sold in the grocery store’s bakery section? They look so good, don’t they?! This is the best sugar cookie recipe to make that kind of cookie. Our copycat recipe tastes JUST LIKE those, if not better. This is a no-chill bakery-style sugar cookie recipe with simple ingredients. With just a few pantry staples and a little bit of time you can have big, soft, melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies with delicious cream cheese frosting. Then, top them off with some fun, colorful sprinkles and you have yourself a treat that looks as good as it tastes!
Ingredients in Soft Sugar Cookies
- Unsalted Butter – Make sure your butter is room temperature for a smooth batter.
- Sugar – White granulated sugar works best for this Lofthouse cookie recipe.
- Large Eggs – The eggs help bind the batter together and they also make the sugar cookies soft and fluffy
- Milk – Milk brings richness and moisture to this recipe.
- Vanilla Extract – Vanilla adds sweetness to the batter.
- Flour – We use white all-purpose flour for these cookies.
- Baking Powder – Baking powder give the cookies a little extra lift.
- Salt – Even when you’re making sweets, you still need a pinch of salt to balance things out.
Frosting Ingredients
- Cream Cheese – Cream cheese is the base of this frosting recipe. Make sure it is room temperature for a smooth frosting.
- Butter – Again, make sure your butter is at room temperature.
- Vanilla Extract – I like the flavor of vanilla extract in this soft sugar cookies recipe, but you can also use almond extract.
- Powdered Sugar – Powdered sugar gives the frosting it’s texture and form.
- Food Coloring – I prefer gel food coloring to liquid food coloring because gel doesn’t affect the texture. I used a small squeeze of red gel for this frosting.
- Sprinkles – Who doesn’t love sprinkles?? If you are adding sprinkles, then make sure to add them right after you frost the cookies so they stick to the frosting.
Method
- Add butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with a paddle attachment. Mix until the mixture is light and fluffy. You can also use a hand mixer.
- Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly after each egg, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Then, add milk and vanilla.
- In a separate large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until the dough forms a uniform ball. The cookie dough balls should be soft but not sticky.
- Our soft sugar cookies recipe calls for 4 cups of flour. However, the consistency of the dough can vary based on a lot of factors. You can judge how much flour you need by the consistency of the dough. Start with 3 cups of flour using a measuring cup to get it exact. If the dough is too sticky, then add more flour a little at a time until you can touch the dough without it sticking to your hands.
- On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll the cookie dough out to 1/4-inch thickness.
- Using a round cookie cutter, or the rim of a drinking glass, cut circles out of the dough.
- Line some large baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the cut out dough evenly spaced on the baking sheets.
- Bake in batches at 350 for 10-12 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE. The sugar cookies will look soft and under-baked but they will finish baking on the hot pan.
- Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool.
Frosting
- Meanwhile, make the frosting. Combine cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add powdered sugar a little bit at a time until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. Add food coloring if desired.
- When the cookies are completely cooled, then frost and top with sprinkles. Kids love helping with the decorating!
- Store in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
Tips for Making Soft Sugar Cookies
- The number one tip I can give you for this soft sugar cookies recipe is that you absolutely MUST NOT over-bake them! That is the key to making them soft. They may look under-baked when you take them out in 10-12 minutes, but they will cook a little more on the hot pan.
- If you don’t have a round cookie cutter, then you can use the top of a glass.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to keep cookies from sticking to the baking sheet.
Customize Your Cookies
This soft sugar cookies recipe is a go-to recipe for any holiday or birthday celebration throughout the year. You can change it up by cutting the cookies into different fun shapes. You can also dye the frosting all sorts of colors and use lots and lots of sprinkles to make them extra festive! For Valentine’s Day I like to use the pink frosting pictured below. Alternatively, for Christmas, I like to do half the cookies in red frosting and the other half in green. You can even add different extracts to the frosting for a variety of tastes – orange, almond, coconut – make them your own!
Frequently Asked Questions
To keep these cookies soft, make sure to store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Some sugar cookie recipes call for chilling, but this recipe doesn’t.
If your cookies are hard, then it is likely that you over-baked them. Bake them for exactly the time listed below. They will look under-done but I promise they will turn out perfect!
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More Sugar Cookie Recipes
If you love these soft, chewy sugar cookies, then try some of our other delicious sugar cookie recipes!
How to Make Soft Sugar Cookies
Soft Sugar Cookies Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup butter room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 to 1½ pounds powdered sugar
- candy sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, milk and vanilla.
- In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Slowing add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix together until you can form a large dough ball. On floured surface, roll out dough ball until about ¼ to ½ inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters (or rim of a drinking glass) to cut cookie shapes out of dough.
- Place cookies on lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake about 10-12 minutes. DON'T OVERCOOK OR THEY WILL BE HARD!
- After baking, move cookies to a cooling rack to cool before frosting.
FROSTING
- Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and mix until desired consistency. Add food coloring if desired.
- Spread frosting over cooled cookies. If adding sprinkles, add them immediately after frosting.
Notes
- For large cookies (about 3 inch cookie cutter), you will get 15-16 cookies. With a smaller cookie cutter, you will get about 2 dozen.
- The number one tip I can give you for this soft sugar cookies recipe is that you absolutely MUST NOT over-bake them! That is the key to making them soft. They may look under-baked when you take them out in 10-12 minutes, but they will cook a little more on the hot pan.
- If you don’t have a round cookie cutter, then you can use the top of a glass.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to keep cookies from sticking to the baking sheet.
I only gave email but I love to bake.
I’m retired and thanks sooooo much for sharing. Barb
I love this recipe. It reminds me of cookies that I could get at the bakery.
I used less sugar ( 3/4 cup monk fruit) and only 3 cups flour. I have to use gluten-free flour, and I used gfjules flour.
I made these as part of my Christmas cookie assortment and I will not make them again, biscuit texture , dry and tasteless. Not what I would call a sugar cookie and it was a waste of my time.
I am sorry you didn’t like these cookies. They are based off of Lofthouse cookies which have a different taste and texture than normal sugar cookies.
So I gave this recipe three stars because the frosting is good, but the cookies were ridiculous. They came out biscuits. I ended up throwing half of them away and saving a few to make strawberry shortcake with later. They taste like bread, have a texture like bread, and rise like bread. Huge waste of ingredients.
These were so good. My whole family devoured them!!! I have one question though. Can I substitute the butter for oil, my friend has dairy issues?
You could swap it out for shortening!
While these cookies are definitely soft, the consistency is like bread. I ended up throwing mine away because I couldn’t really call them cookies. They look like (and have the same consistency of) a slice of white bread when you bite into them.
This cookie was like a pillow of love ❤️ I made then for work and everyone wanted the recipe !
Can you add dye with this recipe ?
Yes!
I added dye into the dough and it didn’t alter it at all . You can use dye ❤️
Can you use a muffin /cupcake tin for cooking these? … I have a heart shaped pan (makes 6) that id like to use! Would that work? And just press or place dough ball in each muffin/heart spot? Should i grease pan if so?
Thanks!
💟
I haven’t tried baking cookies in a muffin tin before, so I’m not sure how that would work out. Let us know how it goes if you try it though! One thing I would say is that you have to roll the dough out, it can’t just be in a ball because this cookie recipe doesn’t spread like a chocolate chip cookie would. It is a sugar cookie dough so it would need to be shaped before going in for sure.
Lofthouse sugar cookies are seriously the best!! They are so soft & the frosting is delicious!!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
I was really impressed with this recipe. The dough was easy to work with, I cut out hearts for Valentine’s Day. The cookies were soft and tender and held their shape perfectly!
These look absolutely amazing, and that frosting looks to die for! Thanks for the recipe!
Ah !! These look so fancy .. Love how easy they are. Perfect for valentines day and even to make with the kids
Yayyyy! I’ve found a new, reliable cookie recipe for my collection. Thanks for another winner! 🙂
Those are some seriously tempting cookies! Definitely have had the experience of getting store cookies that looked good but were pretty stale.
I have a recipe that I concocted years ago That keep much longer, it there are any left to keep.:
No eggs or milk, margerine instead of butter or Crisco. I don’t have to ice them nor decorate.
They are gone before I get the chance to.
I make 4 -6 dozen per batch, to take to my computer club.
I also make a humungouse batch of the dry ingredients to keep on hand & use the same batter for a
base for many other cookies. I seldom am allowed to bring any back home.
Do you share you recipe? I’d love it.
Would you mind sharing the recipe?
I made these today. The dough was too soft for cutouts. I couldn’t pick the cutout from the floured parchment after cutting it out. I was afraid to add too much flour. I scooped the dough with a #40. Commercial food scoop,flattened the ball. The recipe yield was 3 dozen cookies. I added a small amount of milk to the frosting. I used a small amount of “koolaid” like drink mix (unsweetened) to add color and cut the sweetness of the frosting. Awesome cookie.
Thank you for sharing your tips on this recipe! The dough can be tricky depending on elevation and humidity. I add a little flour at a time to get to the consistency for cut-outs, or powdered sugar if your concerned about taste. I love your Kool-Aid idea for adding color to the frosting.
My dough was very sticky. I Added flour but it didn’t work. Also this recipe only makes 2 dozen cookies. They did taste good in the end though.????????
I wonder why it was so sticky? What elevation are you at?
Can the dough be refrigerated or frozen for later use?
We haven’t tried freezing it but I am sure you wouldn’t have a problem if you did. Let us know how it turns out!
Does the frosting recipe harden a bit so cookies can be stacked to give away?
It hardens a little bit but I would definitely take care in stacking. I would separate each layer with wax paper just in case!
For the icing I used orange extract instead of vanilla and it came out really good 🙂
That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Can I use a teaspoon and make a ball of dough and then flatten them with a glass dipped in sugar
Yes, that way they would be a lot like our “Swig” cookie recipe. 🙂
I made them and the dough is awfully sticky. but they are good i rollled them in cinnamon sugar.
What happens if you omit the baking powder and use baking soda instead??
I don’t think that baking powder and soda are interchangeable.
Using butter instead of shortening what will be the taste difference?
It will have a slightly different taste and texture – but you may like it better!
Hi, is it really 1 to 11/2 pounds of powdered sugar in the frosting? Seems like a lot! Is it tablespoons instead?
Thanks!
Leah
No that is correct. That is the size of the bag of powdered sugar, not the actual weight. It takes a lot of powdered sugar to make frosting.
Thank You for this recipe! Because Jill A. recommended it I printed it off….Looks sooo Good! Thank You! Will make them at Christmas time also Jill A…..
I think I’m going to give these a try! I would think that butter-flavored Crisco might give them a better flavor.
How many cookies does this Recipe make ?
It makes about 3 dozen cookies. It can vary a little depending on how big you make the cookie dough balls. If you make them closer to 1/2″ the recipe would yield closer to 4 dozen.
These cookies are easy to make and incredibly tasty! For the frosting I omitted the cream cheese and added in about 4 tablespoons of milk instead. I will definitely make these again!
will using butter instead of shortening ange the chewy ness of the cookies? thanks
It will taste a little different, but still work fine!
Can’t wait to make these for Valentines Day!
Hey thanks for the recipe they are fantastic!!!
Excited to try these <3
can I use unsalted butter instead of the crisco?
thanks
Yes, that’s fine.
I just made these and they are fantastic! I’ll be using a different frosting but the cookies are amazing.
Good recipe!