Soft Sugar Cookies

Jump to Recipe

This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, check the Privacy Policy.

This recipe has come to be known by many names. In high school, our friends called them Bower cookies. My Fayetteville friends call them Kelly’s cookies. They are by far my favorite cookie and quite often the bane of my cooking existence. Soft sugar cookies are by far the best and most asked for recipe I have. Growing up Momma made them for every holiday from Halloween to Easter. They are soft and sweet but not sicky sweet. Yet they can be the most frustrating roll out cookie that I have ever made.

I know, not a vote of confidence for the new or inexperienced baker. I do not attempt these cookies in late spring, summer, or early fall. They do not do well in the humidity and will leave you with a sticky mess that you can’t get from where you rolled it out to the cookie sheet. I say this and yet I made them this past week; right when North Carolina decided to laugh at us and switch from late fall weather to summer weather. Worst possible idea, yet the dough was made and I’d committed to making them. This is where that face plant emoji picture would go.

So if I’ve not scared you away, this is what you will need

• sugar
• vegetable shortening (Crisco)
• all purpose flour
• sour cream
• 3 eggs
• baking soda
• vanilla extract
• cream cheese
• powdered sugar
• milk
• 3 days and lots of patience….

Yes you read it correctly. You need 3 days or 2 if you have no small children and are a glutton for punishment. Day 1 is simply making the dough and putting it in the fridge to chill. Day 2 is baking the cookies and making the icing if you’ve got time. Day 3 is icing the cookies or letting them set up if you decided to try this in two days. They will need at least 3-4 hours to chill in the fridge. I prefer to leave them overnight, because I’ve not had good luck trying to make and bake in one day. I then plan a day to bake.
They make 5-7 dozen cookies depending on the size cookie cutter you choose. Then you have to ice them and let them set up. Setting up typically takes at least 5-6 hours, but I typically leave them alone overnight and longer than that if I do more than one layer of icing.

Day 1

Making the dough is the easy part and won’t take you very long at all. In your mixing bowl cream together 1 cup shortening and 2 cups of sugar. Once it is well mixed add in 3 eggs one at a time. Scrape the bowl thoroughly to make sure everything is incorporated. While adding in your eggs put 1 tsp of baking soda in 1 cup sour cream and let it dissolve a minute. If you’re running short on time and you don’t let it sit together long it will be fine. Then add the sour cream with baking soda on it to the mixing bowl and stir well.
Gradually add 4 cups of all purpose flour and then 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Once everything is well combined, scoop your dough into a medium sized Tupperware container and refrigerate overnight. That’s it for today, unless you’re feeling very froggy and have no littles needing Mama every 5 seconds.

Day 2

So I started this blog in October and now I’m picking it back up for Christmas baking. These pictures show one recipe, but when you see the Christmas cookies towards the end just know I made a double batch and that’s why there are so many. The picture below shows how I prep for sugar cookies. I have a convection oven so I also line 5 trays with parchment paper. Technically I could do 6 trays, but I’ve found once I get going I rarely have enough time to get all the trays ready before the oven dings. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

You need a decent amount of space to roll out cookies, set trays, set hot trays, and have bowls. I always have a bowl with a little flour to dip my cutters in, a bowl to put scraps from rolling out in, my pie crust rolling mat with flour, rolling pin, cutters of choice, and flour shaker. A word to the wise on cookie cutter choice. Small and thin cutters work best. The wider and larger the cutter the more difficult it is to get them from the dough to the tray. It can be done, but you may need a spatula underneath to help move them without losing your mind as they fall out.

For the first batter you put on the mat, you cannot have too much flour. It is sticky and if your kitchen is at all warm it is even more sticky. So coat your mat and take out a softball size amount of dough. Coat it in flour and make sure if the dough moves any on the mat you put some where the mat shows. Then make sure your rolling pin has flour on it and roll the dough out to about a 1/4 inch thickness.

Now take a deep breath, find some patience and try putting the cookie cutter in the dough and move it to the tray.

Success! Ok success after 3 tries.

DO NOT PANIC IF YOUR FIRST ROLLING OUT DOES NOTHING BUT STICK TO THE MAT! I’ve been there with this recipe. Just get a spatula, scrape it off the mat, and drop it in your scraps bowl. Reflour and try again. Some times this recipe is nothing but a pain, but I promise the yummy cookies make it worth it. Often the cookies you get from the edges move just fine but the closer you get to the middle the worse they stick.

These cookies will spread some so leave a good amount of space between cookies. Now bake them for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Large cookies take longer and small cookies take less time. You want them just barely brown at the edges.

That’s the gist of what you’re doing. I typically use up all of the fresh dough before I use the scraps bowl. When your scraps bowl starts getting full and the fresh dough is close to being empty, put the scraps bowl in the fridge to chill while you finish up the fresh dough. Just remember to only use as much flour as you have to, because by the end the scraps dough gets to having too much flour and they don’t taste as good. So let’s give you some tips to help you out:

• Flour, flour, flour! Make sure the mat is covered, the rolling pin is coated, and sprinkle some on the top. If it starts sticking as you roll it out sprinkle some on top.
• When you start rolling out the scraps add flour, but be careful not to add to much as it will dry them out.
• If it is getting just too sticky to work with put it back in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. It is much easier to work with when it is cold.
• Let them cool a couple minutes on the tray and put on a drying rack to cook completely before putting them up.
• If the dough starts sticking to your cookie cutters and messing up how they look; then take a toothpick and clean off the edges inside and out of the cutters.
• Dip the cookie cutters in flour to help them not stick as badly.
• You can put the dough back in a sealed container and roll them out tomorrow if you run out of time to finish in one day.
• Take a deep breath because these can be a pain. If your house is too hot it will affect how they roll out.
• Remember with a convection oven you cook 25 degree less than what it calls for. This can effect the cooking time. Don’t get hung up on 10 minutes. Look at the cookies and make a judgement call.
• These last a long time once you bake them.
• The type of flour you use matters! Good quality flour does not stick as badly. We have found King Arthur flour makes this much more manageable.

Here’s one after two batches were done. 20 dozen and 4 cookies.

Day 3

Set out your cream cheese to soften a while before you want to get started. This will make more than you need for one batch, but will be helpful if you’re going to use multiple colors to decorate with. I’ll put the smaller icing recipe at the bottom if you’d like that one instead.

Cream together 8 ounces cream cheese and 5 1/2 Tablespoons of milk. Add 2 tsps vanilla extract. Gradually add in 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar and make sure to scrape the sides and bottom well. Once everything is blended together beat it a couple minutes to get it fluffy. Now you’re ready to ice!

Put it in separate bowls to make the colors you would like to use. I have found if I make a like brown and add Wilton no taste red to it that I get a darker red faster without using a TON of red color. This icing is runny and can be a pain to get on the cookies nicely. Feel free to use a pipping bag or the Wilton decorating bottles, but I start off with a regular table knife. Just know that sometimes the powdered sugar will make hard spots that get stuck in the openings. So you may have to open up what you’re using and clean it out.

I do one layer of icing at a time. Now you can do more than one layer in a day but you have to give it time to set up some first. I put my trays in the oven to set up so I don’t have to worry about getting anything them. However word to the wise, either put a sign on the oven door or don’t plan to use your oven that day or the next one. I have killed perfectly good sugar cookies by preheating the oven while they were in there setting up. There is nothing worse than telling you boss at school you won’t be able to give her the full order of her sugar cookies because you turned the oven on to preheat while they were in there.

Small batch of icing:

• 1 lb powdered sugar
• Two 3 oz cakes of cream cheese
• 4 Tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Congratulations you survived! Now take a bite and enjoy the yummy taste of success!