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Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe – a classic chewy soft sugar cookie that’s a drop 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!

stacked sugar cookies with white icing and sprinkles on top


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.

I created this recipe to try to replicate my Nana’s Sugar Cookies. Turns out the cookies she fed me my entire childhood…were from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. I didn’t find that out until I was an adult and had already recreated her recipe – homemade and from scratch!

Why you’ll love this recipe

  • These are drop sugar cookies: no rolling or cutting needed!
  • No chill cookies – just drop and bake!
  • They’re the perfect EASY cookie recipe for any occasion or holiday – just switch up the frosting colors or sprinkles!
Ingredients in SUGAR COOKIES

Important 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 wasn’t chewy enough so I added an egg yolk to add a bit more chew to these soft cookies.
  • Leavening – this drop cookie recipe uses a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar.

Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

butter and sugar creamed in stand mixer showing paddle attachment.
butter and sugar mixture in glass bowl of stand mixer.
flour over butter and sugar mixture in glass bowl of stand mixer.
cookie dough balls on silpat.
frosting in glass bowl with hand mixer.

How to make easy sugar cookies

  • Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is fluffy..
  • Add the room temperature egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix until smooth, then mix in baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
  • Add flour and mix until the sugar cookie dough forms.
  • Scoop 2 tablespoon-sized balls on a baking sheet. Bake for 11-15 minutes, or until the bottoms start to get golden and the top is no longer glossy.  Cool for at least 10 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing. Cool completely before frosting.
  • Mix frosting ingredients together until combined and smooth. Color as desired with food coloring. Frost and decorate with sprinkles.
sugar cookie with white frosting and pink and blue sprinkles.
Reader Review
“I loved this recipe! Made it once and keep making it again and again! It was a hit!”
Fenella

You don’t need frosting on these sugar cookies, but I love a quick and easy vanilla buttercream. It makes the best sugar cookie icing, ever! I use a ratio of unsalted butter to powdered sugar and add vanilla, salt, and a bit of milk for consistency. To decorate these sugar cookies, you can tint the icing any color too, and don’t forget the sprinkles! 

sugar cookie with pink frosting and red sprinkles.
stacked cookies with green and red frosting with green and red sprinkles on top.

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.
stacked sugar cookies with orange frosting and orange and purple sprinkles.
stacked sugar cookies with black frosting and orange and green sprinkles.

Expert Tips

  • 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.
  • Buy yourself some cream of tartar so that your cookies have extra softness without the spread of just using baking soda.
  • Add an extra egg yolk to complete the perfection of this chewy soft sugar cookie.
  • 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!

FAQs

Can I use this cookie recipe to roll cut-out cookies?

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. 

Can you freeze sugar cookies

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.

sugar cookie with white frosting and pink and blue sprinkles.

Sugar Cookies Recipe

4.40 from 71 votes
This is the BEST soft sugar cookie recipe! These drop sugar cookies are chewy and soft and perfect with or without frosting.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Yield 17 cookies (depending on size)
Serving Size 1 cookie
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Ingredients
 

For the Cookies

  • ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
  • ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups (248g) all-purpose flour

For the frosting

  • 4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 ⅓ cups (151g) powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) milk
  • Food coloring if desired
  • Sprinkles optional
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Instructions

Make the Cookies:

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheet with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
  • Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer). Cream until the mixture is fluffy, about one minute.
  • Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix until smooth, then mix in baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add flour and mix until cookie dough forms.
  • Scoop 2 tablespoon sized balls 2-inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 11-15 minutes, or until the bottoms are just starting get golden and the top is no longer glossy. Cool at least 10 minutes on cookie sheet before removing. Cool completely before frosting.

Make the Frosting:

  • Mix butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer until smooth, then slowly mix in the powdered sugar a bit at a time. The mixture will be very crumbly. Add the vanilla and mix, then mix in the salt and milk. Beat until smooth and creamy.
  • Tint with food coloring, if desired.
  • Frost cooled cookies. Store loosely covered.

Alternate preparation:

  • Scoop balls of cookie dough and roll them in sugar or cinnamon sugar before baking. Skip frosting. OR
  • Add 1 cup of sprinkles to the dough before scooping. Skip frosting.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

  • Use real butter, not margarine or imitation butter.
  • Equal parts butter and granulated sugar gives these the perfect amount of sweetness and spread.
  • Buy yourself some cream of tartar so that your cookies have some chew without the spread of just using baking soda.
  • Add an extra egg yolk to complete the perfection of this chewy soft sugar cookie.
  • You can make these dairy-free sugar cookies by using Earth’s Balance Vegan Butter Sticks in place of the butter.
  • You can make 1 tablespoon (8-13 minute) or 2 tablespoon (13-17 minutes) size cookies. Or bake in a 9×13-inch pan (18-25 minutes).
  • Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze cookies for up to 3 months, with or without frosting.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 222kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 130mg | Sugar: 17g
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Dorothy Kern

Did you try this recipe? Click the stars to rate the recipe below

  • 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!

Other Sugar Cookie Recipes



Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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4.40 from 71 votes (58 ratings without comment)

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28 Comments

  2. OMG! I have been looking for a soft sugar cookie recipe for a long time, I hit the jackpot! These are the best cookie I have ever made and I bake alot! The icing is so delicious. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I will be forever grateful, my top 3 cookie recipes! Lol! Connie

    Reply

  3. If you look at the ingredients for baking powder, it usually includes baking soda, and powdered acid (often related to tartaric acid). Cream tartar is a powdered form of the same acid. So by combining the baking soda and cream of tartar in this recipe, you’ve effectively made baking powder. Isn’t chemistry wonderful. Baking soda is most often used in foods that are already slightly acidic – containing fruit, molasses, etc. When you combine baking soda and an acid you generate carbon dioxide gas, which leavens the food – the little gas bubbles make the food lighter and puffier. In baking powder, they put a solid form of acid with the solid baking soda – you get the same effect when you add water (try putting some water on a bit of baking powder and watch it fizz). So essentially you get the same leavening action in a muffin or biscuit, without having to have the batter/dough be slightly acidic. To be fair, there are some foods that aren’t acidic, and still only use baking soda. My assumption is that the soda decomposes at baking temperature to release the carbon dioxide – but probably not as well or efficiently as when acid is present. Oh, and incidentally, what is left behind in the baked product, after the CO2 escapes – is sodium and some other chemicals. So keep in mind that effectively, you’ve increased the saltiness of the food by the amount of baking soda or baking powder that you add.

    Reply

    1. These are fabulous! Excellent texture and crumb, buttery flavor. Batch is small—marking my copy to double next time as these go fast! I got 27 cookies out of the batch at what I would call a “normal” cookie size. I rolled mine in granulated sugar before baking. Great recipe- worth the no notice trip to the store for cream of tartar!

      Reply

    2. David, This is exactly what I was thinking while reading the cream of tartar “tip” (i include the quotes bc that is how it is described a few comments up). I’ve always been told that any recipe calling for cream of tartar that also includes baking soda, baking powder can be used in place of both the baking soda and cream of tartar. I’ve tried it both ways and have never observed any difference at all.

      Reply

  4. Hands down the BEST and EASIEST sugar cookie recipe ever!! This one is an absolute keeper!! 

    Reply

  5. These are so good I literally just got through making them and they don’t taste like cardboard. Thank you so much!! 

    Reply