Soft and Puffy Sugar Cookies
These sugar cookies are soft and puffy and taste amazing topped with a delicious buttercream frosting! Easy to make and fun to decorate for holidays or a special occasion, your family will love these cookies.
This soft sugar cookie is one that my family has been enjoying for generations! It is near and dear to my heart. I have so many sweet memories of my mom making Christmas sugar cookies or heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day. She would make what seemed like dozens of cookies to give to friends or neighbors and even sent some with us to school for our holiday parties. Of course, she always left a few unfrosted for us to make our own cookies at home.
Why I love this puffy and soft sugar cookie
Family memories aren’t the only reason why this is, in my opinion, the best sugar cookie recipe. There’s lots of reasons why I love making these!
- easy to make
- you can freeze the dough and bake later
- the dough rolls out so nicely
- the cookies are are puffy and tender
- the buttercream frosting compliments the flavors of the cookie perfectly
- the frosting is perfect for decorating for any holiday themed cookie
- they are de-licious!
My sugar cookie ingredients
There are a few key ingredients that set this recipe a part from other sugar cookie recipes.
- All purpose flour makes the best base for this soft sugar cookie dough recipe
- Unsalted Butter and Shortening create a rich flavor and tender texture
- Eggs are a binding agent in cookies
- A small amount of Vanilla Extract and Almond Extract flavor this cookie perfectly without being too overwhelming
- Baking Soda helps provide the leavening agent in the cookies, making them nice and puffy
- Sour milk sounds strange, but it gives these cookies a soft and tender texture and rich flavor – buttermilk can be used as a substitute
Making the sugar cookie dough
The cookie dough can be mixed in very little time, but you’ll need to plan ahead – the dough must be chilled for at least one hour before rolling out. You can find a detailed recipe below, but here’s a general run down.
- About 30 minutes before mixing, take the butter and egg out of the refrigerator to let them come to room temperature. You’ll also want to prepare your sour milk at this time too.
- Prepare the dry ingredients in a large bowl – combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar with the paddle attachment. Add the egg and extracts and mix on medium speed until fluffy.
- Add the dry ingredients – alternate between the flour mixture and sour milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Don’t over mix!
- Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour before rolling out.
Rolling out the cookies
Rolling out sugar cookies is pretty straight forward, but here are a few helpful tips that will give you cookie cutting success!
Prepare your baking sheet before you start rolling out. You’ll want to use either parchment paper or a silicone baking mats. These help keep your cookies from browning too much on the bottoms.
Flour your work surface and gently start to roll out the cookie dough. Flour your rolling pin and both sides of the cookie dough. Flip the dough over a few times, flouring as you go to keep it from sticking to the work surface. Avoid adding too much flour, but use just enough to keep it from sticking. Continue to roll out into a 1/4-inch thickness. These sugar cookies are best on the thicker side. Roll them out too thin and your cookies will be crispy instead of soft and puffy. Cut out your cookie shapes using your favorite cookie cutters. Sometimes I will dip my cookie cutters in flour in between cutting the cookies – this helps to cut them out cleaner, without sticking to the cookie cutter.
Transfer the cookies to the cookie sheet and space them about 2 inches apart. They will puff up in the oven as they bake.
Baking the sugar cookies
All ovens are slightly different, but generally ovens take about 30 minutes to truly preheat. Start preheating your oven before you roll out your sugar cookies so that it’s all ready by the time you have your cookies cut out.
Place your cookie sheet on the center rack of your oven. Bake them for 8 minutes or until you see the edges of the bottoms of the cookies begin to slightly brown. Be careful not to over bake! Let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes before placing them on a cooling rack. The baked cookies need to cool completely on the wire rack before frosting.
My number one tip
You’ll achieve the perfect cookie when you make sure to roll out the cookies to a 1/4-inch thickness. This will give you a soft and puffy, tender cookie! Rolling them out too thin will result in a dry, crispy cookie.
Frosting
This sugar cookie tastes best with my buttercream frosting. I would not suggest using royal icing for this cookie. The buttercream frosting used in this recipe is a “crusting buttercream” recipe – meaning the top layer of the frosting will set. At this point, it could be lightly touched and you could add more buttercream designs on top of it. This also means that if you are using sprinkles, be sure to add them right after frosting – if you wait too long, the frosting will set and the sprinkles won’t stick.
Storing the cookies
Storing these cookies properly is important in keeping them nice and soft. Keep them in an airtight container for up to one week.
Enjoy and share
These are the best sugar cookies. It’s such a great recipe for a soft and delicious, buttercream topped sugar cookie. You’ll love making these for different holidays and special occasions. While decorating sugar cookies can be so much fun, the best part, of course, is eating them!
Be sure to leave a comment below if you make this recipe. Post and share your cookie creations on Instagram and tag me @thatbreadlady. I love to see how you are enjoying my recipes with your family.
More Recipes to try
If you like these sugar cookies, you’ll love these recipes too!
Chocolate Chip Mint Oreo Stuffed Cookies
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Soft and Puffy Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- ¼ cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ cup sour milk*
Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 lbs powdered sugar sifted
- ⅓ cup cold water
Instructions
Make the dough:
- *Add ½ tsp. vinegar to milk to sour it. Set it aside while preparing other ingredients. As it sits, it will thicken up.
- Prepare the dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar.
- Add the egg and mix well.
- Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.
- Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour milk. Mix well after each addition.
- Turn out the dough onto a large piece of parchment or plastic wrap, flatten into a disc and completely cover the cookie dough.
- Chill in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out. This will make it easier to handle.
Roll out the dough:
- Gather and prepare items for rolling out. You’ll need a small bowl of flour for your work surface, rolling pin, baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat and cookie cutters.
- Remove cookie dough from fridge.
- Flour your work surface and rolling pin.
- Start rolling out your dough, flour the top and flip and continue to roll out until it’s about a ¼ inch thickness. Thicker cookies will yield a softer, puffy cookie. Thinner cookies will be crunchier.
- Cut out cookies with cookie cutters and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Gather together the scraps and form back into a ball and repeat rolling out.
Bake cookies:
- Bake at 400°F for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges of the bottom of the cookies are slightly brown.
- Allow to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Frost when completely cooled.
Buttercream Frosting
- Cream butter, shortening, salt and vanilla for 3 minutes.
- While the mixer is on low speed, slowly add the powdered sugar and cold water alternately. Add enough water for desired consistency. Frosting should be thick but soft enough to easily frost cookies.
Frost Cookies
- Frost cookies generously by either spreading with a knife or piping designs with a pastry bag. Top with desired sprinkles.
- *Always go for an equal frosting to cookie ratio! Yum!!
Notes
- The baked cookies can be frozen in a ziplock freezer bag for up to 8 weeks.
- These cookies are really the best when you roll them out on the thicker side.
- When frosting, I like to make sure there is an equal cookie to frosting ratio!
- Store frosting in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Allow it to come to room temperature and stir before frosting.
- This recipe can easily be doubled in a stand mixer. I like to double the recipe and freeze any extra cookie dough for later. You can store in freezer for up to two months in an airtight container.
- Store frosted cookies in an airtight container to keep from drying out. If stored right, they will stay fresh for up to one week!
- See my post for a how-to video, tool recommendations and packaging ideas!
Nutrition
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Cookies sound great, Please explain the sour milk. How do you make it?
Oh I see it now. Please ignore my previous comment
Okay great! Hope you enjoy!
When you say shortening for the cookies, do you margarine or lard?
For the icing you said vegetable shortening, is that like liquid oil? Thank you!
For both, it’s vegetable shortening. It’s not a liquid oil. It’s like the consistency of lard. I use Crisco brand.
Thank you so much!