When my brother graduated high school, he requested sugar cookies like you buy at the grocery store with that super sugary awesome frosting. Mom was going to buy them but OF COURSE I couldn’t let that happen. In true Anna fashion I looked up about 8 different soft, fluffy sugar cookie recipes, looked at the similarities and differences and went for it. I created my own kinda recipe. So far this method hasn’t failed me yet. These were super easy and at 9:30pm when I decided to make the dough so I could just make the cookies in the morning, I had all of the ingredients in the fridge and pantry to whip them up easily.
Ingredients-
2 sticks butter
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
Directions-
1. Cream butter, sugar, sour cream and vanilla
2. Add in 3 eggs
3. Slowly add in flour, baking powder and salt
4. Mix only until dry ingredients are combined. DO NOT OVER MIX! I have a tendency to want to whip everything up thinking it will make it extra fluffy when really it can make it tough and dense. These are supposed to be FLUFFY. Just mix until there are no more pockets of flour.
5. Make a cross with two piece of intersecting plastic wrap. Plop the dough in the middle and wrap it.
6. Let refrigerate over-night or at least an hour.
Pre-heat oven to 350. You have one of two options here. You can roll out the dough 1/2 of and inch thick and use a round cookie cutter or glass to get your desired shape OR you can simple take a large scooper, and gently smoosh down a bit as I did below.
*I wrote this post between the night I made the dough and the next day when I actually made the cookies. Something I totally didn’t think about that I’m now sharing as an easy tip. Form the dough into a log an inch or so in diameter and THEN wrap and refrigerate it. After it has chilled you can use a serrated knife to just cut medallions about half of an inch thick and plop them down! This takes away having to scoop and press down! It’s done for you already.*
Cook 11-12 minutes. You do not necessarily want the cookies to get brown. There is no brown sugar in the recipe, and the ones you see in the store aren’t brown around the edges are they? NO!
Remove and cool on cookie sheet. Once cool slather on that yummy frosting- recipe found below.
6-8 cups powdered sugar (based on desired viscosity, sweetness etc)
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 stick of butter
3-8 tablespoons milk/heavy whipping cream (based on desired viscosity)
Food coloring- optional
Sprinkles/Jimmies- Necessary
1. Cream butter with vanilla.
2. Slowly add powdered sugar. It will be really dry
3. Add milk/heavy whipping cream until the frosting is at your desired thickness
4. Add food coloring at this point if you so desire.
5. Whip the frosting until it is smooth and fluffy
6. With a small spatula or knife slather on a nice thick layer of frosting
7. Top with jimmies
This will make a lot of frosting, but this recipe makes a lot of cookies and you need to put a healthy amount on each cookie. All of that frosting is totally necessary.
My brother’s favorite color is green so I dyed the frosting a nice light green as to not dye everyone’s mouths green as well. There is just a little bit of crunch from the bottom but the rest of the cookie is nice and soft.
This recipe yielded 4-5 dozen. There’s a bit of a discrepancy from taste testing the dough and eating a few as they finished. 😉
The Nurtured Bee 