Soft and chewy sugar cookies that you can decorate with your favorite colored sugars (or not). These cookies require some chilling time so please plan ahead!
Have you ever had a cookie fail? My problem was that I knew the cookies were going to turn out badly but I didn’t do anything about it.
I was baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies and even chilled my dough. When I took it out and rolled them, I knew the dough was still too soft. But I was in a rush and didn’t want to wait to bake my cookies later. Big mistake.
My cookies spread out like crazy and were flatter than a pancake. Despite tasting great, they were ugly and un-sharable. Sigh.
So I had to redeem myself and made these cookies as a follow-up. This time, I chilled the dough for a very long time before even attempting to bake them. Ironically, even though the dough was very cold and stayed in the refrigerator overnight, my cookies still spread like crazy. But, they tasted great and I was able to use a cookie cutter to salvage their appearance!
Happy 4th of July!
Soft and chewy sugar cookies
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 sticks (12 Tablespoons) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Colored sugar for rolling, optional
Instructions
- Line two standard baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
- Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until everything just comes together. The dough will be soft.
- Using a cookie scoop or two spoons, scoop portions of dough and roll into a golf-ball sized mound. Roll around in your colored sugar (or even granulated sugar) if desired. Place on your prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Chill or freeze the dough balls until they are no longer soft. This is super important so your cookies don't spread like crazy.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until they are slightly golden around the edges. The cookies will continue to set as they cool.