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Learn how to make bakery-style soft sugar cookies with creamy frosting, just like the ones you love from the store! Easy recipe with simple ingredients.
Bakery-Style and Deliciously Soft
Have you ever been tempted by the big frosted Lofthouse cookies sold in the grocery store’s bakery section? They look so good, don’t they?! This copycat recipe tastes JUST LIKE those, if not better. This is a no-chill bakery-style sugar cookie recipe with simple ingredients. With just a few pantry staples and a little bit of time you can have big, soft, melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies with delicious cream cheese frosting. Top them off with some fun, colorful sprinkles and you have yourself a treat that looks as good as it tastes!
If you love these oversize cookies, you’ve gotta try some of our other big “gourmet cookie shop” style cookies like our Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cookies, Monster Cookies, M&M Cookies, S’Mores Cookies, and Swig Sugar Cookies.
Ingredients for Soft Sugar Cookies
Just a handful of basic ingredients is needed to make these frosted sugar cookies:
- Unsalted Butter – Make sure your butter is room temperature for a smooth batter.
- Sugar – White granulated sugar works best for this Lofthouse cookie recipe.
- Large Eggs – The eggs help bind the batter together and they also make the sugar cookies soft and fluffy
- Milk – Milk brings richness and moisture to this recipe.
- Vanilla Extract – Vanilla adds sweetness to the batter.
- Flour – We use white all-purpose flour for these cookies.
- Baking Powder – Baking powder give the cookies a little extra lift.
- Salt – Even when you’re making sweets, you still need a pinch of salt to balance things out.
Frosting Ingredients
- Cream Cheese – Cream cheese is the base of this frosting recipe. Make sure it is room temperature for a smooth frosting.
- Butter – Again, make sure your butter is at room temperature.
- Vanilla Extract – I like the flavor of vanilla extract in this recipe, but you can also use almond extract.
- Powdered Sugar – Powdered sugar gives the frosting its texture and form.
- Food Coloring – I prefer gel food coloring to liquid food coloring because gel doesn’t affect the texture. I used a small squeeze of red gel for this frosting.
- Sprinkles – Who doesn’t love sprinkles?? When adding sprinkles, make sure to add them right after you frost the cookies so they stick to the frosting.
How to Make Soft Sugar Cookies
- Cream the Butter and Sugar: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the Wet Ingredients: Mix in the eggs, milk, and vanilla until well combined.
- Combine the Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Make the Dough: Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until a soft dough forms. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to about ¼-½ inch thick.
- Cut Out the Cookies: Use cookie cutters or the rim of a drinking glass to cut shapes from the dough.
- Bake: Place the cookies on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Be careful not to overbake, or the cookies may become hard.
- Cool the Cookies: Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely before frosting.
- Make the Frosting: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
- Finish the Frosting: Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. Add food coloring, if desired.
- Frost and Decorate: Spread the frosting over the cooled cookies. If using sprinkles, add them immediately after frosting.
Tips for Making Soft Sugar Cookies
- The number one tip I can give for this soft sugar cookie recipe is that you absolutely MUST NOT over-bake them! That is the key to making them soft. They may look under-baked when you take them out in 10-12 minutes, but they will cook a little more on the hot pan.
- If you don’t have a round cookie cutter, then you can use the top of a glass.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to keep the cookies from sticking to the baking sheet.
Customize Your Sugar Cookies
This sugar cookie recipe is perfect for holidays and birthday celebrations throughout the year. You can change it up by cutting the cookies into different fun shapes. You can also dye the frosting all sorts of colors and use different types of sprinkles to make them extra festive! For Valentine’s Day I like to use the pink frosting pictured below. Alternatively, for Christmas, I like to do half the cookies in red frosting and the other half in green. You can even add different extracts to the frosting for a variety of tastes – orange, almond, coconut – make them your own!
Frequently Asked Questions
To keep these cookies soft, make sure to store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Some sugar cookie recipes call for chilling, but this recipe doesn’t.
If your cookies are hard, then it is likely that you over-baked them. Bake them for exactly the time listed below. They will look under-done but I promise they will turn out perfect!
Read Next: 33+ Easy Dessert Ideas
More Sugar Cookie Recipes
If you love these soft, chewy sugar cookies, then try some of our other delicious sugar cookie recipes!
4th of July Cookies
Snickerdoodles
Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Swig Sugar Cookies
Taylor Swift Cookies
Sugar Cookie Bars
Soft Sugar Cookies Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 to 1½ pounds powdered sugar
- candy sprinkles , optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, milk and vanilla.
- In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Slowing add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix together until you can form a large dough ball. On floured surface, roll out dough ball until about ¼ to ½ inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters (or rim of a drinking glass) to cut cookie shapes out of dough.
- Place cookies on lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake about 10-12 minutes. DON'T OVERCOOK OR THEY WILL BE HARD!
- After baking, move cookies to a cooling rack to cool before frosting.
FROSTING
- Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and mix until desired consistency. Add food coloring if desired.
- Spread frosting over cooled cookies. If adding sprinkles, add them immediately after frosting.
Notes
- For large cookies (about 3 inch cookie cutter), you will get 15-16 cookies. With a smaller cookie cutter, you will get about 2 dozen.
- The number one tip I can give you for this soft sugar cookies recipe is that you absolutely MUST NOT over-bake them! That is the key to making them soft. They may look under-baked when you take them out in 10-12 minutes, but they will cook a little more on the hot pan.
- If you don’t have a round cookie cutter, then you can use the top of a glass.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to keep cookies from sticking to the baking sheet.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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My dough was very sticky. I Added flour but it didn’t work. Also this recipe only makes 2 dozen cookies. They did taste good in the end though.????????
I wonder why it was so sticky? What elevation are you at?
Can the dough be refrigerated or frozen for later use?
We haven’t tried freezing it but I am sure you wouldn’t have a problem if you did. Let us know how it turns out!
Does the frosting recipe harden a bit so cookies can be stacked to give away?
It hardens a little bit but I would definitely take care in stacking. I would separate each layer with wax paper just in case!
For the icing I used orange extract instead of vanilla and it came out really good 🙂
That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Can I use a teaspoon and make a ball of dough and then flatten them with a glass dipped in sugar
Yes, that way they would be a lot like our “Swig” cookie recipe. 🙂
I made them and the dough is awfully sticky. but they are good i rollled them in cinnamon sugar.
What happens if you omit the baking powder and use baking soda instead??
I don’t think that baking powder and soda are interchangeable.
Using butter instead of shortening what will be the taste difference?
It will have a slightly different taste and texture – but you may like it better!
Hi, is it really 1 to 11/2 pounds of powdered sugar in the frosting? Seems like a lot! Is it tablespoons instead?
Thanks!
Leah
No that is correct. That is the size of the bag of powdered sugar, not the actual weight. It takes a lot of powdered sugar to make frosting.
Thank You for this recipe! Because Jill A. recommended it I printed it off….Looks sooo Good! Thank You! Will make them at Christmas time also Jill A…..
I think I’m going to give these a try! I would think that butter-flavored Crisco might give them a better flavor.
How many cookies does this Recipe make ?
It makes about 3 dozen cookies. It can vary a little depending on how big you make the cookie dough balls. If you make them closer to 1/2″ the recipe would yield closer to 4 dozen.
These cookies are easy to make and incredibly tasty! For the frosting I omitted the cream cheese and added in about 4 tablespoons of milk instead. I will definitely make these again!
will using butter instead of shortening ange the chewy ness of the cookies? thanks
It will taste a little different, but still work fine!
Can’t wait to make these for Valentines Day!
Hey thanks for the recipe they are fantastic!!!
Excited to try these <3
can I use unsalted butter instead of the crisco?
thanks
Yes, that’s fine.
I just made these and they are fantastic! I’ll be using a different frosting but the cookies are amazing.
Good recipe!