Easy Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies {No Rolling or Cutting Out!}
These soft and chewy sugar cookies are so easy and so delicious, you may never want to go to the work of rolling and cutting out sugar cookies again!
I love a good traditional, cutout sugar cookie. I really do.
And I think there’s definitely a time and a place for old-fashioned, use-a-rolling-pin-and-cookie-cutter sugar cookies.
Would you agree?
Just as a quick review, here are a few of my favorite cutout sugar cookie recipes,
My Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe
But we’re actually not here to talk about traditional sugar cookies today.
No, no. (I know, get to the point already, right??)
Instead, we’re talking about the most delicious, EASY, chewy sugar cookies in the whole world.
They are buttery and soft. Sugary and crackly.
They are so, so amazing.
As much as I lean toward chocolate-in-all-things, sugar cookies (a really good sugar cookie) will always be my undoing.
And having a perfectly chewy sugar cookie recipe at my fingertips to make when the sugar cookie craving hits without having to refrigerate dough, pull out the rolling pin, wash the nooks and crannies of cookie cutters…well, it feels amazing.
These soft sugar cookies are wonderful baked up plain and simple.
But you can dress them up for a myriad of holidays by rolling the sugar cookie dough in sprinkles before baking.
These cookies are a testament that festive, fun treats (you know, mother-of-the-year level) don’t have to be fussy, hard, or stress-inducing.
It’ll take, oh, 15 minutes to whip up the sugar cookie dough and another couple minutes to roll in sprinkles.
Done and done.
And you know how sometimes you decide to go big or go home and make a treat to wow the socks off the whole nation, and then after you’ve spent four days, earned a minimum of 12 more gray hairs, and now have permanently stained food coloring fingers, you realize the true-to-life Mona Lisa painted cookies actually taste like dog breath (and look like a preschool class went to work)?
Yeah, these soft and chewy sugar cookies will not invoke anything close to the above scenario.
And even better? They taste incredible. Incredible, incredible.
I’ve had this recipe in my arsenal for a while (thanks to my mom’s old recipe binder!) but hesitated posting it because there’s not a lot wow-worthy about a humble little sugar cookie that doesn’t have frosting and might not even have sprinkles (depending on your mood).
But after making this recipe over and over and over, I figure it’s time to get it out there for you to enjoy as well.
And besides, I’ve never been after exclamation point cookies and dessert recipes as much as I have been about getting you the best of the best recipes.
Even if they aren’t necessarily show-stoppers.
So if you still need a Valentine’s Day treat (or somehow found yourself promising kids in your life homemade sugar cookies), these babies may do the trick!
I can’t tell you the number of times these soft and chewy drop sugar cookies have saved me when a sugar cookie craving hits (that happens more often than I like to admit) or when I’ve needed a fast, quick, delicious cookie to save the day.
They are reminiscent of the crackly, thin, chewy sugar cookies from Subway…ever had those?
But I can promise this homemade version is about a million times better.
One Year Ago: White Velvet Sugar Cookies
Two Years Ago: Winter Minestrone Soup with Garlic Bruschetta
Three Years Ago: Curried Lentil and Sausage Soup with Toasted Almonds
Four Years Ago: No-Bake Berry Yogurt Cheesecakes
Five Years Ago: Nutella and Strawberry Stuffed French Toast
Soft and Chewy Drop Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 16 tablespoons) butter, softened to cool room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups (10 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Additional granulated sugar or sprinkles, for rolling
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (see note). Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly grease with cooking spray.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until lightly and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix again for 1-2 minutes until the batter lightens in color. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Scoop the cookie dough into rounded balls (about 2 tablespoons in size; I use my #40 cookie scoop), roll in granulated sugar or sprinkles and place on the prepared baking sheets a couple inches apart (about 12 cookies per baking sheet).
- Bake for 11-13 minutes until slightly crackly on top (but not much color around the edges or bottom to keep them soft and chewy).
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes:
If the cookies spread and flatten too much while baking, try increasing the baking temperature to 375 degrees F or use convection bake (if you have that function on your oven – see my Instagram experiment here to come to this conclusion).
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Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
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Mel, can u still cut out cookies with this recipe?
No…this recipe wouldn’t be good (too soft!) for rolling out and cutting.
What? Whoa. Where has this recipe been all my life??
Super easy to whip up. Fun options for finishing. And the best part: the soft, yet crisp, buttery and sweet, and they just melt in your mouth. Wow. This is a keeper!
Thanks for another awesome recipe, Mel!
Holy wow! I have searched and searched for the perfect sugar cookie recipe, and alas I have found it! Christmas time left me with multiple failing batches of sugar cookies; too plain, too flat, too dry, too hard. I finally came across this recipe in my next search. Let me say these cookies are PERFECT! A complete hit at the spring bake sale! You can bake and serve them as is and they have just the right amount of sweetness. I added frosting to some, rolled them in the sprinkles with others (and the sprinkles STAY ON even after baking), I even added chocolate chips in some! I refrigerated some, another batch I left on the countertop, and it DID NOT change the consistency one bit! They were so soft and chewy, I couldn’t believe it. I will be using this recipe forever! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Thanks, Jamie! 🙂
It was my first time making these cookies and my family and I love them!!! They are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside just how I like cookies!!
I never leave reviews but I’m sitting here in my kitchen waiting for my last batch of cookies to bake. I’ve made these at least 10 times since I discovered this recipe. My family loves them. They’re always asking for more. I’m no baker yet, these always come out perfect. I will make these forever in my household. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks, Sonia!
Made these today with a few subtle changes – did 1/2 almond, 1/2 vanilla extract and then mixed in some colored sugar and rainbow sprinkles! My kids called them unicorn cookies and loved them! Made it super easy to scoop and bake with no rolling in sugar! Your recipes never disappoint and I’m thankful you post even the ones you think aren’t show-stoppers!
These cookies turned out perfect! My husband loved them!!
The cookies turned out perfectly. My new go to sugar cookie receipe!
Do you know if subbing the flour for gluten free flour would work? Would cooking times change?
I’m sorry, Jenn, I don’t know! I don’t have a ton of experience with gluten-free baking.
Thank you! I’m may try it and see what happens. This recipe is wonderful! My husband even said these are better than his mother’s sugar cookies!
How many cookies does this reactor make?
2-3 dozen.
These are so good! Warm out of the oven they are just perfection!
SO easy and so good! My kids loved them!
Very good and so easy. Will definitely make again.
Quite delicious! Mine ended up more ‘poofy’ than the pictures and they’re so pretty. I thought the dough was too dry at first but it came together and made balls just fine.
Did not have a 2 TBSP scoop, so used a coffee scoop! Repurposing what I have!
These are SO good! I made them into 1 ounce balls and baked for 12 minutes. Perfect!
I hardly ever bake cookies, but I made these for as a nice thing for someone.
Two questions:
The dough strained as it mixed in the mixer. I guess it’s dry today in So Cal. 14% humidity. Is that normal? I added a tap of water after the first batch.
Why both baking soda and baking powder? There isn’t anything acidic in the recipe.
Delicious! Even chocoholic hubby gave them a 10!
A lot depends on your mixer, Judy…but if the dough was overly dry, you might try a touch less flour. A lot of cookies use both baking powder and baking soda for leavening…don’t know all the ins and outs, but it seems to work well!
I have been searching for the perfect sugar cookie recipe for year, probably close to 9 years. Our grocery store gives cookies out to the kids and they were always a massive sugar cookie. My kids could never finish them, so I would. These are sooo close.
What made them over the top for me, I did half brown sugar half white sugar, 5 ounces of each! Soooo good.
Thanks so much for your great recipes.
Followed the recipe, and loved the result. I will be adding these babies to my cookie rotation. The sprinkles make it so festive, but the plain batch came out truly yummy. Thanks so much for the post!
Yummy! I rolled out the dough into a long rectangle, sprinkled crushed peppermint all over, rolled up the dough, chopped off little pinwheels (cinnamon roll style) and baked as suggested. The cookies are super easy and super tasty. Thanks Mel!
That sounds amazing!
An easy, every day recipe that yields a flavorful, delicious cookie.
This recipe made my day, and will be baked in my kitchen soon! And you do get points for mother of the year, jaja, rolling and painting cutout cookies is so laborious!
I like this recipe because they are easy to make. The only thing is for me they don’t flatten out. They just puff up. Still yummy but they’re not as chewy, they are more caky. Not sire what I’m doing wrong I follow the recipe.
Hey Michelle – try adding a couple tablespoons less flour.
Fast and delicious. A good tasting, chewy cookie.
As a person who does NOT lean toward chocolate things — I bake chocolate chip cookie recipes sans chips (I know, I know) — I absolutely love a good chewy sugar cookie. I only had a favorite recipe for rolling/cutting, though so tried this right away. Oh my, even better than you described. I loved everything about them. BTW, I worried about spreading but did not want to chill dough so baked up 3 cookies to test. No spreading, 11 1/2 minutes in my oven, absolutely perfect. My husband who turns up his nose at sugar cookies loved them as well. Keeping this one for sure, thank you!!
Thanks, Julie!
I seem to be having a hard time getting my sprinkles to stick to the cookies, before baking them. Suggestions? Thank you!
Are you rolling the balls all at once and then rolling in sprinkles? If so, I’d recommend rolling a cookie dough ball and immediately rolling in sprinkles before rolling another cookie dough ball. The warmth of your hands will help the sprinkles stick but if the cookie dough balls sit for a little bit, they aren’t quite as sticky. Does that make sense?
It does, thank you.
This will be my first attempt at making sugar cookies. My children want to put Hershey Kisses in the middle. So do I do that when they are almost done cooking or do I do it before I put them in the oven? Thank you for the recipe!
I would probably do it right after they come out of the oven – the cookies are on the thinner side, so I don’t know how they’ll do with a hershey’s kiss – let me know how it goes!
Yahn
Saw them, made them, ate them. As easy as you said they would be and delicious. Noticed the recipe 20 minutes before the kids got out of school and by the time they walked home they were ready. I wasn’t even mad when they disappeared quickly because I hadn’t been slaving away in the kitchen for hours. Took your advice and upped the temp and they were perfect.
Yep, can’t be mad about that. 🙂
I made these yesterday and was quite pleased with the ease it came together and the pretty cookie it produced. Thank you for again sharing a winning recipe.
Thanks, Stacy!
I do not like crumbly, dry sugar cookies. I do not like sugar cookies that taste blah. I really, really, really do not like struggling with rolling/cutting/re-rolling/more cutting/icing glop of traditional sugar cookies to just get all of the above. You are a miracle worker and have introduced a sugar cookie to my repertoire that I will actually enjoy making *and* eating! These were fantastic when I made them yesterday and definitely rock star pretty enough to give away for Valentine’s Day. Thank you!!
P.S. I am at a higher elevation (almost 6000 feet) so I added about 2T extra of flour and used your tip of bumping the oven temperature a little bit (I baked at 365F) and they didn’t spread all over the place. Woohoo, another cookie fail averted!
Thank you, Ruth!! And thanks for including your high altitude adjustments!
Mel, you are an absolute Genius, and very funny too. When I make them, I shall return… Thank you so very much.
Me again! So I’ve come to adore the holy trinity of sugar cookie flavoring (aka vanilla, almond extract, and lemon extract/oil) from your other sugar cookie recipe!!!. I’ve even added a pinch of nutmeg. I can’t make sugar cookie or the frosting without that flavor combination of extracts. Totally takes the cookies to the holy moly level of yumminess! Have you tried it in this recipe?
These are so pretty rolled in sprinkles! I would’ve never thought of doing it!
I haven’t tried that, but I think this recipe would be really adaptable to those flavors!
Made these with the littles as an alternative to the traditional frosted sugar cookie. The kiddos had just as much fun rolling the balls in sprinkles as they have had frosting cookies in the past but there was 10x less mess with these. A win-win in my book! Thanks for recipe!
Yay, yay! So happy they were easy enough for momma and a hit with the kids!
this cookies are exactly what I wanted
These cookies are incredible. I just made them for a church potluck tonight and I have “tested” way too many. Thanks for all the great recipes Mel- you are my “go to” place for great recipes!! Happy Valentines Day!
Thanks so much, Nancy!
These are a keeper! As a sugar cookie lover (who hates rolling!) this is a treasure! Thank you for another great recipe!!
Thanks, Laurel!
Making them for a second time today! They’re that yummy! (this time I promise they’re not for me…at least most of them! )
Yum! Can’t wait to try them!
On a sweet-related sidenote, have you ever made rice pudding in the Instant Pot?
Yes!! It’s amazing (have you?); the one thing I need to perfect is preventing it from scorching as it seems to do that each time a little.
No, I haven’t tried it. I thought I would ask Mel, the expert, first to see if I should give it a try. 🙂 My husband loves rice pudding, Now I know to be on guard for possible scorching. Thanks!
Great taste and easy to make. When I saw these in my email this morning, I knew it would be the perfect treat for my family. I even had some red and white sprinkles in the pantry.
Happy you enjoyed them!
If those store-bought refrigerated sugar cookie disks (that, face it, all kids love) upped their game 100%, this would be their recipe. So easy, so crispy outside and chewy inside. This recipe has made the cut and will be added to my recipe box. In my oven, 350 degrees on convection bake for 10 minutes was perfect.
Haha, loved your comment, Karen. Thanks for letting me know what you think about the cookies! Glad you loved them!
Can these be made with Splenda as a replacement for the sugar?
I’m not sure – I haven’t tried that myself. Sorry!
This is what my mom would call a pantry recipe – meaning that we probably had everything in the house in case there was an ’emergency’ need for something sweet. It sounds fantastic!
Yes! I love that. Pantry recipe (and a good one at that!). 🙂
Quick, easy, SUPER yummy! Thanks for all you do, Mel. Happy Valentines to you and your family
Thanks, Lindsey – Happy Valentine’s to you, too!
I have a recipe for a chewy molasses cookie and I’ve been trying to figure out how to adapt it to make a plain sugar cookie. This may be it. I don’t know that I’ll try it today, but certainly some time this week.
Let me know what you think, Sally! This cookies IS very similar to the texture of those chewy molasses cookies!
The chewy molasses cookie recipe I have is an adaptation of Molasses Crinkles from an early 1950s Betty Crocker Cookbook. Instead of using your recipe, I used that recipe, omitted the molasses and spices, and ,based on your recipe, increased the butter from 3/4 cup to 1 cup. They didn’t get as many cracks on top as the molasses cookies, but they were great.
I also thought about replacing the molasses with corn syrup or Lyle’s Golden syrup, but didn’t have enough corn syrup. Lyle’s has suddenly become difficult to find. Maybe I’ll try that one day.
I usually don’t change baking recipes much — I don’t understand some of the science in baking (chemistry never was my strong suit). I’m a much more adventurous cook. I can’t comment on your recipe, but I’m more than satisfied with the results of what I did.
I was just thinking how I wanted to make sugar cookies today, but didn’t want to have to roll and cut them. Thank you Mel!
Hope you love them, Kerry!
I just made a batch fresh from the oven with Valentine sprinkles! They are amazing fresh from the oven. I can only imagine how they taste cooled.
So happy you loved them! Thanks for checking back in to let me know!
How did you know I needed a last minute Valentines cookie recipe today!?!? These look awesome – I can ‘t wait to try them!
I just made another batch because I needed a last minute Valentine’s treat, too, Kristen!
Mel! These look amazing! What are your thoughts on whipping up a little frosting and using it on top of these anyway? I mean, a good sugar cookie with some good frosting seems like an ideal combo, right? Or is there some reason that these really are best without frosting?
Yeah, I totally think you could do that. I DO think they are a bit sweeter than a lot of cutout sugar cookies, so it might be a little overkill, but hey, I’ve never been one to tell someone to NOT attempt frosting. 🙂
My husband really wanted sugar cookies for valentine’s day, and I wanted some to give to friends, so I made some last night. I have no idea what happened – I used my own tried and true recipe (as in, I’ve made the recipe hundreds of times) – but the dough was the weirdest and most terrible dough I’ve ever worked with. My husband lovingly ate the finished product, but there is no way those cookies are leaving the house with my name associated with them. (If my husband hadn’t come home as they were coming out of the oven I would have put them straight in the garbage and he wouldn’t have been any the wiser.) I’m not ready to make another batch of roll-out cookies after last night’s fail, but these look delicious and doable. THANK YOU for posting, I’ll whip up a batch of these to give to my neighbors today.
Oh, man! I hate it when that happens – how can tried-and-true recipes turn on you like that?? I hope these do the trick, Beth!
I LOVE that you give us all the GREAT recipes! They don’t have to be fancy! I know I will always love the stuff you post. I make your stuff all the time (and for years!) and have never let you know how much I appreciate your site! So thank you for doing what you do! 🙂
Thank you so much, Lynne!
Thanks Mel! I was going to make my cut out cookies for my elderly clients but kind of forgot and haven’t had time amidst my caregiving. This cookie is the answer. You saved the day. I’m going to whip some up now. At least I remembered to buy my butter yesterday. Sometimes I think I should be my own client.
🙂
They were scrumptious. My clients loved them as well as my neighbors. I kind of ate a few too many myself
Thanks for the update! Glad they were a hit!
Chewy cookies are my favorite and these look easy and yummy! If the dough is chilled first it should help with any spreading, right?
Yes, you can definitely chill the dough first (but as written, the cookies shouldn’t overly spread unless you are at high elevation or the butter is too soft or something like that).
Hmm, I came here this morning to get your bar sugar cookie recipe (because I hate rolling and cutting). Now I’m torn!
You can’t go wrong with either of those options, Jackie!
Perfect recipe for today! Thanks, Mel! These just might save me later ;). Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Amy!