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. But you just can’t beat these amazing chewy and crackly drop sugar cookies.
Roll them in sprinkles to dress them up…or leave them plain. So delicious either way!
Chewy Drop Sugar Cookie Dough
The dough for these sugar cookies is really straightforward:
- butter
- granulated sugar (no brown sugar in these cookies!)
- egg + vanilla
- flour + baking powder + baking soda + salt
No need to whisk the dry ingredients together beforehand. Just mix everything up in one bowl!
The dough will be soft but not overly sticky.
And it tastes ridiculously delicious. Don’t ask me how I know. 😉
Sprinkles or Not
These easy soft and chewy sugar cookies are really yummy plain.
But if you want to make them a bit more festive, roll the dough in sprinkles before baking.
Non-pareil sprinkles work best. To get them to adhere to the cookie dough, roll the ball of cookie dough in sprinkles right after it’s been rolled into a round shape so it’s still soft from the warmth of your hands.
How to Fix Cookies That Flatten While Baking
If drop cookies often bake up too flat in your oven (or where you live), these tips might help:
- Make sure the butter is at room temperature and NOT overly warm or melty when making the cookie dough.
- Use cold eggs.
- Add 2-4 tablespoons more flour to the cookie dough.
- Bake at 375 degrees F or use convection bake (at 325 or 350 degrees F) if you have that setting on your oven.
Below you can see how the drop sugar cookies are slightly thicker when using a couple extra tablespoons flour in the dough. The puffiness means they are less chewy…but they are still soft and tasty.
Conversely, if your cookies aren’t flattening and stay too puffy, try decreasing the oven temperature to 325 degrees F and/or decrease flour by 1/4 cup.
Favorite Sugar Cookie
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.
LOVE THEM.
They are reminiscent of the crackly, thin, chewy sugar cookies from Subway…but a million times better.
Tried-and-True Recipe
These soft and chewy drop sugar cookies have garnered a huge fan base over the years. Over 1,000 five-star reviews prove they are a keeper!
Kim writes: Probably the best sugar cookies I have found. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Marie says: This is an amazing recipe, Mel! Had to go gluten free due to allergies and used King Arthur measure for measure and we couldn’t believe how good it was! Thank you for giving exact measurements; takes the guessing out and so easy with a scale! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Liz writes: I love this recipe! Soft, chewy, delicious, easy. Can’t get any better than that. I highly recommend this recipe. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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 (227 g) salted butter, softened to cool room temperature
- 1 ⅓ cups (283 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (355 g) all-purpose flour (see note!)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Additional granulated sugar or sprinkles, for rolling
Instructions
- 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
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I followed the recipe exactly and although they did not flattened out like the picture they had great flavor!
Made the cookies today- should have read the reviews first, because while they are still pretty delicious, they didn’t flatten and I ended up baking them longer to compensate. I weighed the flour and added the recommended weight, but next time I would probably remove up to half a cup of the weighed flour, as suggested by the other reviewers.
Victory! I feel like I have finally conquered this recipe. For years I have had so many failures with these cookies. They either turned out all flat and smooshed together like one big sprinkled blob or like little cake balls posing as cookies. I live in a very humid east-coast city so I blame it partially on that (I over compensated the blob disaster with too much flour the next time), but today was the day I figured out how to make these work for me. I made 3 modifications (none of them had to do with flour; I measured 2 1/2 c with a light hand). 1. I did not cream the sugar and the butter. I simply mixed in my kitchen aid until the butter and sugar looked evenly combined. Also did not over mix when adding the vanilla and egg. Again just until they looked evenly combined 2. I substituted the baking powder with baking soda…so instead of 1/2 t of each, I just used 1t of soda and omitted baking powder altogether. 3. Bake at 375 instead of 350.
Also, make sure to give them enough space on the pan, and use small sprinkles (and only roll the tops of the cookies in sprinkles not the underneath).
Mine finally look flat and crinkly and chewy! Like Mel’s pictures. Yay!
Can I substitute the vanilla extract with peppermint extract? If so how much should I add?
The cookies never flattened or cracked? Followed recipe exactly.
Sounds like there was too much flour in the dough (everyone measures flour differently – I fluff the flour really well, scoop and level off).
hello i was wondering if i can wrap it in clear sling wrap and put it in the refrigerator because i don’t have time to make the dough tomorrow
yes, I think so. You’ll need to let it come to room temperature before scooping or else the dough will be too stiff (or scoop into balls and then refrigerate)
I’m thinking that those of you who have trouble with the cookies not spreading possibly over mixed the dough. It does not take a lot over mixing to toughen up a delicate cookie. Mixing by hand can help to avoid over mixing.
Amazing! So easy and delicious! I never make sugar cookies because frosting those suckers never look good when I do it. I rolled the cookies in red and green sugar sprinkles and they are super pretty. I followed the recipe to the letter.
The dough was very whippy and hard to mold into balls, but the cookies still turned out beautiful and delicious.
Awesome cookie recipe the best one I’ve ever made.
made these today and as suggested, reduced the flour by 1/2 and I can attest these were the best sugar cookies! I love the texture, so silky with that classic chew. I’m so glad I tried these. Based on the comments it really helped narrow down my search and now this recipe is part of my holiday baking!
correction: reduce by 1/2 cup so 2 cups in total
Could you PLEASE put this change in the ORIGINAL recipe, as I just used my supplies to make crumbs. 🙁 And I’m not good at figuring out the math to make the rest of the ingredients –and the flour is too blended to work well. THANK YOU
Can you make these ahead of time and keep them in the fridge or freezer unbaked?
Yes
One major problem with this recipe – it doesn’t make enough!!! I followed the recipe to a “t” and they were absolutely delicious!
These aren’t considered drop cookies. They are considered molding cookies because you have to form the shape with your hands instead of just dropping the cookie batter on the cookie sheet.
Turned out perfect, so easy. I reduced sugar by 1/3 cup & cookies were still very sweet.
Just made these with the kids. Turned out perfect!!!
The first time i made these, they were horrible. Had no taste, we’re crumby, didn’t even spread just stayed in a little ball. I’m currently making them a second time, the only difference is that they were a little stickier and not as dry dough as the first attempt. I’ll keep you updated.
were perfect. soft and tasty.
Hi there! I tried making these sugar cookies and really hoped for the best but my cookies didn’t spread out, they only rose. I was wondering if you knew what I could do to fix that situation. I’ve tried searching it up but it seems like the opposite situation, where cookies spread too make, usually occur. Thank you!
p.s the cookies did come out delicious, just not chewy as I hoped
Try baking them at 25 degrees cooler and/or adding slightly less flour. That should help!
Yum. I can never make good cookies. They usually go flat. These did a bit but still were soft and good
I’ve made these so many times and they are the definition of addiction! Now I make half the recipe and only bake 4 at a time or make a huge batch and frozen them for future! I ran out of sprinkles and rolled In Cinnamon. LORDY! Delish!
I’m sorry I meant cinnamon sugar!
I made these today and OHMYGOODNESS. They are amazing, I actually just finished eating my third one… I can’t stop/won’t stop.
Anyways, thanks for this awesome recipe. I’m so excited to use it for when I gift cookie boxes during Christmas.
Followed to a T & this recipe is horrible! I should of taken the hint that it would be by looking at the reviews and seeing a 5.0 stars but on the comments there were many bad reviews, I wonder how it got the five stars.
I don not have baking powder or baking soda do I have to use it?
The cookies will not turn out the same if the baking soda and powder are left out (they act as important leaveners in the cookie dough).
Ok. This is officially my go-to sugar cookies recipe. I live in Japan, and for 11 years have not been able to find a recipe that will work with the flour or measuring system differences. Every time I made them, no matter which recipe, they’d immediately flatten and run into each other like a giant, thin, flat, hard cake all over the tray. Blechhh!!! I tried adding more flour. I tried mixing flours – nothing ever worked. Best I’d get otherwise were big, puffy cake-like things. For once, though, this recipe worked PERFECTLY from the first!
If anyone else is in Japan and reading this – go with a 140g cup of flour, and use 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 cake flour. If you have trouble with flattening, don’t be afraid to overmix a little (I did, and they were perfect anyway!). I baked each tray for about 11 minutes each, 6 on a tray.
Thanks so much for this recipe, now I never have to search around again, and I can make these whenever I want! 🙂
These were delicious, not oily like some sugar cookie recipes. I used 2 1/3 cups of flour. Next time I think I’ll dip the top half of the dough balls in sprinkles rather than rolling the whole thing.
I made this recipe tonight, followed the instructions exactly. They turned out exactly as promised. I love them! Buttery, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside… This will be my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on.
Adjusted for Albuquerque’s high-altitude and it came out perfect!
Adjustments were:
Oven to 375
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
Bake 11 mins
So good!
I just whipped all this up pretty fast and just put my first pan in the oven. They seem to be flattening just fine so far, and the raw dough tasted great. I followed this recipe exactly and am not having any of the problems I’m reading on here. They also smell great while cooking. However I have had issues in the past
(different recipes) with sugar cookies not flattening and I just slightly flattened them by hand and that worked for me. Great recipe Mel thanks for sharing
I like your enthusiasm, but the reality is these cookies have way too much flour and baking powder for them to come out thin and chewy. I followed our recipe to the “T” and the cookies turned out fat and fluffy, not thin and chewy.
Just made these cookies and they turned into little balls and didn’t spread at all. I guess I will use way less flour next time.
The Absolute BEST Sugar Cookie recipe I have every made. The result of an airy and puffy treat, that just makes you feel good.
Made these cookies today with my kids and they turned out great! I also used only 2 cups of flour as suggested by previous posters so that its not a crumbly dough. Thank you for this recipe, I’ve tried other chewy sugar cookie recipes and they don’t compare to this one.
I also followed this recipe to a T and they definitely did not turn out thin and chewy as pictured. They are puffed up and cake like. I wish I would have read the comments first and known to use less flour…
I’m wondering if the people who have success with this recipe are using very soft butter?
If you tend to measure flour with a heavier hand and pack more flour into the cup than I do, it will definitely make a difference in the outcome. I fluff the flour, scoop and then level off with the flat side of a knife.
Made these tonight because my husband and I were craving something sweet. I had to cut the recipe down to 1/4 because I had barely 1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract go figure. & we only wanted maybe a half dozen so we didn’t eat every single one. I’m so bummed because at the end I accidentally followed the recipe of (1/2 tsp baking powder and baling soda and forgot to cut those down) so all in all I used too much of those BUT, they came out looking perfect and actually weren’t awful. Just an odd after taste. (Could’ve been worse!) I’m going to try again tomorrow Haha Thanks for the recipe! I think this will be my new favorite!
if we don’t use a cookie scoop for the cookies, what size measuring spoon should we use to scoop them onto the pan?
You want a heaping tablespoon (or two tablespoons of dough) per cookie.
I ended up using 1/2 cup less flour than the recipe called for. I just didn’t think any more flour would mix into the dough! They turned out delicious! My kids love sugar cookies, but honestly I hate rolling them out and cutting them, so I rarely do it. These are a great alternative and I think they taste much better! Thanks for the recipe.
Ours aren’t very cracky but they are delicious!!!
That’s why it’s called chewy and soft sugar cookies
This isn’t that big of an issue but my cookies did not have the nice cracks on the top. They spread fine in the oven, but they were smooth on the top. Tasted great though!
I retried this recipe with only 2 cups of flour instead of 2 1/2 and they had cracks!
Made these cookies and the flavor was amazing only thing, they didn’t flatten at all! Will try again with less flour
Made the recipe & followed the instructions to a T & somehow my dough is more of a batter than a dough. I dropped them on a pan as there was NO WAY I could roll them. Fingers crossed them turn out OK. I fear I just wasted a bunch of my items.
Just made these – they are delicious! And so easy to make – you did it again!
Sugar cookies are my favorite kind of cookie. But they are always so much trouble. Not so with these. THEY ARE PERFECTION!!! LOVE!!!
These are amazing! Super simple and so good!
Hi Mel, I want to make these with my kids and some of their friends for Valentine’s Day this week. I know they’ll want to decorate them! Is there any reason they shouldn’t be frosted? This is exactly how I prefer my cookies, pretty flat and chewy.
Sure, I think if you like chewy cookies, they could totally be frosted!
Extremely displeased with this recipe would recommend using FAR less flour. Mine did not come close to flattening and are basically cake balls. Followed the recipe exactly.
I made the cookies yesterday and they’re soft, chewy, thick and I love them. My family thinks they’re store bought! The only thing I didn’t like about the cookies was that they didn’t come out crackly. A few of the comments said to use 2 cups of flour to get the cracks, but that didn’t work. Should I make them smaller, what can I do to get the cracks?
You could try baking them just a minute or two longer…sometimes that helps! Or even moving the oven rack (make sure it’s in the middle or upper middle position).
So I have made these for my 10 month old daughter and she loves them, but I would really like to make some for my grandmother as well. Only problem is she’s diabetic. Would I be able to use a sugar substitute, like Stevia, and still have them turn out the same?
Hi! I’m wondering the same thing, for this specific recipe. I’ve used stevia in other recipes and had good results.
Here’s how to use stevia instead of sugar in baking. Make sure you read it, one reason being that you have to adjust other ingredients when using stevia to replace sugar (you will see why in the article).
Good luck!!
https://www.livestrong.com/article/283456-how-to-bake-with-stevia-instead-of-sugar/
Perfect, delicious, beautiful, easy. Everything you need! This is my new favorite cookie recipe.
Hi my cookies turnout salty and didnt really flatten like the ones in ur pictures so what happend??
I can’t be exactly sure, but it sounds like maybe the dough was overfloured?
Has anyone used this recipe with a 1:1 Gluten Free flour?
Great recipe…soft chewy cookie. My sweet MJ Crew enjoyed decorating and eating these.
My daughter wanted a soft sugar cookie and the ones I have tried in the past were always to crunchy, I just made your recipe and I think they are wonderful. I will be making this recipe many, many, many more times. Thank you!
These are really good and so easy to make!
Love the video! Hope you will do more and more. When ever I make something new, my husband asks if “it is from Mel?” Then he knows it will be good.
Thanks, Beth! You are so sweet. 🙂
So. Good. Tried another before this and bombed. These were yummy and pretty to look at for the simplicity of the recipe
Hello!
I am newly married and i am so excited to make these for my husband and i! Only question….do i NEED a mixer? Can i do it by hand? We only have a nutribullet and i doubt that would help!
Any ideas of an alternative would be much appreciated! Thank you!
You could definitely try mixing them by hand – just make sure to cream the butter as much as possible so it’s light and fluffy!
Omg I made these cookies today and they were so delicious! Great Recipe and I will make them again!
We don’t have a mixer either and I’ve mixed these by hand plenty of times. Works great as long as the butter is nice and soft before you start!
I’ve seen a few times in your recipe not specifying salted vs unsalted butter. Am I to assume it’s unsalted since it is baking? Thanks.
I always use salted butter (and write the recipes accordingly to compensate for any added salt)
I used unsalted, didn’t change the recipe, and the cookies were amazing.