The Best Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
A Sweet Valentine’s Treat
These soft sugar cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day, made extra special with the rich addition of sour cream! Just like those cookies you might have shared with your first crush, with the sweet aroma of sugar and butter filling the kitchen, these are soft, tender, and absolutely heartwarming.
Let’s bring the spirit of love to your kitchen with this simple yet romantic recipe. Bake a batch for your special someone, share them with friends, or treat yourself to something sweet!
Ingredients and Supplies for Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
Full-fat sour cream and butter create a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture. At the same time, the perfect ratio of flour and leavening agents ensures softness. A touch of vanilla or almond extract adds warmth to these classic cookies.
Ingredients
Cookies:
- Sour cream
- Sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Eggs
- Vanilla or almond extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
What is a substitute for sour cream in sugar cookies?
If you don’t have sour cream on hand, you can substitute full-fat Greek yogurt. It has a similar consistency and tang, which helps maintain the cookies’ softness and flavor.
Frosting:
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese
- Vanilla
- Powdered sugar
- Milk or heavy whipping cream
- Salt
Supplies
- Electric stand mixer
- Parchment paper
- Baking sheet
- Air fryer (optional)
How to make Sugar Cookies in the Air Fryer or Oven
Step 1: Prepare Dough
Combine the sour cream, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla or almond in a large bowl or stand mixer. Beat for 2-3 minutes. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until combined. The dough will be thick and sticky.
Divide the dough in half and place each chunk on a large plastic wrap. Press and flatten the dough into a disc, then wrap and cover it with plastic wrap. Another option is to place the dough between two pieces of parchment or waxed paper, then roll the dough out to ¼-inch thick while between the paper. Place dough in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.
Step 2: Roll Out the Dough
Preheat your air fryer or oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roll out the chilled dough to ¼ inch thick on a floured surface. Use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. Repeat with the dough scraps until the dough is all formed into shapes. Keep the other half of the dough chilled until ready to use. Be careful not to over-flour, especially as you are rolling out the scraps. The less flour you use, the softer the cookies will be.
Step 3: Bake
Air Fryer Method: Place a few cookies in the air fryer basket, ensuring they are not touching. Air fry at 350°F (175°C) for 5-7 minutes until the edges are set but not browned.
Oven Method: Arrange the cut-out cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 8-10 minutes until the edges are set and light in color and the center remains soft.
Step 4: Make the Frosting and Decorate
In a large bowl beat the softened butter, cream cheese, salt, and vanilla for about 3 minutes. Slowly add the powdered sugar as you mix. Start by adding 2 tablespoons of milk. Beat the dough while adding 1 tablespoon of milk at a time to reach the desired consistency.
Let the cookies cool on a wire rack before decorating. Once cool, frost the cookies and decorate with sprinkles.
Why Refrigerate the Dough Before Baking?
Chilling the dough before baking is crucial. It firms up the dough, making it easier to roll and cut into shapes. More importantly, chilled dough holds its shape better during baking, so your heart-shaped cookies and Cupid’s arrows won’t lose their lovely forms in the oven! If you’re short on time, you can roll out the dough and put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes as a quick alternative.
How Should Sugar Cookies Look After Coming Out of the Oven?
Your sugar cookies should look set around the edges, but the center should still look soft and pale in color. They will continue to cook slightly from the residual heat on the baking sheet after they come out of the oven, so pulling them out when they’re just barely set helps ensure a soft and chewy result. If the edges start turning golden brown, they’ve been in the oven too long, which can lead to a crispier cookie.
What Makes These Sugar Cookies Soft?
- Sour cream: Sour Cream gives these sugar cookies their unique, soft texture. It acts as a tenderizer, adding moisture to the dough without making it too runny. This results in sugar cookies that are fluffy but still hold their shape. Sour cream also provides a subtle tang, perfectly balancing the sweetness. Use full-fat sour cream to get the richest flavor and softest cookie for best results.
- Chilling: Properly chilling the dough helps to maintain the perfect cookie texture.
- Baking just right: The soft consistency also depends on not over-baking them; the goal is to keep the centers slightly underdone, creating a soft bite.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you give sugar cookies more flavor?
To enhance the flavor of your sugar cookies, try adding a teaspoon of almond extract to vanilla extract. Almond extract adds a unique, nutty flavor that beautifully complements the cookies’ buttery sweetness. Add a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg for a warm, cozy holiday touch.
Why are my cookies crispy instead of soft?
If your cookies turned out crispy, there are a few possible reasons:
- They may have been over-baked. Remember to take them out of the oven while still soft in the center.
- Adding too much flour can lead to a dense, less tender cookie, so avoid over-measuring.
- Rolling the dough too thin will make the cookies more likely to crisp up.
Final Thoughts
These sour cream sugar cookies will become a beloved Valentine’s Day or Christmas tradition. They’re simple to make, delicious, and versatile—perfect for decorating with pink and red icing, heart-shaped sprinkles, or romantic messages.
Whether you’re surprising your valentine, sharing them with loved ones, or treating yourself to some self-love, these soft sugar cookies are bound to make hearts flutter! What are your Valentine’s Day traditions? Comment below!
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The Best Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
Instructions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the sour cream, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla or almond. Beat for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until combined. Dough will be thick and sticky. Divide dough in half and place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. Press and flatten the dough into a disc, then wrap and cover it with the plastic wrap. Another option is to place the dough between two pieces of parchment or waxed paper, then roll dough out to ¼-inch thick while between the paper. Place dough in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- If not rolled out already, flour the working surface and rolling pin. Roll dough to ¼ inch thick and use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. Carefully place cut-out cookie dough on prepared cookie sheets. Repeat with the dough scraps, until dough is used up. Keep other half of dough chilled until ready to use. Be careful not to over-flour, especially as you are rolling out the scraps. The less flour you use, the softer the cookies will be.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 8-10 minutes. Edges will be set and middle of cookies will look uniform and set as well, but still be light in color. Let cool on the pan.
Air Fryer
- Preheat the air fryer to 350° F.
- Place the cookies in the air fryer basket, evenly spaced apart. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until the middle is set but not browned.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer or stand mixer, beat the softened butter, cream cheese, and vanilla for about 3 minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing to combine.
- Start with 2 tablespoons of the milk or heavy cream and add the salt, beat for about 3 minutes. Add more milk until desired consistency is reached. (3 tablespoons works for me.) I usually use milk because it is easy and convenient for me, but heavy cream will result in a more rich and creamy frosting. For more of a buttercream frosting, replace cream cheese with an additional 1/2 cup butter, for a total of 1 cup butter. Makes 4 cups frosting.
Recipe Notes
These cookies puff up while baking, but will flatten out a little bit while they cool. We don't recommend detailed cookie cutters with this recipe.
Careful not to over-flour while rolling out, otherwise they'll be more dry and less soft.
Use clear vanilla in the frosting, if you want it to be as white as possible. If adding color, use gel food coloring for more vibrant colors.
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Can I substitute nonfat plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream?
Hi Judi, I do that same substitution in many other recipes, but haven’t tried it on this one… I’m guessing it will work out? Please come back and let us know how it goes!
must you use this to dough for only cut out cookies? Can your roll them and flatten them instead?
I haven’t tried it that way, but I think it would be fine to do that! 🙂
I need to 1/2 this recipe since we are just 2 and do not want to eat so many.
The good news- I found this dough tasty, in the raw state. It was also very easy to adjust the amounts to half.
That aside, it is very hard to work with- sticky is an understatement- and requires too much flour to be able to roll out. The most disappointing thing is that the cookie in its lightly baked state just tastes “meh.”
Fortunately, I only made a half recipe last evening. After baking half of the dough this afternoon, I have put the rest of it into compost.
Verdict- find another recipe.
So sorry it didn’t work out for you!
Agree 100%. Way too sticky to work with. I ended up quitting it was so bad.
My daughter just made these. She didn’t roll them out for cut out cookies but just formed them into balls and baked them. They are frosted now and I just ate 2. I usually am not a fan of sugar cookies but these are amazing!
Hooray! I’m glad you like them. Thank you for your comment and review, Stacy!
My grandma made the BEST sugar cookies ever… they were so good to eat with and my favorite, without. Over the years, her recipe was lost, and I have never found one that came close to it… until I stumbled upon this one scrolling through Pinterest! I was leery of the amount of “liquid” ingredients. I used SRF, and added the baking soda in with a little salt. The batter itself was so easy to mix up, and was super good in its raw state…lol… I wrapped it in plastic wrap (2 layers) and put it in the fridge for 2 days, until I was able to actually roll them out. Well… the batter being “sticky” is definitely an understatement, and I tried to not add too much flour, as the recipe said, but it couldn’t be helped… I think I probably added another 1 to 1 1/2 cups just to roll them out! By then I was really worried how they would bake 🙁 Anyway… after baking for exactly 8 minutes in our oven, on cookie sheet lined with Silpat, they were beautiful, puffy clouds of cookies… that didn’t fall at all! When they cooled enough to taste test… I was NOT disappointed! I was instantly taken back to my childhood, and grandmas cookies. Seriously…. THE BEST SUGAR COOKIE recipe I have made…and I have made tons……. lol Thank you for sharing! This will now be my “go to” for years to come… and I’ve already shared the recipe with my whole family!
What a great story! I’m happy to hear it turned out well for you! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience… AND for sharing the recipe!
Being snowed in in the south has not been our idea of ‘fun’. So in an effort to make lemonade out of lemons (with a house full of displaced family folks in need of utilities and heat), I made this dough last night before we went to bed. I sealed the raw dough tightly (after all of us enjoyed a bite or two each of the raw dough – wowzers delicious!) in a container before placing it outdoors in anticipation of overnight snow. This was my version of ‘chilling the dough’. When my kids were little and we lived up north, I always used a sugar cookie recipe and we did this, calling them ‘snow cookies’.
By mid-afternoon today, I dug out the container of quite chilled cookies from under the pile of fresh fallen snow, brought them into the house and set the dough on the counter for 5 mins and proceeded to work a portion of it into a log. Circle cookies, of course, aren’t as pretty as cut out cookies, but slicing 3/4 inch slices and placing on the parchment lined pan rendered nice sized circle’ish cookies when baked for 8 minutes.
I followed this recipe to a ‘T’ with the exception of using mexican la crema (only type of sour cream left of the store shelves) which tends to be a little thinner. I was nervous about it – but, honestly the raw dough and the baked versions were incredible! I am not sure if it was because my dough was super super chilled in freezing temps and snow all night, but I did not use any extra flour to roll them out – I put the dough between two parchment pieces and worked it into a log. The baked cookies were perfectly light and melt in your mouth. And while we are not huge on super sweet cookies, a little sour cream icing on each really rounded out the flavor in them.
I HIGHLY recommend this recipe! Even my non-sweet eaters found themselves quickly 3 cookies in! 🙂
Crazy weather down south this winter! Stay safe and well. Thank you for your comment and review, Leah. I’m so glad you all loved the sugar cookies and that you would recommend this recipe. 🙂
I just put the dough in the refrigerator and realized I forgot to add the salt ☹️ Should I remake it or do you think they’ll turn out ok ? The raw dough tastes delicious btw.
I think it will be fine! Let us know.
Could you make these as bars and what temperature??
Probably, but they may have a different texture? If you try, I would reduce the temp 25° and increase the bake time.
Dough lasted good but was way to sticky to roll out I even put in fridge over night at was still to sticky ended up in Trash
Hi Amanda, I’m sorry that this recipe didn’t work out for you. Some people have shared that adding additional flour can help.
These are delicious cookies! I added a bit of lemon zest to half the recipe and a couple of dashes of nutmeg to the rest. The dough was slightly sticky but rolled them out using confectionary sugar instead of flour and it worked out great.
I am a sugar cookie connoisseur as it’s my family’s favorite cookie. (I love chocolate chip but get outvoted!) I have tried many different recipes. I had my favorite one which is similar to this and also uses sour cream, but was up at our lake house without my recipe book, so I tried this one. It was even better than my favorite. I also cut it in half as I didn’t want as many at that time and it was perfect. I think I might have refrigerated longer than 30 min. Making more tonight for Halloween cut outs for my two kids in college!
I grew up eating these cookies. They were my Dad’s favorite cookie so Mom made them all of the time. She never bought sour cream and use milk instead. Yes the batter is soft and sticky, but this is why they are so good. I’ve watched my Mom make these many times for the years, and she never put the dough in the refrigerator either. She’d flour the surface and carefully kneaded just enough flour in so it wouldn’t stick to her hands. She didn’t use a rolling pin, she used her hands patting the dough out until it reached approx 1/2 inch thick. She carefully lifted the cut out cookies to the baking sheet. They do spread a little and rise. These cookies are almost cake like. I love them with frosting and plain is good too. Don’t over work the dough with to much flour or they won’t rise. Ask me how I know.
Hey Sharon, thanks for sharing these tips! This is super helpful!
I did not chill. I used a small scoop and dropped them onto to the cooled cookie sheet. They had a beautiful brown edge when baked at 8 minutes. They did not fall after cooling on the cookie sheet before transferring to wax paper. This is a very nice recipe!!!
These were so hard to work with. Literally impossible to roll out and use cookie cutters. What a disappointing waste of time.
Hi Ashley, sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback!
I tried with confectioners sugar. It was still very sticky. I did find that having everything very cold helped. Flavor is delicious!
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Aretta!
These turned out fine – much fluffier than sugar cookies I’ve baked in the past. The dough WAS sticky. I left it in the refrigerator for nearly 20 hours. Make sure you put any dough that you are not usin immediately back in the refrigerator as my last roll-out started to stick to the pastry cloth.
Thanks for the review and feedback, Kerry!
Am I able to freeze unused extra dough?
Yes! Allow it to thaw before shaping into cookies.