These Soft Drop Sugar Cookies are simple, sweet, a little bit crinkly with a hint of vanilla. They are the perfect classic drop sugar cookie. What makes these sugar cookies so good is that they contain an extra egg yolk, which makes them extra rich. They only require 8 ingredients, all of which you may already have at home. They don’t require a rolling pin, cookie cutters, or any special equipment or techniques.
The nice thing about simple drop cookie recipes like these sugar cookies, or these oatmeal raisin cranberry cookies (that I love), is that you can combine the ingredients in one large mixing bowl and get them straight in the oven without any extra effort. Minimal effort, minimal cleanup, and yet still great cookies.
Simple Recipe
It is a very simple recipe, using common household ingredients and no fancy techniques or tools required. You can mix the dough by hand or with a hand-held beater. The dough does not need to be refrigerated. It is great for beginners and experienced bakers, particularly those looking for a super classic chewy sugar cookie with a hint of vanilla.
For cookies with even more vanilla, these vanilla bean sugar cookies are made with vanilla bean, vanilla extract, and rolled in vanilla sugar (lots of vanilla, not too much extra effort).
Ingredients
Below are the ingredients needed to make Soft Drop Sugar Cookies.
- Butter: I use salted butter.
- Granulated Sugar: Adds sweetness. I have made these rolled in extra sugar and it doesn’t impact the shape of the cookie or how chewy it is.
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk: This recipe includes one whole egg and an extra egg yolk which gives that extra richness in flavor. I’ve made these with and without the extra egg yolk and you can really taste the difference when the extra egg yolk is added.
- Vanilla: Extract For added flavor, enhances the sugar cookie flavor.
- Flour: Use all-purpose unbleached flour.
- Baking Powder: To help the cookies rise.
- Baking Soda: Helps the cookies have that nice crinkly look and texture. I've made these cookies without baking soda and they have a dome shape and are quite poofy. They look very different (though still taste great), but they don't have that nice crinkly soft chewy cookie texture.
- Salt: To balance and bring out the other flavors.
To learn more about these cookie ingredients, see my Guide to Cookie Ingredients.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Soft Drop Sugar Cookies
Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Soft Drop Sugar Cookies.
*Note that the recipe card with instructions and ingredient list is included further below these step-by-step photos.
Step 1. Add the softened butter and granulated sugar to a large mixing bowl and combine either by hand or with hand-held mixer.
Step 2. Add the egg, additional egg yolk, and vanilla and combine.
Step 3. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and combine.
Step 4. Add the flour and combine.
Step 5. Roll the dough into balls using approximately 2 tablespoon worth of dough. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350℉ for 9 minutes.
Portioning the Dough
Portion out 2 tablespoon worth of dough for each cookie. This makes 26 cookies. You can either do this with your hands, or using two small spoons (one to scoop and the other to help shape into a round ball), or with a cookie/ice cream scoop.
Expert Tip: Roll the dough into round balls between the palms of your hands to get perfectly round cookies.
For more tips and tricks see my Guide to Making the Best Homemade Cookies.
Soft Drop Sugar Cookie FAQs:
The cookies are done after 9 minutes. They will look slightly underdone in the middle. This is perfect. Don’t wait until they look fully cooked to pull them out. They should still be a little soft and look a little underbaked in the middle. They will continue to cook and firm up on the pan when you take them out.
Yes, you can freeze soft sugar cookie dough. Shape into balls and places in a Ziploc bag or Tupperware. To bake, either bring to room temperature and bake or if baking directly from frozen bake for an extra 1-2 minutes (12-13 minutes total).
Cookies flatten because either they do not have enough flour, the butter is too soft or melted, there is not enough baking powder, or the proportion of sugar is too high compared with the rest of the ingredients.
The biggest reason cookies become poofy is because there is too much flour. In small batch recipes it may be because you added egg white, instead of only egg yolk. Another reason is that the butter was too cold and not at room temperature. Not enough baking soda also leads to cookies that are too poofy. The baking soda helps the dough to spread out and gives it that crinkly cookies texture.
These cookies keep well wrapped in plastic on the counter for 3 days, but we still snack on them days after that.
If you're looking for other cookie recipes, you may love these:
If you tried this Soft Drop Sugar Cookie Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. I'd love to hear from you!
Soft Drop Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2½ cups flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl combine the softened butter and granulated sugar. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and stir to combine.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour and combine.
- Roll the dough into balls with 2 tablespoon of batter each. Place on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 9 minutes.
- If refrigerating the dough (optional): Place the balls of dough directly from the fridge onto a baking sheet and into the oven. Bake for 11 minutes.
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