Big soft sugar cookies to make people happy

You’ll love these big soft sugar cookies: huge vanilla butter cookies with soft puffy texture, rolled in sugar for a little crunch, they’re the perfect afternoon cookie.

I often will tell people that my favorite cookie is the one that I made and the one I happen to be eating at the moment. These soft sugar cookies get close to an all-time favorite. This is my Gram’s recipe, one of 3 things she would make on repeat for me and my brother when we’d see her (the others being cucumber salad and soft chocolate sandwich cookies).

These are the perfect bakery style giant sugar cookie, similar to Amish sugar cookies. Make up a batch for a bake sale, and I promise you, they’ll be the first thing to sell out. They’re utterly perfect in their simple vanilla flavor with a tender, melt in your mouth taste so alluring, it’ll be tough to stop at 1. They’re unfussy, easy to make, and universally loved.

As for me, I love making them when I’m called to make snacks for soccer or softball teams. They’re ultra portable packed up in snack bags and they’re always a hit.

So grab a bowl of sugar, and let’s roll some big fat cookies.

this …

Big soft sugar cookies

Why your homemade soft sugar cookies will be better than the bakery

1. Butter: if you can, use a good European style butter. There’s not a ton of flavors in these cookies, so better quality shines through. I didn’t appreciate good tasting butter until I started making puff pastry. If it’s possible for butter to taste bright, it does here.
2. So soft: the cream of tartar gives an old-fashioned softness to these cookies that’s just delightful.
3. Vanilla paste: there’s a reason why I’ve been using vanilla paste since I learned of it. The double strength of vanilla from extract and whole beans is nothing like the artificial vanilla you’ll sadly see in a lot of bakery cookies.

Updating my Gram’s recipe: using better oil and real butter

Both my Grandmas got into the habit of using margarine. It was the way of the world at the time. My paternal grandmother called it “oleo” until the day she died.

You already know butter tastes better, so use it! Now, about the oil…

I remember as a kid seeing bottles of Wesson vegetable oil in my Gram’s kitchen. Soybean oil, usually called vegetable oil because “soybean oil” doesn’t have a nice ring to it, is highly processed, and therefore something I don’t like using. I’ve written a bit about why I usually skip using oil in my how to render lard article. In this case, I still use oil in these cookies as it serves a purpose.

As an experiment one day my upper baking class made a Romanian flatbread that called for sunflower oil. Thinking that there’s probably people in Romania pressing oil like you would olives (that is without chemicals), I picked up a bit of a high oleic cold pressed sunflower oil for the class. We were all shocked by how good these breads tasted. In the US, using high oleic expeller pressed oil like La Tourangelle sunflower oil for these cookies will give you the softness oil lends to cookies without using oil that’s ultra processed. Ditch the canola oil; good oil is actually flavorful.

Equipment for making sugar cookies

1. Cookie scoop: these are BIG cookies. I use my Vollrath yellow scoop for these (1 7/8 oz). You can eyeball it too, but the scoop makes things easy.
2. 1/2 sheet pan: Because these cookies are baked soft, the sheet trays need to cool completely before you take the cookies off and bake another batch. As such, if you have 4 pans, you can bake the batches without stopping. 2 also works, just know you’ll have to cool the pans before baking another batch.
3. Parchment: keeps the cookies from sticking to the pans.

Tips for making the best soft sugar cookies

• Add the oil slowly: there’s quite a bit of oil in these cookies. If you add it to the butter all at once, it’ll be a smooshy mess. Beat the butter first, then drizzle in the oil, scraping down the bowl until it’s all added. After that you’ll be able to add the other ingredients easily.
• Chill the dough: I often skip chilling dough, but here you really need to since the dough is quite soft.
• Scoop, shape, roll, press: Scoop out a portion of dough. Roll it lightly in your hands to make a round ball. Next, roll the dough so that it’s totally covered in sugar. Finish it by pressing it down lightly on the pan with a glass that’s been dipped in sugar. My gram had a cut crystal glass she used for its light impression it added to the cookies. You can flatten them a lot for thin cookies or just barely for happy puffy cookies.
• Cool!: Let the cookies cool completely on the sheet trays. Since they’re a little underbaked, this will give them the right amount of time to bake a little longer without getting crispy. We want SOFT cookies, and this carryover heat helps make them perfect.

How to mix up your sugar cookies

1. Make them bittle: smaller cookies are perfect for an easy Christmas cookie. Roll teaspoon sized balls in colored sugars for a cute simple Christmas cookie.
2. Add your favorite candy: These are awesome with M&Ms, but any chocolate candy is good added into the dough.
3. Add some spice: I’m partial to apple pie spice for the old-fashioned flavor of nutmeg, but pumpkin pie spice or my chai spice blend are good here too. Add 1 teaspoon of whatever you choose.

More jumbo cookies

• Chocolate Sugar Cookies
• Confetti Sugar Cookies

Print