Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies

Make Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies at home! Puffy sugar cookies are frosted with buttercream and topped with sprinkles for easy decorating.

Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies

I can’t tell you how long I’ve had Lofthouse style sugar cookies on my ‘must bake’ list. Too long, really. Whenever I see them in grocery stores I can’t help but smile. They are always decorated with sprinkles (yes!) and they are often seasonally themed; heart sprinkles for Valentine’s Day, red, white and blue sprinkles for July 4th and – you guessed it! My favorite version is Christmas themed with red and green sprinkles.

My riff on the classic.

There are scores of soft sugar cookie recipes floating around the web and all of them are very similar, but here’s where I didn’t follow the usual rules. It’s always the frosting on Lofthouse cookies that’s tinted vibrant colors, and not the cookie itself. When I mixed up the cookie batter it was beautifully pale – almost white! I knew it would hold color well so I divided the batter in two portions and tinted them red and green.

Perfectly balanced.

The baked cookies are puffy and very lightly sweet. I was almost disappointed because I felt they weren’t all that special on their own, but wow! After I tasted the frosted cookie I was hooked. The two components work so well together. The cookie portion brings texture and the frosting brings sweetness. I can’t say these are exactly like original Lofthouse cookies, but the recipe is delicious all the same.

Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies
Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies
Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies

A word about the cookie dough – it’s sticky! I was surprised that all the recipes I studied before making these barely mentioned this fact. I suggest chilling the dough in the refrigerator until it’s firm enough to handle. Be sure to read my note at the end of the recipe, too. There are a couple of different dough-shaping techniques.

These turned out really cute. They’re so colorful, I’d almost like to hang them on the tree!

Related recipe: Festive Black and White Cookies

Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies

Heather Baird
These cookies are puffy and very lightly sweet – the perfect vehicle for sweet buttercream frosting and lots of holiday sprinkles.
5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
1 hour chill time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 37 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 2 dozen

Ingredients
  

Cookies

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup full fat sour cream
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Red gel food color
  • Green gel food color

Buttercream frosting

  • 12 tablespoons butter softened
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream
  • Christmas-themed confetti sprinkles

Instructions
 

  • Make the cookies: Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth. Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Dough will be soft and sticky.
  • Divide the dough in half. Return half the dough to the mixing bowl and add red food color; mix well. Turn the red dough out onto a piece of waxed paper and wrap. Wash the mixing bowl and return the remaining dough to the bowl. Add green food color and mix well. Transfer the dough to a piece of waxed paper and wrap. Refrigerate both portions of dough until semi-firm, at least 1 hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Remove cookie dough from refrigerator. Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough into portions, and roll between your palms. Lightly dust your hands and the dough with flour if sticky. Place dough balls on the cookie sheets 2inches apart. Gently flatten the dough balls with your palms. If there are streaks of flour on the cookies, gently dust it off with a soft pastry brush.
  • Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until they are puffed and fragrant. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Make the frosting: Cream the butter with an electric mixer; beat in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. Beat in the vanilla. If the frosting is stiff, beat in the milk or cream 1 tablespoon at a time until a smooth, fluffy consistency is achieved.
  • Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting onto the cookies (I used a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped to get an evenly round layer of icing, then used and offset spatula to smooth it out). Cover the icing with confetti sprinkles soon after icing.

Notes

I tested two techniques for making these cookies. The first was rolling the dough into balls and flattening them (as indicated in the recipe) which worked pretty well but was very sticky and I had to dust my hand with flour constantly. The second time I dusted a work surface with flour, dusted a rolling pin, dusted the dough, and rolled the dough to a little less than 1/2-inch thick. Then I cut the dough into 2-inch circles. Both yielded good results, but the ball-rolling seemed to go a little quicker.
Keyword american buttercream, confetti sprinkles, sour cream
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June Burns
June Burns
8 years ago

Omg those are so darling! And they look delicious too–lofthouse cookies are THE BEST, no question about that, so the homemade version has to be amazing. Will be trying these ASAP!

Anonymous
Anonymous
8 years ago

Oooooooh. Squeal! Can't wait to try these out! … Er… I mean…um…make these for the neighbors.

Christina
Christina
8 years ago

Oh wow, these are so vibrant and festive. Thank you.

Anonymous
Anonymous
8 years ago

Is it really 12 teaspoons butter for the cookies? (vs tablespoons)

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
8 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Yikes! No. It's 12 tablespoons! Thank you for the heads up! -h

Marcia
Marcia
8 years ago

The colors are so vibrant they are just calling 'make me make me' . I'm definitely going to try these. I just have a question though, how well do they keep?

Unknown
Unknown
8 years ago

Heather as usual these are beautiful, everything you do is exceptional!!! Can I freeze this dough do you think???

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
8 years ago
Reply to  Unknown

Hi Sharon! I think this dough would freeze beautifully. This handling of this dough greatly improves with refrigeration, so I think freezing would help when it comes to shaping the dough. I haven't tried it, but I say – go for it!

Unknown
Unknown
8 years ago

I love these. My daughter and I plan to make these for Xmas.

If anyone needs a "stackable" buttercream, Karen's Cookies has a recipe that dries but is not hard where you can stack the cookies for platters or boxes.

http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Decorating-Recipes_ep_68-1.html#recipe09

Anonymous
Anonymous
8 years ago

hi. really want to make these cookies. but are they soft? coz the family and I only like soft cookies, we're really not fans of crunchy cookies

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
8 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

How soft do you like your cookies?

Unknown
Unknown
8 years ago

In my country you dont find sour cream, can it be replace it with another thing? 🙂

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
8 years ago
Reply to  Unknown

Hi Lieska, sure thing! Full fat yogurt can be used in its place as long as it's not terribly runny. It should be thick. You can strain plain yogurt in a cheesecloth overnight and use it in this recipe. I hope this helps!

Unknown
Unknown
8 years ago

I made them today and they are very delicious but the colours faded a lot in the oven.

Selena Raquel
Selena Raquel
7 years ago

Didn't use the colors are its not Christmas, haha but they were awesome!! I used a little less powdered sugar, but it was just what I wanted!

Ree Graham
Ree Graham
1 year ago

5 stars
These are so cute! I made them today and used the roll out and cookie cutter method! I used parchment, a little flour and they turned out perfect! I didn’t dye my dough only because I ran out….but they are delicious! The perfect treat for the weekend and this holiday season! Thanks for the recipe!