Who’s ready to start eating (I mean, baking) Christmas cookies?! One of the perks of having a food account is that occasionally people share one of their favorite family recipes with me. And when my friend Dedrie recently shared her Grandma Laura’s Sour Cream Cookie recipe, I instantly fell in love – and I think you will too! I’ve never had anything quite like it. These are the ultimate sugar cookie, in drop cookie form. These cookies are so tender, they practically melt in your mouth! And seriously, if there is a way I can get away without rolling out sugar cookie dough – I’m in!
The Dough
There are 2 keys to success with this dough:
- Mix the dough just until combined. You don’t want to over-mix the dough or it will lose its tender texture. The more dough is mixed the more gluten is developed, which causes a chewy texture. That’s great for a loaf of bread, but not so great for a sugar cookie.
- Cover the dough and chill it in the fridge for one hour.
Cookie Dough Scoop
Using a cookie dough scoop to form cookies yields more consistent results – which is amazing for a Type A baker personality like myself. Haha! But honestly, if there are some small cookies and some large cookies on a baking sheet together, the small cookies are going to burn and the larger cookies won’t cook through. Try to get the cookies all as close to the same size as possible.
For these cookies, I used a 1 ½ tablespoon scoop. But you can also use a heaping tablespoon if you don’t have a scoop on hand.
Baking the Cookies
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until set. You don’t want them to brown, just set up and cook through. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
The Icing
While the cookies are cooling, prepare the icing. I increased the amount of icing in Grandma Laura’s recipe to make a little extra, because some of my kids like one part cookie and two parts frosting. But a little extra icing isn’t going to hurt anything, right?! It’s nice to have the option….
Now it’s time to break out your sprinkle collection! Or is that just me? I definitely have a problem, and yet I recommend it to everyone – haha! The more the merrier, when it comes to sprinkles in the pantry!
I like to decorate cookies over parchment paper so that it makes clean up easier. And also I can use the sprinkles collected on the parchment paper to decorate the last few cookies instead of just throwing them away.
Here are a few before and after pictures!
Before
After
Make these today!
Grandma Laura’s Sour Cream Cookies
Cookies:
1 cup salted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 cup full fat sour cream, room temperature
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 ¼ cups all purpose flour
Frosting:
6 tablespoons salted butter, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
¾ teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons whole milk
3 ¼ + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Directions:
- Place room temperature butter in the bowl of a mixer, add sugar and combine until light and fluffy. This should take 1-2 minutes. Next add eggs, sour cream, vanilla, almond extract, and mix until just combined. Next add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until just combined. You don’t want to over-mix the dough or it will lose its tender bite.
- Chill dough, covered, for one hour in the refrigerator.
- Using a 1 ½ tablespoon scoop, drop cookie dough evenly across greased baking sheet.
- Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes, just until cookies are set. Do not brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
- Beat all frosting ingredients until well combined, and smooth. Frost and decorate cookies as desired.
TIP: With these cookies, the icing sets up quickly, so I found it’s very helpful to ice a cookie and immediately top it with sprinkles. I tried to be efficient and frost 5 cookies and then decorate them all at once, but I found that the icing had already set up beautifully and the sprinkles went sliding off the top instead of sticking. Enjoy!
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