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Soft Sugar Cookies

My favorite classic and soft sugar cookie recipe, sure to give you Bake Shop results made right at home!
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Course: Dessert
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Sugar Cookie Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter at room temperature
  • 1 3/4 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 5 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
Buttercream Ingredients
  • 2 cups butter at room temperature
  • 7 cups powdered sugar (880 grams)
  • 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 generous pinches of salt
  • small splash of milk to thin if needed

Method
 

For the Sugar Cookies:
  1. Cream together butter and sugar. Once creamed, add in eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract and sour cream. Mix together until just combined.
  2. While butter and sugar are mixing, in a separate bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and pulse until dough starts coming together. Mix just until all the ingredients are combined. Don't over mix but you do want all the dough to be combined and not dry looking.
  3. Split dough in two and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for at least 1-2 hours.
  4. Once dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  5. Roll out dough on silicone baking mat or parchment paper to 4mm or 1/6 inch thick. Add additional flour to keep dough from sticking. Cut with floured cookie cutters.
  6. Bake for 7-9 minutes on parchment lined cookie sheets, until cookies have puffed up but are no longer wet looking. My perfect baking time is 8 minutes but check yours before in case your oven and cookie shape is different!
For the Buttercream:
  1. Beat butter until creamed.
  2. Add remaining ingredients with butter. Pulse ingredients together until combined. Add food coloring. Beat on high for 2-3 minutes.
  3. Frost cooled cookies with buttercream. Top with sprinkles if desired.
  4. Plain or frosted cookies can be stored at room temperature in a resealable bag.

Notes

I have had luck with freezing sugar cookie dough balls wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in a resealable bag.  Refrigerate overnight.  Roll, cut and bake the next day as directed above!
This recipe makes a large batch of cookies!  I have best results when I divide my dough into two balls and break up the baking and decorating into different days and times.  It makes it a lot more manageable and doable.  I have even frozen my dough ball for several weeks, even a couple months and put in the fridge the night before rolling and baking and had great results!