Last weekend I was lucky enough to have my best friend Sarah in town from Seattle while my fiancé was out of town on business for the weekend. Now, what are two crazy girls going to do with no guys around for the whole weekend? You guessed it – bake cookies! (We live on the edge, I know.)
With Easter right around the corner, sugar cookies certainly seemed to fit the bill. As I pondered where to find the perfect recipe, Sarah began to tell a story of these amazing “soft” sugar cookies she grew up eating. As the story goes, Grandma Frankie passed the recipe to Sarah’s mom, who baked them for Easter every year. Now Sarah and her sister Chelsa do the same.
First things first, the softness of these sugar cookies comes from sour cream – which, of course, is my favorite condiment of all time. Can’t go wrong with that! The nutmeg is also a nice subtle addition to the sugar cookie dough. The only tweak I made to the recipe was to replace the vanilla extract in the frosting with almond extract, another favorite of mine.
In an attempt to be festive, I tried to stretch the round cut-outs to make the cookies look like Easter eggs. What do you think?
Well, at least they taste good.
Soft Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1. Combine first four ingredients into bowl.
2. Add remaining ingredients, except sour cream, to larger mixing bowl
3. Beat for two minutes.
4. Add sour cream, then flour mixture
5. Beat slowly until well blended about 1 1/2 minutes
6. Roll dough out to 1/4" thickness on floured surface
7. Cut with cookie cutter or glass dipped in flour
8. Place onto greased cookie sheet
9. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes
Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
3 to 6 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoons vanilla (or almond) extract
Blend butter and 3 cups sugar, then add milk and extract, beat until smooth, gradually add rest of sugar until desired thickness.
Nicole Hollerman says
Approximately how many cookies does this recipe make?
Jenna says
The recipe makes about 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on the size cookie-cutter that you use. They’re delicious! 🙂