Soft, simple Lofthouse Cookies are easy to make, and are a fun treat for birthdays and other special occasions. These sugar cookies with sweet homemade icing will just melt in your mouth!
- Just like the store-bought version: This Lofthouse cookie recipe is scarily close to the store-bought version – I can’t even begin to tell you how dangerous this will be for me, my jeans, and my sprinkle collection. (Yes, I said sprinkle collection.)
- Melt-in-your-mouth texture: These Lofthouse sugar cookies have that classic super-soft texture that all but melts in your mouth with every bite.
- Perfect for all occasions: These cookies are wonderful Christmas cookies but they also make great cookies for birthday parties and any other occasion. Feel free to change up the colors of the icing and sprinkles!
(P.S. Love sugar cookies? Check out these Soft Maple Sugar Cookies, easy Funfetti Sugar Cookies, buttery Spritz Cookies, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, Butterscotch Haystacks, and the best Chocolate Sugar Cookies, too!)
Lofthouse cookies are those sugar cookies you find in the plastic containers in the bakery section of the grocery store – those super soft ones with a thick layer of icing and sprinkles.
In 1995, a husband-and-wife team, Dave and DeAnn Stone, started a cookie-baking business and sold their cookies to local grocery stores. The product took off, and became known by the company name: Lofthouse. Eventually, Lofthouse Foods, Inc. was bought out, but those famous Lofthouse cookies are a still a household name!
The Ingredients
This Lofthouse cookie recipe is so simple, and the ingredients are all probably items that you already have on hand. Scroll down to the recipe card for measurements.
For the Cookies:
- Flour: The actual amount of flour you’ll need varies, depending on factors like humidity, how large your eggs are, etc. Plan on 5 – 6 cups.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: Using both together gives the cookies a thick, airy texture.
- Butter: The butter should be at room temperature.
- Granulated Sugar: Plain granulated sugar is fine.
- Eggs: You’ll need three whole eggs.
- Vanilla: Pure vanilla extract gives the best flavor.
- Sour Cream: I used light sour cream for these cookies. It helps keep the cookies soft and moist.
For the Frosting:
- Butter: Again, make sure your butter is at room temperature, or it won’t beat up properly.
- Vanilla
- Powdered Sugar: This light, finely-ground sugar gives your frosting the perfect smooth and fluffy texture.
- Cream: A small amount of heavy cream is used to thin the frosting to the right consistency.
- Sprinkles: Use whatever sprinkles you like to decorate your Lofthouse cookies.
Here’s an overview of how to make these ultra soft cookies. Scroll down to the recipe card for more detailed instructions.
- Make the dough: Combine five cups of flour with baking soda and baking powder. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla and sour cream at a low speed. Beat in the flour mixture on low, then add more flour 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough is thick enough for rolling and cutting.
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- Chill the dough: Divide the dough in half then flatten each piece to 1 1/2 inches thick. Wrap tightly in plastic and chill overnight in the fridge.
- Cut out the cookies: Sprinkle the work surface with flour then roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter to cut the cookies.
- Bake: Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes, until pale golden and just set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Make the frosting: Cream the butter and vanilla, then slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Add in the heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, until the desired thickness is achieved.
- Decorate: Frost the cooled cookies then add sprinkles immediately. Let the cookies set so the frosting hardens.
Recipe Notes
Before you start baking, I hope you’ll take a minute to look over these helpful tips and recipe notes. Each one will help make sure your Lofthouse sugar cookies turn out perfectly soft, sweet, and scrumptious.
- Handling the Dough: Since this dough is so soft, it may be helpful to have a small-ish spatula for lifting both the unbaked and baked cookies, until they’ve cooled and hardened a little bit. It’s also very important to chill the dough and cookies thoroughly according to the recipe instructions.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: To keep things light and airy, you want the cookie dough to come together thoroughly without overmixing. To do this, make sure that your ingredients, especially the butter, are at room temperature.
- Don’t Brown the Cookies: No one loves a golden-brown, perfectly baked cookie more than I do – but in this case, you should take the cookies out before they get any color on them. Lofthouse cookies are known for their pale, soft, just-baked texture.
- Let them Sit Overnight: These cookies need their resting time overnight to develop their flavors and textures completely. As yummy as they are freshly-baked, they will taste like real Lofthouse cookies the next day.
Easy Variations
This recipe is great if you’re looking for standard Lofthouse cookies, but it’s also a perfect starting point for customized, personalized cookies! Check out these simple variation ideas, and enjoy!
- Colorful Cookies: Feel free to add a few drops of food coloring to the cookie dough, to make a colorful cookie that goes with your holiday or party theme. Fun!
- Flavor Ideas: A little bit of extract or flavoring can really up the flavor ante here. Consider adding peppermint extract, orange extract, rum flavoring, almond, lemon… so many great options. Some extracts and flavorings are stronger than others, so it’s a good idea to start small (like 1/4 teaspoon) and add more if needed.
- Topping Options: Who says you have to use sprinkles? Lofthouse cookies are just as yummy with plain frosting, or with fun toppings like chopped nuts, crushed candy bars, M&Ms, or whatever you like.
- Fridge: You can store these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. I prefer to serve these at room temperature, but they can also be served chilled.
- Freezer: To freeze your Lofthouse cookies, line them up in layers in an airtight container, with a layer of wax paper or parchment paper between each layer to protect the frosting. Freeze for up to three months. (Note: It’s best to freeze them without sprinkles, so that the colors don’t run into the frosting after freezing and thawing.)
Looking for more delicious cookie recipes? Here are a few more reader favorites I think you will love:
- Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies
- The Best Cookie Cake
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
- Old Fashioned Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 4 dozen cookies
Soft, simple Lofthouse Cookies are easy to make, and are a fun treat for birthdays and other special occasions. These sugar cookies with sweet homemade icing will just melt in your mouth!
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 6 cups flour, divided
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups light sour cream
Icing:
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 6 tablespoons heavy cream
- Sprinkles
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Instructions
For the cookies:
- In a medium bowl, whisk 5 cups of flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat at low speed until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Dough needs to obtain the right consistency for rolling, so add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until this is achieved (up to 1 cup more flour).
- Divide dough into two sections. Flatten into rectangles about 1 1/2 inches thick, then wrap with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.
- Generously flour a work area and rolling pin. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until pale golden. Immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
For the frosting:
- To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Once smooth and creamy, add in heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired spreading consistency is achieved.
- Once cookies have cooled completely, frost and add sprinkles. Allow frosting to set, then store in an air-tight container. Let cookies sit overnight before serving to allow the flavors to develop.
Notes
Recipe Note: Make sure and let these sit overnight! They are really perfect and soft the next day!
Storage: You can store these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. I prefer to serve these at room temperature, but they can also be served chilled.
Nutrition
Serving: 2cookies, Calories: 435kcal, Carbohydrates: 60g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 12g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 73mg, Sodium: 216mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 35g
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Sorry to bombard your comments, but I just made these for family again and everyone raved about them being the best cookies ever. Thanks so much for sharing this!!
I made these cookies several times a few years ago and almost panicked when i couldn’t immediately find your recipe again. So glad i did! By far the best we have ever made. ❤️❤️❤️ Thank you!!
Just wanted to say these are my go to recipe for sugar cookies. Everyone loves them and I make them a few times a year. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
We made these cookies in October and my whole family loved them! The dough is a tad sticky but just dust your hands with some flour. Will definitely make again!
After reading your reviews on these cookies I’m not at all into wasting my time.
Most of the reviews are “pretty sprinkles”, “gonna try it soon!”.
Please has anyone made these?,tried them?.
I go by reviews of actually from people who have tried the recipes,not because they like the photos.
So hoorah!,for pretty sprinkles,let’s hear a shout out for how they actually worked out and tasted. That’s what I’d like to read about.
I’m sorry for any rubbing any shoulders,or being negative I’m just being honest about, why I’ll be moving on with my search for a cake like “suger cookie recipe”.
One more note ,if there are reviews from people who made these cookies,may I suggest putting or mixing those into the top ten to read first not “oh how pretty”.
Just made these. Not quite what I wanted, but think I made them too thick. Only used half of the dough, will make more tomorrow and roll the dough a little thinner. Good flavor, tho.
Yes! These are probably the best/softest sugar cookies I’ve made. Lofthouse are by far my favorite though so I’m biased.
Have these on my pinterest board. And they are very good! Made them a few times now and everyone enjoys them.
I have been looking forever for a recipe for
soft sugar cookies! THANK YOU. These are
SO GOOD!!
Is normal for the dough to be super sticky?? I added the additional 1 cup of flour however it was very stick, decided not to add anymore flour. Sitting in the fridge now, hopefully it will turn out good.
Do I store them in the fridge or on the counter to let the flavor develop?
I know that a lot of cookie recipes say they makes a bunch of cookies, such as 4 dozen cookies. Then, once you make them it only makes half (or less) the cookies the recipe says it makes.
Does this really make 4 dozen cookies?? How big are the cookies? Are they the same size as the original loftouse cookies, 2 inches? Does it make 4 dozen 2 inch cookies?
I’ve got my dough sitting in the fridge but was really hoping to bake them tonight. Does the dough have to sit in the fridge all night before I can bake them or can I just chill it for a couple hours and then bake them?
Thanks!
-Jess
Hi! They will still be tasty if you make them immediately, but they are best if you let the dough rest. The flour absorbs the moisture and it’s much better texture of the cookies similar to the store bought ones.
I made these cookies for Easter, they turned out wonderful. Easy peasy. I made lavender, pink and yellow with a hand mixer. Nice, soft and delish.
Recipe calls for 1 cup of butter 2 different times on the ingredients list. Was that a typo? Or should I be using 2 cups of butter to cream with the sugar?
1 cup of butter is for the frosting and 1 cup of butter is for the cookie batter/dough! 🙂
Hey, I don’t have heavy cream at the moment and I really want to make these. Do you have any substitutions on that?
I have made these cookies before, and they are amazing! My favorite soft sugar cookie that I’ve made. I’m about to make them right now, and realize that I don’t have sour cream…. Would plain greek yogurt make an okay substitute?
I’ve made these probably dozens of times now, I love them so much! I bring giant plates into work and they are gone in minutes. Most recently I added 1tsp of nutmeg to make christmas cookies. So good!!!
These look and sound amazing, yum!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
Hey, to all of you who need a much stiffer icing. Make royal icing, it has meringue in it and it hardens up but is still edible. And for all of you who need a clear Vanilla for the icing and white cookie, use Wilton’s Clear vanilla, you can purchase it at Walmart and Michaels “in the cake decorating section”, I also use clear butter flavoring. But when you change flavorings make sure to keep the same measurements of liquid so not to change the wetness of the recipe. And real butter has salt in it unless it is stated on the package; this recipe doesn’t call for unsalted butter, so it is regular butter.
Pinned these a whole ago. Finally made the dough last night and cookies and frosting today. I actually used an imitation sour cream as my husband can’t tolerate dairy. They came out gorgeous and delicious!! I only frosted 1/2 and put the rest in the freezer for another day. Thanx for the recipe – it’s a keeper!
I recently made these cookies…..we love them! One hint I have, that worked well for me: When it came time to refrigerate the dough, I rolled it into long rolls, about the diameter of a baked cookie, then wrapped the dough. The next day, I simply sliced the cookies. No rolling out dough. No cookie cutters. Just slice and bake. Worked like a charm. I will be making this recipe more often!
Wonderful recipe I have made several times. I was able to use a basic round, flower cut out and they turned out pretty cute even after puffing up. All of your directions are spot on and I hope users follow them all! Especially leaving the dough in fridge overnight. My personal preference is to add an add’l tsp of vanilla and 1/4 tsp almond extract as well as a little freshly grated nutmeg. Background flavors that you can’t spot but add up to delicious! Thanks for a great blog!