It’s a hard fact: most Sugar Cookies are bland and dry, and covered in frosting to mask their cardboard-ness. THIS is a fast + easy cheat recipe, that you drop on a pan just like chocolate chip cookies; you don’t need cookie cutters. It has the same ultra buttery, chewy flavor of the BEST Soft Sugar Cookies. No frosting needed for these warm-off-the-pan wonders. They’re packed with flavor, and are soft, bendy, and chewy. It’s unique yet familiar, you are going to love it! Also try my ever popular recipe for The Softest Cut Out Sugar Cookies, or Grandma Prudy’s recipe for Thin and Crispy Sugar Cookies!
My best friend Sarah is American, but stationed with the military in England right now. She is always learning new things about what’s the same or different there. Like how despite their bad rap when it comes to food, England is comin’ in clutch with amazing freshly baked cakes and treats at literally every corner shop she goes in. And how British people never serve salad dressing— just dry lettuce and veggies. 🤯 (what??)
But the best moment so far was when she had two maintenance guys came over to fix her oven.
The things you never knew you never knew 😂 I could NOT stop laughing when I read this!
Well, brown eggs or white eggs will work perfectly fine in this recipe for Drop Sugar Cookies! I’m in LOOOVE you guys!
I am here to tell you about your new fav cookie
Seriously guys. These cookies are a 30-minute wonder that will blow your mind, flavor-wise.
Are you one of the thousands who have made my recipe for The Softest Sugar Cookies of Your Life? They are mega popular for a reason! Soft, chewy perfection, with Buttercream Frosting to top them off. It’s like a whole meal. They are my favorite cookies of all time. (Don’t tell Chocolate Chip, or Molasses Sandwich, or Raspberry Thumbprint.)
But these super soft and chewy Drop Sugar Cookies might be giving the originals a run for their money. Partly because they are SO EASY. I mean we are talking zero-to-warm-cookies-in-your-mouth in 30 minutes flat. The whole roll-out-cut-out-frosting endeavor takes a few hours, but these ones are so fast.
The flavorrrr
Everyone who tastes these takes a bite and looks up with wide, curious eyes to ask me, “What IS this?? It’s so good.”
The difference with these cookies is in the combo of extracts I use. They don’t just taste like butter and sugar. (as much as I love u, butter) these drop sugar cookies have got:
- vanilla extract
- almond extract
- coconut extract
Yes, all 3. It’s not overwhelming, I promise! Hear me out.
This is the same flavoring I use in my famous Soft Cut Out Sugar Cookies, and the reason they are so unique. Check out the 400+ reviews on that recipe! So many families call this recipe their go-to now, because it’s so reliable and so good!
I landed on this combo of extracts years ago when my sister-in-law Reesy was trying to replicate a sugar cookie from a bakery called the Sweet Tooth Fairy in Utah. (Anyone remember that place?) I have no idea if that’s what their cookies use, but I’m hooked FOREVER on this combo. It’s not a proper sugar cookie to me without it.
And that goes for today’s drop version of these cookies too! You are going to love it. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped in the middle of writing a post so many times to make just one more batch 😂
What makes drop sugar cookies different?
Read: NO ROLLING. No cutting them out with cute lil Santa-shaped cookie cutters. No chilling, even!
This dough is thrown together in 10 minutes, and then you “drop” it straight from a spoon or cookie scoop onto the baking sheet. Just like a Chocolate Chip Cookie.
It does NOT taste like a chocolate chip-less cookie. You won’t miss the chocolate, I promise. (Would you add chocolate to your cut out Sugar cookies? Of course not, it would overwhelm the flavor!)
One of the key features of my classic sugar cookies is that they do NOT spread (which make them perfect for decorating!), but these drop sugar cookies do have a spread, again, just like a chocolate chip cookie. They are delightfully chewy on the edges and perfectly soft and chewy and bendy in the centers.
These cookies are rolled in granulated sugar before and after baking. Yes, please! The result is a cookie with a sugar-crisp-outside but soft, chewy-and-tender-center that will literally slay you.
The spoon trick
There is one secret technique to this recipe. It is the same trick I use on my Chocolate Chip Cookies. As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven (I mean it, right away, within 30-60 seconds), use two spoons to smoosh the cookies in toward themselves. Some people use large round biscuit cutters for this, or a large drinking glass.
But I like to just use two spoons and shove. It makes your cookies not perfectly round and I could not care less. I want TEXTURE and HEIGHT in the center of my cookie. This makes the cookies super fudgy in the center, and keeps the edges from flattening and getting overly-crisp.
It takes 30 seconds. It’s such a fast, easy way to entirely change the texture of your cookies!
Drop sugar cookie recipe ingredients
I love these cookies so much because every ingredient is one that I try to keep on hand at all times as part of my pantry staples. That way I can make them at midnight on a Wednesday if I darn well please. Head down to the recipe for all the details!
- salted butter
- granulated sugar
- light brown sugar
- eggs
- vanilla
- almond extract
- coconut extract
- all purpose flour
- kosher salt
- baking soda
- baking powder
How to make drop sugar cookies
These cookies are done in the blink of an eye. Just exactly how long it took Grace to snatch the Entity in Mission Impossible 17. (Or what number are we on? Tom Cruise 4ever) Anyway, I digress, grab some butterrr:
Beat the butter into submission, until it’s creamy and smooth. Then add in the sugars: traditional sugar cookies call for just plain sugar of course, but these are not exactly traditional. We are using juuuust a little bit of brown sugar to bring in that moistness and a very subtle molasses flavor. Subtle, I say!
What’s this?
“That’s eggs mate, what did you fink?” 😂😂 you can use white or brown np 😂
Okay and now for the secret ingredients:
A combination of almond, coconut, and vanilla extracts is what gives these cookies their distinct flavor. It is what will make everyone you serve these to ask, ooh, what IS this? with a light in their eye.
Add in the dry ingredients, and use a little spoon to stir in the salt and leavening, make sure there are no lumps.
Here’s the cookie dough, and this is some of the BEST cookie dough on the PLANET if you ask me. The final cookie amounts that this recipe makes are probably wrong because I can’t stop myself when it comes to this dough. sorrynotsorry
Toss the cookies in some sugar.
And line them up! I like to make these into “tall” cookies, where they are more egg-shaped, and sitting on the short end. It makes the cookies nice and thick!
Here they are just out of the oven:
and here comes the other secret technique of this recipe: THE SPOON.
Use your spoon to mash them toward the center a bit. Be quick! You have to do this within 30 seconds of taking them out of the oven!
Now look here, you can judge me all you want for these not-even-trying-to-be-round-cookies. I like to embrace the imperfectness of life and that applies to my cookies shapes, too 😂 You can see that I even crumbled some of the edges of the cookies in my haste to spoon them (the edges set up really fast!! You have to move!)
I like to dip these cookies in sugar a second time after baking (optional), so even less reason to care about minor bumps and bruises on the edges.
Ta-da! Now you can stuff 5 of these in your mouth at once. What! No! Not really. Just 2 3.
How to store leftover soft drop sugar cookies
You want these cookies to STAY soft, so any container with an airtight lid (or even a ziplock bag) is the best option for storing these cookies. They’ll be good out on the counter for 2-3 days. At my house they get eaten well within that time frame! They will start to dry out after that. Still tasty, just not as soft and chewy. If you know you can’t eat them all within 2-3 days, either freeze some of the dough or cookies (instructions below), or become your neighbors’ best friend with a lovely cookie delivery.
Can you freeze easy drop sugar cookies?
I cannot even tell you just how much cookie dough I have in my freezer. It’s a LOT. That’s because freezing cookies, including these drop cookies, is SO stinkin’ easy. Plus, who doesn’t want to have fresh, homemade cookies whenever they darn well feel like it?
The best way to freeze these cookies is to save them as scooped dough balls. Prepare the cookie dough as normal. You can put the scooped dough balls much closer to each other on the cookie sheet than if you were baking, just make sure they don’t touch. Fill the cookie sheet(s) and place them in the freezer to flash freeze for about 30 minutes. Then, transfer the cookie dough balls into a ziplock freezer bag. The dough will be good for about 3-4 months. When you want to eat them, follow the recipe instructions for baking but add 1-2 minutes to the bake time. Be sure to follow to keep an eye on them toward the end and pull them out when they’re still shiny on top so they stay soft!
To freeze already baked drop sugar cookies, add cooled, room temperature cookies to a freezer ziplock bag. You can thaw a few at a time (covered) or the whole bag on the counter for 30-60 minutes (depending on how many). Baked cookies will only last about 2-4 weeks in the freezer. Because they’re already baked, they are at a much greater risk for drying out. Nobody wants a dried out cookie!
Drop sugar cookie frequently asked questions
Drop sugar cookies are the super easy and quick version of cut sugar cookies! No rolling, no cutting, just the delicious taste of a sugar cookie in all its glory.
They are called “drop” sugar cookies because you can drop the dough straight onto a baking sheet without rolling or cutting out shapes. Because there is no need to cut, the dough is softer and makes an incredibly tender and chewy cookie. You can slap some frosting and sprinkles on them if you want, but it’s honestly not necessary.
If you followed the recipe exactly, the most likely culprit is the the dough being too warm before baking, which causes the butter to melt too quickly and the cookies to spread flat. The drop cookies in this recipe typically do ok without a chill session in the fridge. But if you have issues with the first batch being flat, I highly recommend chilling the remaining dough for 30-60 minutes and see if your next bake improves.
Other possibilities for flat cookies include an oven that runs too hot, not enough flour (make sure you spoon and level), baking soda that is too old and doesn’t work, or overmixing the dough and incorporating too much air so the cookies collapse.
So many cookies… so little time
I definitely have a cookie obsession, if the nearly 90 cookie recipes included in my site are any indication. If you’re a cookie fiend like me, you NEED to go through every listing on the Cookies Page on the blog. Sooo many amazing recipes!! If you don’t have the time, I’ve highlighted here some of my favorite EASY cookies to make, as well as some that are similar to these sugar cookies. I hope you love them like I do!
More sugar cookie recipes
- Thick & SOFT Sugar Cookie Recipe (That Holds Its Shape) >> these cookies are the gold standard of rolled and cut sugar cookies. They hold their shape, they’re nice and thick, and most important of all they actually taste good!
- The Softest Chocolate Sugar Cookies (That Hold Their Shape) >> the same as above, but in chocolate!!
- Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookie Bars >> if you want the flavor of sugar cookies but in easy bar form, this is the recipe for you
- Thin and Crispy Sugar Cookies (Grandma Prudy’s Recipe) >> another unfrosted sugar cookie recipe for the crispy, snappy cookie lovers out there
- Lemon Curd Sugar Cookie Sandwich Recipe >> one of the best uses for lemon curd, imo
- Brown Sugar Roll-Out Cookies from Sweet Sugarbelle
Other cookies you’ll love
- Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe >> chocolate chip cookies never get old, and these are the best!
- The BEST Snickerdoodle Recipe (Perfectly Soft and Chewy) >> only soft and chewy snickerdoodles with a double dip of cinnamon & sugar around here, thankyouverymuch
- The BEST Cinnamon Roll Cookies >> ok so take the best snickerdoodle dough and add cinnamon roll filling, then die and go to heaven because they’re so good
- Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies >> if you think you don’t like oatmeal raisin cookies, I double dog dare you to make these because I promise, you will LOVE them
- Easy Palmiers from My Love of Baking
Drop Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened (I use salted butter)
- 1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed (light or dark)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
- 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, use 1/2 teaspoon if using table salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 half baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Beat the butter. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat 1 cup butter on medium speed until it is soft and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Stop to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through.
- Add the sugars. Add 1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar and 1/3 cup packed brown sugar**. Beat well for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom halfway through. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and extracts. Add 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, and 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract. Beat well. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula and beat again. This is my giant spatula that I love!
- Add the flour. Use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup, then level off the top with a knife. Measure this way to add 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour to the butter mixture, but don't mix it in yet.
- Add the salt and leavening. On top of the flour, add 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. Stir these ingredients into the flour using your teaspoon.
- Beat the dry ingredients into the butter until just barely combined, scraping the sides and bottom again. Make sure all the flour is incorporated, but do not stir too much, or you will make your dough tough!
- At this point, you can chill the dough for 15-60 minutes. This makes your cookies not spread as much in the oven, but it is totally optional. I have made these cookies many times with zero chill and they work great; read on for tips to make them not spread.
- Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar to a wide shallow bowl, for rolling the cookies.
- Use a 1 and 3/4 inch cookie scoop to shape the dough into about 20 balls.* Roll each ball generously in granulated sugar, until completely coated. Line the cookie dough up on a parchment paper or silpat-lined baking sheet. (You can chill/freeze the pan of cookie dough at this point too, if that's easy for you, or you can skip chilling I promise!!)
- Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. Check the edges of the cookies. The should be set and juuust starting to turn golden on the edges. The center-tops of each cookie will still be just barely turning golden. Do not over bake.
- Spoon the cookies. Immediately after taking a pan of cookies out of the oven (within 30 seconds! Look alive!!), use two spoons or your fingers to smoosh each cookie in on itself, to make them rise taller in the center. The tops of the cookies will crinkle right away. This makes the cookies fudgy and tender in the center, and brings the edges in on themselves, giving them a delightful crisp without being TOO crisp.
- After spooning the cookies, leave them on the pan for 5-10 minutes to continue setting up. (Or don't, and stuff one in your face as soon as your tongue can handle it!)
- At this point, if you love an extra sugar crunch, dip each cookie back in the bowl of granulated sugar to coat the top and the bottom.
- Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- I love these cookies as-is, slightly warm. But if you want to frost them and add sprinkles, I highly recommend my Homemade Buttercream Frosting!
- Storage: Store these cookies covered on the counter for 3-5 days.
- Freezing: The best way to freeze these cookies is as scooped dough balls. Prepare the cookie dough as normal. Place the scooped dough balls on a cookie sheet, not touching. Flash freeze for 30 minutes. Transfer the cookie dough balls into a ziplock freezer bag. The dough will be good for about 3-4 months. When you want to eat them, follow the instructions for baking but add about 1 minute to the bake time. Be sure to keep an eye on them toward the end and pull them out when they're just barely browned on top, so they stay soft!To freeze already baked drop sugar cookies, add cooled, room temperature cookies to a freezer ziplock bag. You can thaw a few at a time (covered) or the whole bag on the counter for 30-60 minutes (depending on how many). Baked cookies will only last about 2-4 weeks in the freezer.
