Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies

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Ok, you guys!  These are seriously the best kind of sugar cookies for the holidays!  So pillowy soft, and lightly sweetened, these bakery style Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies are iced with tantalizing Buttercream Frosting to make these the bestest sugar cookies in the land!

You’ll love these Easy Melted Snowman Cookies and Grinch Sugar Cookies to celebrate too!

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

The first time I had the pleasure of devouring these cookies, I immediately wanted the recipe.

My gorgeous BFF, Stacey turned me on to them a few years back and I realized after one bite, I wanted another, then another, then another…you know how this ends right?  I probably scarfed down 3 or 4 cookies without hesitation, because they literally melt in your mouth!  Serious yums!

 

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies recipe

This delicious cookie recipe is definitely a heavenly treasure and I’m so happy she gave it to me, so I could share it with you too!  It’s like one of these family recipes, you want to cherish and have in your recipe repertoire for family generations to pass on to younger generations, ya know?

So, Stacey got the recipe from her sister, Merla, who has been making them ever since Stacey was a young child and she fondly remembers  begging her sister to make them all the time! (Probably to the point of annoyance, until she finally started making them herself, so then, I became the annoying one.  haha!  Like a chain reaction!)

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients You Need

Sour Cream Cookies Recipe

Buttercream Frosting Recipe

  • butter, softened
  • powdered sugar
  • vanilla
  • milk
  • Optional: gel color for color tinted frosting

OR for an easy frosting option -You can use 2 – 3 Pillsbury™ Filled Pastry Bag Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting or prepared frosting already prepared in tubs. But making your own frosting tastes the best!

Decorative accessories

How to Make the Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies

Best Sour Cream Cookies

  1. In a separate bowl, combine and whisk flour, soda, powder and salt together, set aside. Cream shortening, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla together, then slowly combine flour mixture to cream mixture.
  2. After combined, chill dough for at least 1 hour
  3. Drop by spoonful or ¼ cup scoop and line baking sheets with parchment paper, 6 per sheet, these will spread a little.
  4. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden and the centers are set.
  5. Let cool.

Buttercream Frosting

  1. Using a mixer, beat butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk and beat until smooth, adding additional sugar or milk to reach desired consistency.
  2. Color if desired and spread on cooled cookies.
  3. Add decorative accessories and let frosting set on cookies.

Or….2-3 Pillsbury™Filled Pastry Bag Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting

How To Keep Sprinkles from Bleeding into Frosting

Use Jimmies. These are the little rod-shaped sprinkles that you probably see most often, typically in rainbow colors or plain chocolate, and they are the best for baking. They hold up to being mixed into dough without bleeding.

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

How to Store Sour Cream Cookies

  • Store baked cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days. They’ll last longer than that but may start to get stale.  If frosted, I would recommend keeping them refrigerated until ready to serve.
  • Store these sour cream sugar cookies inside an airtight container before chilling or freezing. They can last for up to 3 months in the freezer.
  • They can be frozen up to 3 months, just pull out and let thaw and they are moist and delish like you just baked them.  At this time you can frost them and add the sprinkles.

Helpful Cookie Tips for the Best Soft Sugar Cookies 

  • If you are strapped for time, definitely make the cookie batter ahead of time, because they do need to chill for at least 1 hour.  The cookie dough is soft, not stiff.
  • To make these, I used a 1/4 cup cookie scoop, but you can use a heaping large tablespoon.  If you want smaller cookies, just use smaller measurements accordingly.
  • I know to some, sour cream might sound weird, but it’s the perfect compliment to these cookies, the way they taste and texture-wise.  They are not overly sweet cookies, but the buttercream frosting pulls it all together to give you the most delicious holiday cookies ever!
  • If you don’t have sour cream, you can use Greek yogurt as a substitution.
  • Homemade frosting is the best, but you can use Pillsbury™ Filled Pastry Bag Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting like I used on these, if you want a short-cut or make real buttercream frosting and decorate with sprinkles and you can even color the frosting to give them your own signature style. *Like a party up in here!*

 

These sugar cookies with sour cream are awesome for cookie exchanges, any holiday entertaining, birthdays, special occasions and don’t forget the man, Santa!  The kids will love them too!

Trust me, everyone is going to be drooling over this best soft sugar cookie recipe and begging for the recipe or begging for you to make them AGAIN!  You’ll see!!

For a vegan option, check out these yummy Soft and delicious vegan sugar cookies. They taste great plain and they’re also perfect for decorating with icing and sprinkles for the holidays.

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

More Delicious Cookies We LOVE!

Check out 10 Super Sweet Christmas Tree Desserts To Pine Over!

Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

Soft Sour Cream Cookies w/Buttercream Frosting

Kim Lange
These are seriously the best kind of cookies for the holidays!  So pillowy soft, and lightly sweetened, these bakery style Best Soft Sour Cream Cookies iced with tantalizing Buttercream Frosting make these the bestest sugar cookies in the land!  
4.06 from 36 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Calories

Ingredients
  

Best Sour Cream Cookies

  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ salt

Buttercream Frosting

  • ½ cup unsalted butter softened or room temperature
  • 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons milk of choice
  • ¼ teaspoon salt optional
  • Optional: gel color for color tinted frosting

or 2 - 3 Pillsbury™Filled Pastry Bag Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting

    Decorative accessories

    • Sprinkles Sugars, Nonpareils, Dragees, Jimmies

    Instructions
     

    Best Sour Cream Cookies

    • In a separate bowl, combine and whisk flour, soda, powder and salt together, set aside.
    • Cream shortening, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla together, then slowly combine flour mixture to cream mixture.
    • After combined, chill dough for at least 1 hour
    • Drop by spoonful or 1/4 cup scoop and line baking sheets with parchment paper, 6 per sheet, these will spread a little.
    • Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden and the centers are set.
    • Let cool.

    Buttercream Frosting

    • Using a mixer, beat butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk and beat until smooth, adding additional sugar or milk to reach desired consistency.
    • Color if desired and spread on cooled cookies.
    • Add decorative accessories and let frosting set on cookies.

    Or....2-3 Pillsbury™Filled Pastry Bag Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting

      Keyword christmas, cookies, frosting, sour cream, sprinkles, sugar cookies
      Tried This Recipe?Let us know how it was by commenting below!

       

      42 Comments

      1. Hi Betty! To avoid confusion, 8 0z is 1 cup and I put parenthesis around the 8 oz. So you need 1 cup or 8 oz. Hope you love these!! They are so yummy. xo

      2. Hi Heather! No, it’s a drop cookie, so they puff up and spread out a bit. They are super delish! Happy Holidays, I hope you give them a try. 🙂

      3. What can I use instead of shortening in this recipe?

        Don’t use shortening in my cooking/baking.

      4. I haven’t tried it with butter, but I suppose you could, but the texture may be a little different. This recipe was from a friend of mine that I asked for because they are so good as as. Let us know how they turn out!

      5. 2-3 days, but you could freeze them 4-5 months and take them out as needed. Maria these cookies are amazing and I also kept some of the dough in the fridge for a week and when I baked the cookies, they were still amazing. You should try these! Definitely yummy!!

      6. These cookies look like mini cakes, YUM!!1 I totally wanna make them, would be a refreshing change from all the crispy cookies that I normally bake. After the cookies have been frosted, how many days do you think that it can be stored??

      7. Oh my goodness, these look so perfectly soft and chewy! 😀 And that thick buttercream frosting just seals the deal. I wish I could have them all!

      8. If it wasn’t 2 A.M. I’d be in the kitchen mixing up these cookies!! If I wrapped each cookie separately and put the frosting in a separate container do you think they’d ship well?

      9. Holy cow. These remind me of the sugar cookies at this little bakery (which no longer exists) in my hometown. They had the BEST most melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies on earth. I’m totally making these and reliving my youth 🙂

      10. 2 dozen or more for large. Sorry, when I added it in the recipe card, I guess it didn’t like it that I put 2 dozen and just put in 2! Enjoy!!!

      11. How many cookies does this recipe make? It says 2 cookies at the top, but then says to put 6 cookies on a sheet. Thanks…Lisa

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