An easy-to-make recipe for Lofthouse-style sugar cookies produces soft, tender cookies. No need to rush out to the store to buy these when they are this easy to make.
In a little over an hour, you can have a dozen soft sugar cookies that taste just like the ones in the grocery stores. this includes chilling time for the dough.
Why Make These Sugar Cookies?
This recipe is a copycat of Kimberley’s Bake Shoppe Frosted Soft Sugar Cookies, sold at grocery stores in Canada. Our kids love these cookies because of their texture and flavour.
Making these cookies at home saves us a lot of money, and the recipe has no preservatives. Reading the package for the cookies in the store, I noticed that they use margarine, which contains palm oils and soybean lecithin. They also have canola oil and palm kernel oil. Our recipe uses butter.
Ingredients For Lofthouse Cookies
There are two parts to this recipe: the cookie and the frosting.
Cookies:
- Cake flour. This type of flour is finer than all-purpose and it gives the cookies that cake-like texture.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Fine sea salt. Table salt will work as well.
- Butter. Make sure the butter is at room temperature.
- Powdered sugar. We use powdered sugar (confectioners/icing sugar) instead of granulated sugar to give the cookies a smoother texture.
- Egg.
- Sour cream. This works like an acid to help activate the baking soda and powder, which helps keep the cookies thicker.
- Vanilla extract.
- Almond extract.
Frosting:
- Butter.
- Powdered sugar.
- Vanilla extract.
- Cream. We use 18% table cream, but half and half or milk can be used.
- Food colouring. Gel colouring works best because you need only a small amount to get vibrant colours.
Sprinkles are also used on the top of the frosting.
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Make These Cookies For Any Occasion
One of the great things about these cookies is that the frosting can be coloured for any occasion. The sprinkles can also be changed.
We have served these cookies for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Canada Day, and Christmas.
Our go-to food colouring for these cookies is gel colours because these don’t water down icing. For the cookies in the photos for this recipe, we used Wilton Christmas Red.
Does The Dough Have To Be Chilled?
Yes, don’t skip this step. The dough has to be chilled to prevent the cookies from spreading and becoming thin. These cookies are supposed to be thicker.
The dough can be made ahead and stored in the fridge covered for up to 24 hours. We sometimes make the dough the night before we need the cookies. This is a good way to make the dough when you need a larger batch of these cookies.
Don’t Overbake the Cookies
These cookies bake in less than 10 minutes. They will still be light in colour on the tops when they are done and will continue to bake on the inside when they cool.
If the cookies are baked too long, they will become hard and the texture won’t be the same.
How To Store These Cookies
Keep the cookies in a container at room temperature for up to two days.
Cookies can also be frozen in an air-tight container for up to two months. We recommend freezing the cookies without the icing. Thaw them at room temperature, then frost them.
Lofthouse Style Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2¼ cups cake flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
Frosting
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp cream, 18% table cream
- Food colouring
- Sprinkles
Instructions
Cookies
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Beat butter and powdered sugar together until creamy.
- Add the egg, sour cream, vanilla, and almond extract, continuing to beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
- On low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375℉ and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove dough from the fridge and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, rolling each into a ball.
- Flatten the dough balls by placing them on a surface lightly dusted with powdered sugar and pressing down on the balls with a flat-bottomed glass dipped in powdered sugar.
- Place the flattened cookie dough on the prepared pan, spacing about 2 inches apart.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should just be starting to turn golden. Don't overbake. These cookies are meant to be very light in colour.
- Transfer immediately to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Frosting
- Cream butter, then add sugar, vanilla, and cream.
- Beat until smooth, adding a drop of food colouring at a time until the desired colour is reached.
- Top each cookie with frosting and sprinkles.
I come back to this site often to see what’s new and so happy I visited today. I just finished baking these cookies and they are delicious! Perfect for Valentine’s Day today. My kids love these cookies and I am sure they will be pleased when they come home from school today. Thanks!
Thank you for this recipe! I made these and my kids thought I bought the ones at Walmart. Best part is I can change the icing to whatever colour I want.
Love the use of powdered sugar instead of regular. It made a much smoother cookie, less grainy if you would. Amazing!
Very good! Love that you are able to make ur own versions based off what you’d see in stores