These cookies are amazing! I seriously ate about 10 the first day I made them. I could not help myself. My son wanted me to buy those Lofthouse cookies you see at the grocery store. You know what I am talking about right? The ones that melt in your mouth and are so addicting and good you eat the whole container. Like the GrannyB vending cookies, but less preservatives. Well this is my rendition of those. It is very slightly adapted from a recipe I found here.
Basically I used margarine because I sent my husband out for butter a while back and he came home with margarine. I figured cookies aren’t exactly good for you, so I might as well use it in these, and they turned out beautifully so I am glad I did. I also added some lemon zest to give it a fresh taste. You can add a little of the lemon juice to the frosting as well for a nice fresh rendition. I opted to use the egg-less buttercream so I would not risk anyone getting sick. Glad I did. The shortening made it very light and fluffy, but feel free to leave it out if you are super health conscious.
Soft Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup margarine softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 cups flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- zest of one lemon optional
Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- About 1 Tbs milk or more for whatever consistency you like
- 1/2 cup shortening
- Sprinkles
- Food coloring of choice. I used red and yellow to make orange
- Cookie cutter of choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Cream together margarine and sugar. (You can use butter, but margarine is cheaper and works well)
- Add in eggs and vanilla and beat for 1 minute.
- In separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a mixer with paddle attachment add in the dry ingredients slowly while simultaneously adding the milk. Stir in lemon zest at this point if using it.
- Roll out on well floured surface. You want it to be about a 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut out your cookies. They hold the shape really well.
- Spray a baking sheet.
- Bake for 5 minutes. Do not bake longer!
- Put on cooling rack.
- Frost.
Frosting
- Beat together the butter vanilla and powdered sugar. Add a little milk for consistency. Then whip in the shortening.
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
Want to use this recipe in a meal plan?Try PrePear, my FREE Meal Planning App that allows you to save your recipes, plan meals, shop for groceries, and cook simply in one place. Join Here!This recipe makes so many cookies. We used them to take Halloween treats to the neighbors, and still had enough to take to a family party and eat about 10 each. Half the recipe if you don’t want a lot.
Start by mixing up your dough.
Roll your dough out, use plenty of flour. Then cut your cookies with whatever shape you want.
Once they have baked for 5 minutes, let them cool. Then go ahead and start decorating.
I laid them out on some freezer paper to help contain the mess from sprinkles. I mixed up my frosting and filled a quart size zip lock bag. I cut the tip off, and used it to pipe on my frosting.
Then I added Wilton Halloween Mix of 6 sugar-sprinklers
Today’s post was supposed to be a 7 layer bean dip for Halloween, but I have had so many requests for this cookie recipe I decided I had better put it on the blog sooner rather than later. If you are following along with our Halloween fun and don’t want to replace today’s activity with these cookies, send me an email and I will send you the directions for the other activity. Otherwise, enjoy these amazing cookies.
JIll says
You don’t have baking powder listed in ingredients, but you do in instructions?
Rachael says
Oh My Gosh! Jill Thank you for pointing this out. I can’t believe I did that! This is my all time favorite sugar cookie recipe. It turns out every time. I made the change, thank you!