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Why You’ll Love My Recipe

Soft and pillow, these old fashioned sour cream sugar cookies are the perfect holiday cookie to decorate with your kids. Top them with colourful icing and some sprinkles for the holiday season.

Frost these with your favourite icing, or make some of the The Best Buttercream Frosting Recipe. Ever. Feeling creative? Try making Pistachio Pudding Buttercream or Coffee Buttercream Frosting for your sugar cookies.

Reader Review

I made these last night and my 8 year old loves them. They came out soft and fluffy and the buttercream frosting just made them even better.

– Valerie

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe.
Total Time: Making these cookies will take you approximately 1 hour and 22 minutes. The amount of time you spend decorating them is all up to you.
Variations: Try different extracts, like coconut or almond, in the dough. Add food colouring to the icing to make a variety of colours or just one colour. Use whichever festive sprinkles or candies you have on hand to decorate these. Chopped nuts or shredded coconut would also work well as decorations.
Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a large baking sheet, some wax paper, parchment paper, a stand mixer or a large bowl and hand mixer, a medium bowl, and a small bowl. If you choose to roll these out, you’ll also need a rolling pin and a small cookie cutter.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Sour Cream: For the purposes of this recipe, you’ll probably need full fat sour cream, but you can attempt it with a lower fat version or some plain, Greek-style yogurt. This is going to add moisture to the cookies and give them a note of tanginess.

Sugar: This recipe calls for granulated white sugar, but you should be able to use your favourite granulated sugar substitute if necessary.

Butter: For this recipe, you’ll need salted butter. If you haven’t got salted butter, you can use unsalted butter and add a pinch of salt. Make sure to soften the butter at room temperature before you make these cookies.

How to Make Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

Combine sour cream and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Then mix in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and nutmeg. Add to wet mixture, in small amounts, alternating with the sour cream, until everything is fully combined.
Roll dough into a log, wrap it in wax paper, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour. If you will be rolling out your dough, chill it in the bowl, covered with a lid or plastic wrap.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper.
Slice chilled dough into 1/2 inch thick circles, or roll out on a floured surface (keeping the dough 1/2 inch thick) and cut out cookies with cookie cutter.
Put cookies on the lined cookie sheet(s) and bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cool completely before decorating.

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Chill Out: Don’t skip the refrigeration step for these cookies! Trust me, the dough will hold it’s form so much better while its nice and cold. This is especially important if you are rolling it into a log to slice.

Decoration Ideas: The frosting and icing options for these cookies are endless, because these cookies have a fairly neutral flavour profile. Try something new or try a family favourite. If you use a vanilla buttercream or frosting, you also have the option of adding food colouring and creating an array of festive colours.

Extra Fun: If you’re going with the rolling and slicing method, you can try rolling your log of dough in some festive sprinkles before wrapping it in the wax paper. That way when you slice it, the whole outside edge of the cookie will be gorgeous.

Storage Instructions

Prior to being decorated, these cookies should be fine in a sealed container at room temperature for several days. Once you’ve iced them, you should put them in the fridge to keep the frosting from melting.

You can freeze these, decorated or not, between sheets of wax paper in a container for 3-4 months.

Looking for more easy sugar cookie recipes?

Try these Chocolate Sugar Cookies or some zingy Lemon Sugar Cookies.

Have you ever had Cherry Sugar Cookies? Now’s a good time to try them.

Planning to do some decorating? The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe will give you the perfect canvas for your creativity.

There we go. A soft, sweet and easy sugar cookie that is perfect for decorating. Try this recipe soon and let me know what you think.

Happy Baking!

Karlynn