Sometimes when I’m right smack in the middle of cooking something, I have an intense realization that I have no idea what I’m doing.
In this case, I guess I had a vague idea of what I was doing: I was making cookies and frosting them.
In my mind this took the shape of beautiful soft cookies frosted with plumes of perfectly creamy cream cheese frosting. Maybe I’ll color it, I thought. Maybe it will be the most beautiful thing on the Internet, I thought.
Or, more realistically, it’ll look like a Woodstock groupie frosted a bunch of cookies.
Okay. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted in the frosting department and just made a bunch of designs (thereby proving that you can make a bunch of designs with frosting), but the cookies and frosting are spot-on. They have a wonderful soft texture with just enough crunch on the outside.
While you can almost certainly improve my psychedelic frosting technique, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better soft cookie.
Psychedelic Soft Cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup coconut oil, or shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup sour cream
Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a mixing bowl or with a stand mixer, cream together butter, coconut oil, and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Then add in egg and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add half of dry ingredients to the creamed butter, followed by the sour cream, and then the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
- Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it’s about 1/4-inch thick. Then cut out cookies in whatever shapes you want.
- Bake cookies on a baking sheet for 9-10 minutes at 375 degrees. They should be lightly browned on the bottom and still soft.
- Let cookies cool before frosting.
- For frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter with a mixer until light and fluffy. Then add vanilla and powdered sugar until it reaches the consistency you want. Feel free to add food coloring to your liking.
- Pipe frosting onto cooled cookies. Store cookies in an airtight container in the fridge if you aren’t them immediately.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Soft Cookie Dough
Most cookie doughs are butter-based but soft cookies will typically include shortening as well. I tend to not have shortening sitting around so I used coconut oil which worked fabulously.
As with any cookie, cream the sugar together with the fat and then add in the egg and vanilla extract. Then add half of the dry ingredients followed by the sour cream and finally the rest of the dry ingredients.
Mix this until your dough just comes together. Try not to over-work it.
Baking Soft Cookies
Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and then cut your cookies into whatever shapes you want. The dough should be on the thick side, measuring around 1/4-inch thick.
I went with a simple round cookie. The problem with doing complicated shapes is that the thinner pieces will bake faster and you’ll lose the soft texture in those parts. So, in my opinion, round really is best for these guys.
Bake these at 375 degrees F. for 9-10 minutes. The worst thing you can do is overcook these because they will harden and turn into hockey pucks.
The finished cookies should be lightly browned on the bottom, but completely soft in the center still.
Frosting Dilemmas
You’ll want the cookies to be cool when you frost them. When the cookies come out of the oven, you can start making the frosting.
I made a really simple cream cheese frosting by creaming together butter and cream cheese and then adding a dash of vanilla.
Once that’s creamed together, add enough powdered sugar until the frosting gets to the thickness that you want. 3-4 cups is a good guideline.
This was my finished frosting.
If you wanted the cookies to be really elegant, you could actually just frost them with white frosting.
But, I decided to get crafty (never good) and color my frosting. Green and red seemed like good holiday colors.
One trick that I like to do is to split the frosting into two piping bags and then put both of those bags in a third bag. This will make for an even frosting swirl!
Ok. Like I said. I didn’t really know what I wanted out of my frosting so I just made a bunch of designs. Once you have the frosting in the bag the cookie is your blank canvas. Trees? Wreaths? Random squiggles? I did it all.
I would give myself a solid C+ for the decorating, but trust me that the cookies are good!
It would be a really fun recipe for kids and you could let them decorate the cookies like crazy.
When in doubt, just go psychedelic!
Do you like soft cookies or do you prefer a crunchier cookie? Leave a comment!
Valerie
These look terrific! I have never frosted cookies and this may be a naiive question. How do you get the two split frosting bags into the 3rd bag? Thanx– Valerei
Nick
Hey Valerie! I used all the same size piping bags and just filled two with the frosting (one red and one green) Then sort of used brute force to jam them into a third one. Then when you squeeze the third one it squeezes the two smaller ones and forms a half/half frosting blend. Hope that helps!
Splintersnstitches
I’ve always hated sugar cookies because they always were dry and crumbly–these sound like they might be an enjoyable sugar cookie experience. Thanks! :-)