Our soft almond sugar cookies are light, fluffy and covered with the most delicious almond flavored buttercream. These cookies are perfect any time of year, but you can make them fun and seasonal by changing the icing color and adding holiday sprinkles.
These soft sugar cookies are made with simple ingredients that you likely have in your pantry. There is no rolling out and cutting the cookie dough in this recipe. After you make the dough, you'll simply chill, scoop and bake! If you love cookies as much as I do, be sure to check out my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe or our Blood Orange Butter Cookies
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❤️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- so easy to make - the dough comes together in literally 5 minutes
- these homemade sugar cookies are soft, chewy and filled with delicious almond flavor
- no rolled-out dough - simply chill, scoop and bake these cookies
- these buttery almond sugar cookies are perfect for any season or celebration - easily swap out the frosting colors and sprinkles
🍫 Ingredients
- pure almond extract - adds sweet almond flavor to both the cookies and the buttercream
- sour cream - adds moisture and flavor to the cookie recipe
- corn starch - creates a cookie that is extra soft and cake like
- unsalted butter - soften butter at room temperature - I like to use unsalted butter for all of my baking - if you are using salted butter, skip the salt in the cookie dough
🍋 Variations
Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies - color your frosting red, pink or purple and top with Valentine's Day sprinkles.
Christmas Sugar Cookies - color your frosting green, red, or leave it white. Top frosted cookies with holiday sprinkles.
Birthday Party Sugar Cookies - keep your frosting white or color it a light pastel color. Top with rainbow sprinkles.
🥣 Instructions
Be sure to see the recipe card for the full list of ingredients and detailed recipe instructions.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a large mixing bowl and handheld mixer, combine the butter and sugar - mix until light and fluffy.
Stop the mixer and add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla and almond extract. Mix until well combined.
Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients. Mix on low until the dry ingredients are just combined.
Cover and chill the cookie dough for 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350° Scoop cookie dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes
Make the buttercream. Combine the butter, confectioners sugar, milk, vanilla and almond extract and a pinch of salt.
Mix on low speed until the icing is light and fluffy. Add any desired food coloring.
Once the cookies are completely cool, top with a thick layer of buttercream and sprinkles.
Hint: If your buttercream begins to look separated, this is because you have mixed a lot of air into the icing. To fix this, mix your buttercream on low for 3-5 minutes - this will remove the air bubbles and create a more cohesive frosting.
🤓 Pro Tips
Use a Cookie Scoop - a medium cookie scoop will make it easy to create evenly sized cookies and it's so easy to use.
Freeze Cookie Dough - you can easily freeze cookie dough balls so that you can bake fresh sugar cookies any time that you have a craving for soft almond cookies. See instructions below.
Use a Kitchen Scale - For best results in any baking project, it's always helpful to use a kitchen scale. When using ingredients like sugar and flour, the best way to guarantee that you have the correct amount of a specific ingredients is to measure its weight with a kitchen scale.
📦 Storage
Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. You can also freeze your cookie dough following the instructions below.
Freezing Cookie Dough:
It's really nice to have some cookie dough stored in the freezer. If you scoop your cookie dough right away, you can place it on a parchment lined quarter sheet pan and move it to the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, move the balls to a large, freezer safe ziplock bag. Mark the bag with the recipe name, date you made the dough and the baking temperature and time. Pull this bag from the freezer and bake fresh cookies anytime you are in the mood for them.
Baking Frozen Cookie Dough
When baking frozen cookie dough, you will need to add an additional 1-2 minutes to the baking time. When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350° and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Place the frozen balls of dough onto your pan about 2-3 inches apart.
⭐️ Recipe FAQs About
Adding both corn starch and sour cream to cookie dough makes the finished cookies soft and fluffy.
🍪 Related Cookie Recipes
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Soft Almond Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ¼ cup sour cream at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¼ teaspoons almond extract
- 2 ¾ cups (385g) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
For the Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3 cups (345g) confectioner's sugar sifted
- 2-3 tablespoons milk at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch sea salt
Instructions
For the Cookies
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and corn starch.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scape down the sides of the bowl.
- Stop the mixer and add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla and almond extract to the butter mixture. Mix until the sour cream and eggs are well incorporated.
- Gently fold in the flour mixture. Mix until the cookie dough just comes together.
- Cover the sugar cookie sough with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 350°. Scoop cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes. Remove cookies from the oven and and move to a cooling rack. Allow the baked cookies to cool completely.
For the Buttercream
- Combine the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, milk and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
- Use your hand mixer or stand mixer to whip the frosting until it is light and fluffy.
- Top each cooled sugar cookie with buttercream and sprinkles.
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