Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies

Super soft and delicious sour cream cookies perfect for a mixed tray at Christmastime. One of our family’s most treasured recipes.

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies

Soft and cake-like cookies made with sour cream and topped with a simple glaze.

• Author: Katie Shaw
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 3.5 dozen 1x
• Category: cookies
• Method: baking
• Cuisine: American

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

For the cookies:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, salted
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the glaze

• 4 teaspoons milk
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• dash vanilla
• colored sprinkles or sparkling sugar, optional

Instructions

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl, set aside
2. Beat butter, sugar, and egg with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the sour cream and vanilla and blend on medium-low until combined.  Mix in the flour mixture, I cup at a time, until just combined.  Dough will be very soft.  Cover and refrigerate the dough 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375.  Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper or cooking spray.  Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are golden brown.  If baking two sheets at a time, rotate halfway through the baking time.
6. After cookies have cooled completely, mix the glaze by combining all ingredients.  Dip cookies in the glaze and sprinkle with sugar or sprinkles.  Let dry and store at room temperature until serving.

Notes

Instead of the glaze, try sprinkling with cinnamon sugar before baking.

To make ahead bake and cool the cookies, then defrost at room temperature before glazing.  Iced cookies do not freeze well.

Can also be baked on convection bake at 350.

Keywords: sour cream cookies, iced sour cream cookies, soft Christmas cookies, easy christmas cookies

Why sour cream cookies?

These were my favorite cookies that my mom made when I was a child, and for some reason they fell off the cookie rotation for at least ten years. I asked for the recipe after I got married, and for some reason it could not be recovered. We tried a few recipes that weren’t quite right. And then, miraculously, it resurfaced, as a scanned document lurking somewhere.

It’s a recipe from McCall’s magazine from the 80’s that I’ve changed just a tiny bit. (It called for sifted flour, which is not necessary at all, and I added a glaze.). They are not fancy, or beautiful, but I promise these cookies will win you over with their softness and deliciousness.

They don’t taste like sour cream, but they definitely taste different from a normal sugar cookie. So easy to make, there is no reason not to give them a try!

Need more Christmas cookies?

Of course you do! Here are more of our favorites:

• Molasses Cookies, still number one in my heart.
• Caramel and pretzels make a great chocolate chip cookie even better in this recipe.
• And when you want to make cut out sugar cookies, use a sugar cookie recipe that is actually tasty.

Hope you love them as we do!