The Unexpected Ingredient That Will Seriously Elevate Your Sugar Cookies

If you're after a tender and moist treat, apart from using the usual flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla included in most sugar cookie recipes, you may want to add a generous helping of sour cream to your cookie batter. Not only is sour cream high in fat, but this moist dairy product typically elevates traditional baked goods by giving them a well-rounded softness that's often hit or miss with most standard cookie recipes. Apart from helping to produce tender and moist baked goods, sour cream works with the other added ingredients to create a more uniformly developed final product.

How exactly does sour cream work its magic in your favorite sugar cookie recipe? You might be surprised to discover the addition of sour cream will not only make your trusted cookies tender and moist but also add complexity to their flavor and overall construction. If you want to take your sugar cookies to the next level, how can you incorporate sour cream into your next homemade batch of vanilla-flavored goods?

Among the many sour cream uses you need to master, adding a scoop or two of this thick dairy product to your favorite sugar cookie batter should be a non-negotiable when you want a soft and rich treat. If you already have a trusted sugar cookie recipe, start by using ½ cup of sour cream for every 2½ cups of flour used. The sour cream should be added when you add your egg and vanilla. Be diligent about not overmixing your batter.

When you add sour cream to a bowl of cookie ingredients, there is actually a bit of chemistry going on behind the scenes. Not only does the acid in sour cream work to evenly expand gluten, but it also chemically responds to baking soda, causing one powerful reaction. Both of these processes combined make for one unbelievably fluffy and tender confection. Sour cream also has a distinct and robustly tangy flavor: If you plan on frosting your freshly baked cookies, you don't have to worry about these luscious treats being too sweet since the sour cream will even out those added helpings of sugar.

With all of this talk about creating softer cookies, you might be wondering if you should avoid sour cream if you want a more structured sugar cookie. Can these sour cream confections be made into cut-out cookies or are they considered a drop-cookie variety only?

Whether you're planning to make your great-grandmother's Linzer cookies or your favorite holiday cut-outs, you may be wondering if sour cream will affect the integrity of your cookies, especially if you want them to hold a specific shape. Luckily, with a little refrigeration, you can easily turn your sour cream sugar cookies into perfectly seasonal cutouts. After your dough is mixed, place it in the refrigerator for at least an hour before rolling out and cutting out your cookies accordingly. If you want to be extra sure your cookie dough can hold those intricate shapes, refrigerate your homemade dough overnight.

While frosted cut-out cookies are delicious, if you want to put forth a little less effort, you can make drop cookies with your sour cream cookie dough. You should still refrigerate your dough for at least an hour before spooning the batter onto cookie sheets and baking. Once your sour cream sugar cookies are baked and ready to enjoy, all you need to do is decide whether or not you're going to dress up your cookies with frosting. While sugar-dusted or plain sour cream cookies will serve as a rich yet delicately-flavored afternoon treat, they may be worth the addition of sour cream chocolate frosting for an extra special finishing touch.