Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies — Just like real Lofthouse cookies, but with sprinkles baked in! These fall cookies are soft, buttery, and they just melt in your mouth!
The BEST Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe
I’ve baked plenty of Christmas cookies, but had never baked Halloween cookies. This was the year to change that.
These sprinkled-up cookies are buttery soft, tender, slightly chewy without any cakiness.
They’re based on two recent favorites, Softbatch Funfetti Cookies and Lofthouse-Style Soft Peanut Butter Chip Sugar Cookies.
I love the baked-in sprinkles in the Softbatch Funfetti Cookies. It’s such a timesaver not having to frost and decorate cookies when all you want to do is dive into them, not frost them.
I adapted the dough base from the Lofthouse Peanut Butter Cookies, because it’s soft and lightweight, without being dry or crumbly.
Real Lofthouse Cookies are the incredibly soft, featherlight cookies sold in grocery store bakeries, with a signature layer of frosting and sprinkles.
I added cornstarch to the cookie dough. It’s a true workhorse in cookie-baking because it helps create a super soft and supple texture.
I’ve used it in at least 15 cookie recipes, including Lofthouse-Style Soft Peanut Butter Chip Sugar Cookies, Pumpkin Spice Cookies, Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Cookies, M&M’s Cookies, Snickers Cookies, Twix Bar Cookies, Caramel Corn Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Smores Cookies. You’ll love the softbatch-style results.
I used one-half cup of 3 different types of sprinkles, each from the Target dollar bins. Love those bins for fun finds like sprinkles, spatulas, and cupcake liners. I only wish my impulse buys at Target were confined to the dollar bins section.
The two types of sprinkles I used are multi-colored jimmies and one type is minuscule orange, yellow, and white non-pareils (little balls). Use your favorites!
The fall cookies are soft, buttery, and just melt in your mouth. The abundance of sprinkles adds texture and little pops of flavor in every bite.
Some of the sprinkles I used were chocolate and some bites were subtly chocolaty. Bonus.
Around Christmas, substitute red and green sprinkles for easy, no-roll, soft sugar cookies.
And feel free to frost the cookies with your favorite vanilla buttercream or or vanilla cream cheese frosting, or make sandwich cookies with them.
I can’t believe I’m already thinking about holiday baking and Christmas cookies. Let’s get through Halloween first. Boo.
What’s in the Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies?
To make these pillowy soft fall sugar cookies, you’ll need:
- Egg
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Cake flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Sprinkles
How to Make Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies
Using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together the butter, egg, sugars, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined, then gently fold in the sprinkles.
Scoop the cookie dough into 2-inch balls, then chill for at least 3 hours before baking.
My cookies don’t spread much while baking and I give them a gentle tap-tap with the back of a spoon right as they come out of the oven. If yours emerge from the oven as domed igloos, flatten them a bit.
Can I Substitute the Cake Flour?
These fall sugar cookies are similar to the real thing, thanks in part to using cake flour. Normally I shy away from using ingredients you may not have on hand, but in this recipe, it’s irreplaceable and creates the classic soft, light Lofthouse-style cookie.
You can buy it in any grocery store baking aisle, Target, or other big box stores. It’s inexpensive and you can make these cookies or these with it, too.
A DIY version of cake flour can be made by measuring out 1 cup all-purpose flour, removing 2 tablespoons of it, and in its place, adding 2 tablespoons cornstarch.
Then, sift the flour and cornstarch together at least 3 times for the ultra-fine, soft texture that cake flour is known for. That sounds like way too much work and I’d rather buy it, but suit yourself.
Can I Use Different Colored Sprinkles?
Of course! Switch up the sprinkles to suit whatever holiday it is that you’re celebrating.
How to Store the Fall Sugar Cookies
Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Tips for Making Soft Lofthouse Cookies
There’s a very high sprinkle-t0-dough ratio in this recipe. If you don’t love sprinkles as much as I do, 1 cup may be enough.
The dough is very soft and borderline sticky, and must be chilled before baking or the cookies will spread into flat puddles. I prefer to chill it at least overnight, and there’s no harm in letting it chill for up to 5 days and then bake off just 4 or 6 cookies, or as needed.
Make sure not to over bake the cookies, even if they seem light, glossy, and pale at the 8- to 9-minute mark because they firm up as they cool. They’re best when they’re super soft without any browning and if you overcook them, by day 2 they’ll be on the crunchier rather than softer side.
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Lofthouse Soft Sugar Sprinkles Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups cups cake flour, see directions (no substitutions, I used Swans Down
- 2 teaspoons cornstach
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- up to 1 1/2 cups sprinkles, reduce to 1 cup if you don’t love sprinkles; I used 1 cup of larger jimmies and 1/2 cup minuscule nonpareils
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large bowl and electric hand mixer), cream together the first 5 ingredients (through vanilla) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add 1 3/4 cups flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, optional salt, and mix on low speed until just incorporated, about 1 minute; don’t overmix. Dough will be on the sticky and tacky side.
- Mix in 1 cup sprinkles, and as desired, add remaining 1/2 cup.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping 2 to 3-tablespoon mounds (I made 15). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten slightly, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray.
- Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center. Do not overbake because cookies will firm up as they cool. If cookies stayed domed while baking, tap gently a couple times with the back of a spoon to flatten.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooking.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Fall Cookies:
White Chocolate Candy Corn Cookies — These Halloween cookies are PACKED with candy corn and white chocolate chips. They’re easy to make and are always a hit with the kids!
Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies— These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are bursting with chocolate chips in every bite! They’re thick, hearty, perfectly chewy, and not at all cakey.
Soft Butter Pecan Cookies — Buttery soft dough with big chunky pecans in every bite! Salty-and-sweet and so hard to resist!!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies— Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract that I used, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall!
Pumpkin Spice Cookies— These pumpkin spice cookies are made without pumpkin puree but are full of flavor thanks to the pumpkin pie spice! These are so soft and fluffy!
Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, loads of white chocolate, and so much pumpkin flavor!! A pinch of salt balances the sweet white chocolate for a salty-and-sweet treat!!
Soft & Chewy Molasses Gingerdoodles— These soft molasses cookies taste like a cross between chewy gingerbread cookies and crinkly snickerdoodles. An unbeatable holiday cookie recipe!
For refrigerateling, you put them on a plate? Would that be like 10 plates to fit all the cookies? Ami missing something?? Making right now. Thanks!
You put the mounds of dough on one large plate, nestled next to each other, cover with clingwrap or foil, and refrigerate.
I made these cookies Yesterday and was disappointed with how mine turned out. They were puffy and thick coming out of the oven but rapidly deflated as they cooled. They were totally flat by the time I needed to transfer them to a cooling rack.
I am an experienced baker and cannot figure what I did wrong. I reviewed the recipe several times and followed it to a “T.” The ONLY change I made was to double the recipe. But I doubled all the ingredients, so they should have been okay. I chilled them overnight before baking. My baking powder & soda were fresh. Is the 2 tsp Cornstarch correct(for single recipe)? It seems like this small amount would not have any effect on the recipe. PLEASE advise.
It sounds like you did everything right. I have no idea what to say! I have never doubled this recipe so while that could be the culprit (some recipes just aren’t made for doubling, i.e. bread sometimes, or canning things) but cookies are generally pretty safe. My first thought would be to check the baking powder/soda but you say that’s fine. When you creamed things, maybe you should cream a little longer to really aerate and fluff the batter but you do sound like an experienced baker so you know what’s appropriate and what’s not. 99% of the time when people write to me with a glitch or an issue, I can instantly pinpoint it. With yours, I am not sure. Maybe it was the double. That said, these aren’t super thick or puffy cookies.
Okay one thing just dawned on me. The kind of flour you’re using. I use and swear by King Arthur all-purpose. It has a slightly higher gluten content than other brands and that gives things more structure and they rise better and stay risen better. Maybe your flour. i.e. Gold Medal and others are much lower gluten and your results will not be as ‘puffy’ as with KA. That could be it!
Thanks for responding. I used Swans Down Cake Flour as the recipe stated.
Was I supposed to use all-purpose flour? Since the cookies were so flat and dense, I could not distinguish a difference in texture from using the Cake Flour and cornstarch.
I made cookies with Swans Down Flour and cornstarch before and the cookies were very tender, but I used at least 1/2 C Cornstarch. The 2 tsp Cornstarch does not seem like enough to make a difference in this recipe.
I have heard of making your own Cake Flour by using 2 TBS less per cup of all purpose flour and adding a few tsp cornstarch.
Would the humidity have effected the recipe? It was really hot (86 Degrees, high humidity), but I had the air cond. on and my house was “relatively” cool.
I’ll have to try this recipe again on a cooler day. Unfortunately, those days may be far and few until the fall. We do not have much of a Spring in Texas. It’s supposed to be in the 90’s this weekend!
It’s so hard to tell what happens in someone’s kitchen from emails and trying to take into account all the variables with climate, brands of ingredients, etc. and so many people writing and trying to keep everyone’s baking experiments and questions straight but yes humidity always effects baking and tends to make things denser since there’s more moisture in the air. And yes you can make your own cake flour in a pinch but it’s something I choose to buy if a recipe calls for it, just because that way I know for sure I am starting off on the right foot and don’t have to take into account that variable. I would say yes just remake on a less humid day and do your best :)
I love this. The decoration is so simple in process, but wow, huge overall finish with such a visual impact!
Hello! I have chosen these cookies for our cookie exchange (a Christmas sprinkle version). I’m making my grocery list and noticed that one batch only yields 15 cookies – is that accurate? I need to make 13 dozen total cookies!
Yes, this is not a “huge” batch of cookies. I bake for my very small family and if you need to bake in big(ger) quantity, then you’ll have to double, triple, etc the recipe as necessary!
Question for you. If I want to make these just like the store bought ones, can I leave the sprinkles out of the dough? I would like to frost them and just add sprinkles on top. I’m not a huge fan of sprinkles. If so, what frosting would you recommend?
If you want closer to storebought, make these https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/09/lofthouse-style-soft-peanut-butter-chip-sugar-cookies-with-peanut-butter-frosting.html
You can leave out the PB chips if you want but I highly rec making that recipe as written. They are incredible. Some of my fave cookies I’ve ever, ever made. You can always make just a regular buttercream frosting to go with (either that version or the sprinkles ones), minus any PB. Lmk what you do!
Hi Averie-
I made these over the weekend for a party and they were a huge hit, everyone loved them!! Thanks for the recipe and thanks for introducing me to cake flour, can’t wait to use it for other recipes!!! :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and so glad they were a big hit at the party! For the rest of your cake flour, make the PB Lofthouse Cookies that are linked in the post…SO GOOD. I mean, they are ridiculously good. One of my fave cookies of the year – probably THE favorite cookie of the year. Glad you’re a fan of cake flour now!
I will definitely make them!! Can’t wait! :)
Aw these cookies are adorable :) I love the colors and I bet they taste so sweet!