Update: This Sugar Cookie Recipe was BEST SUGAR COOKIE from the LATimes!
Some days just call for obnoxiously big cookies covered in pink frosting and sprinkles. Plus it’s easier to stick to a resolution of eating just one! 😉 We are huge fans of cookies around here and love sharing a variety of recipes. If you want more Cookie Recipes, click here!
Giant Sugar Cookies
I have been fighting the impending-winter-blues. It’s almost a brain sabotage if you will. The summer has been so lovely with so many blessings and so many adventures and I just can’t seem to enjoy the beauty in the moment, I have to go and dwell on winter coming. Darn my silly tendencies and inability to just relish the moment!
Anyway, in a somewhat pathetic attempt to live in the moment and make amazing memories with my babies, I made these cookies. Well, we made these cookies. They (my sweet kiddos) are quite good at the art of sugar cookie dough, and even better at licking the spoon.
That is the true reward, right?
Tips for Making Giant Sugar Cookies
If you don’t happen to have a 4 or 5-inch cookie cutter, you can use a small side-plate or a small bowl as a template.
Keep an eye on them in the oven. I prefer sugar cookies to not have burnt edges, so often remove them before that happens. (But make sure the cookies are done!)
I used my favorite (and seriously amazing) sugar cookie recipe and then a new recent love, this Cherry Frosting.
The combination is, it’s… well.
I need a moment.
Done.
It’s amazing. I love it. I want to eat all of it all the time ever.
And then head back to school for grammar lessons because, well, obvious.
When I was a teenager I went to visit my aunt in Idaho and there was a bakery in the mall there that sold a cookie like this. It was a sugar cookie with pink frosting. I cannot remember the exact flavors, other than it was sweet and wonderful and brilliant. I was trying to recreate that feeling and look, and just happened to recall that lovely pink cherry buttercream , so went with it.
I honestly had no intention of covering these in sprinkles, but it just seemed right.
Can sprinkles ever be wrong?
Giant Sugar Cookies with Pink Buttercream
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 1/2 c butter or 3 sticks I use unsalted
- 2 c granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tsp. almond extract
- 4 c all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
Cherry Buttercream
- 3 c powdered sugar confectioners sugar
- 1/2 c 1 stick butter
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 1/4 c maraschino cherry juice
Instructions
Cookies
- In a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until well combined, about 2 minutes.
- Add in 3 eggs, the extracts and mix until just combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Slowly (about a cup at a time) add flour to butter mixture and combine. (You can use a mixer or not, just depends on how strong you are.)
- I usually just mix ingredients until they are combined, if you over-mix this dough it will get tough.
- Put dough in some Saran wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. (If your dough is sticky, add more flour, up to 1 cup.) When you are ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. (325 for convection)
- Roll dough out, use a 4-inch round cookies cutter to cut out cookies, and bake for 6-8 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet. The cookies are better when slightly under-done, not golden around the edges.
Cherry Buttercream
- In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
- Add almond flavoring and cherry juice continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more juice if needed for spreading consistency.
- Top with Rainbow Sprinkles.
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
I really love your recipes. You are an amazing Baker. Was wondering if you have a white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie recipe.
My Mom would make Carmel dumplings in cast iron skillet when I was little and never got the recipe from her. She is in heaven now.
The website amish365 has a recipe for “classic brown sugar dumplings”. This might be what you’re looking for.
This is also good with sweetened whipped cream sandwiched in the middle, then rolled in sprinkles.
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I also had these cookies in Idaho. Thank you eternally for this memory.
We love these cookies and get rave reviews every time we make them for valentines! The combination of such a soft cookie and the almond and cherry flavor always leave people asking, “What do you put in these cookies?! I need the recipe!” Then I always refer them to your site. Thank you for not only delivering a soft flavorful cookie but a flavorful frosting too! Nothing is worse than getting excited over a sugar cookie, only to find it has absolutely no flavor!
Thank you Mellissa! So happy you like them!
Can I use vanilla extract instead…I dislike the taste of almond extract
Hello. Thank you for the recipe. Question: I’m not a fan of Cherry. Is there a different juice out there that could have a strawberry flavor. If not what liquid can I use for just the almond flavor or another sweet flavor 🙏 thank you
There is strawberry, lemon, orange, even coffee extracts! You can use any extract you prefer, just use less. 🙂
Can you freeze this dough?