Best Sour Cream Cookies: Cakey & Tender Cookies With Buttercream (2024)

These sour cream cookies are cakey, incredibly tender, and coated in a smooth buttercream that adds the perfect amount of sweetness! With no chilling, rolling, or cutting, making these cookies is as easy as it gets! Add different colors to your frosting and some sprinkles to easily decorate them for any occasion!

Sour Cream Drop Cookies Recipe

Grandma's sour cream cookies are tender, soft, and wonderfully cakey. They have such a subtle sweetness that they really do need the vanilla buttercream to round them out perfectly!

With absolutely no extra steps required, you'll be able to bake these up in no time! Grab some food coloring and you can easily decorate and customize the buttercream to suit whatever occasion you may be celebrating!

🥘 Sour Cream Cookies Ingredients

In addition to some full-fat sour cream, you really only need common pantry staple ingredients to make these cookies! You may even be able to skip a trip to a grocery store!

Sour Cream Cookies

• Butter - ⅓ cup of butter that is softened at room temperature.
• Sugar - 1 cup of white granulated sugar.
• Egg - 1 large egg at room temperature.
• Vanilla - 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.
• Baking Powder - ½ teaspoon of baking powder.
• Baking Soda - ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.
• Salt - ½ teaspoon of salt.
• Sour Cream - ½ cup of sour cream. I recommend using full-fat sour cream for these cookies.
• Flour - 1¾ cups of all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled.

Vanilla Buttercream

• Butter - ½ cup of butter (1 stick) softened at room temperature.
• Confectioners Sugar - 2 cups of powdered sugar.
• Vanilla - 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Of course, you can swap this out for your favorite extract flavor if you like (such as almond or lemon!).
• Heavy Whipping Cream - 2-4 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, depending on your desired consistency.

*Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!*

🔪 How To Make Sour Cream Cookies

If you've ever baked cookies before, these sour cream cookies are just as easy. The buttercream is super simple, too! All you need is a baking sheet, your stand mixer, your measuring utensils, a silicone spatula, and a cookie scoop.

This recipe will make about 20 old-fashioned sour cream cookies.

Prepare The Cookies

1. Preheat. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C/Gas Mark 4) and line a couple of baking sheets with some parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (silpat mat).
2. Cream. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream⅓ cup (76 grams) of butteruntil smooth, and then add1 cup (200 grams) of sugar. Continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the bowl as needed.
3. Mix. Add1 large egg (50 grams),2 teaspoons (10 milliliters) of vanilla extract,½ teaspoon (2 grams) of baking powder,¼ teaspoon (1 gram) of baking soda, and½ teaspoon (3 grams) of salt,and continue to mix until creamy.
4. Combine. Add½ cup (115 grams) of sour creamand then mix until well combined. Then, slowly mix in1¾ cups (219 grams) of all-purpose flouruntil the flour is only just incorporated.
5. Portion. Scoop large tablespoon-sized portions onto your prepared baking sheets, leaving space in between them for spreading.
6. Bake. Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C/Gas Mark 4) for 8-11 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are a slightly golden brown color.
7. Cool. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes on the pan before placing them onto a wire rack to cool entirely before frosting them.

Make The Frosting

1. Beat the butter. Use either a hand mixer or your stand mixer to beat½ cup (114 grams) of butterfor about 5-6 minutes or until pale in color and fluffy.
2. Add. Add1 teaspoon (5 milliliters) of vanilla extractand a small amount of the2 cups (240 grams) of confectioners sugar.
3. Mix. Mix at medium speed while alternating, adding the remaining confectioners' sugar and small drizzles of2-4 tablespoons (30 milliliters) of heavy whipping cream(only using enough heavy cream to reach a firm but spreadable consistency).
4. Beat. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, beat the mixture on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.*You can add more heavy whipping cream to reach your desired consistency, starting with a very small amount.
5. Frost. Use a silicone spatula to spread your buttercream onto the cookies and serve.

🍴 What To Serve With Sour Cream Cookies

You can really customize the flavor of your sour cream cookies by mixing up what kind of frosting you use! Try them with some peanut butter buttercream, chocolate chip cookie dough buttercream, or lemon cream cheese frosting! Enjoy!

💭 Tips & Notes

• To make your cookies more even and uniform in shape, you can wet your fingers with water and pat the dough balls down slightly.
• Use gel food coloring to add some different colors to your buttercream frosting if desired.
• Check out all of mybuttercream recipesif you want to try out a flavor other than vanilla!
• Your cookies need to be completely cool before adding any frosting, or the buttercream could melt.

🥡 Storing

Keep your sour cream cookies stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Freezing Sour Cream Cookies

Freeze your cookies without any frosting for up to 3 months. Thaw to room temperature and then frost with fresh buttercream.

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📖 Recipe Card

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