What makes Lofthouse cookies taste different from regular sugar cookies?

The main difference is texture, not flavor. Most sugar cookies are crunchy, chewy, or crisp. Lofthouse cookies are cakey — soft, thick, and pillowy, closer to a flat cupcake than a standard cutout. That texture comes from full-fat sour cream in the dough, which adds fat and moisture, and from deliberately underbaking: stopping the bake at 10–12 minutes (when the centers still look barely set) keeps the interior tender instead of drying it out. The cornstarch in the flour also makes the crumb more delicate. The frosting is a straightforward American buttercream — butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a splash of cream — tinted with food coloring and finished with sprinkles. Nothing exotic, but the combination works.

Can I use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream?

Yes. Full-fat plain Greek yogurt is the best substitute — it has a similar fat content and acidity, and the cookies turn out nearly identical. The dough may be slightly stickier than with sour cream, so chill it the full hour before rolling. Low-fat or non-fat Greek yogurt works in a pinch but produces a slightly less tender cookie — the fat in the sour cream or full-fat yogurt is part of what makes these soft and rich. Avoid regular (non-Greek) yogurt; it's too watery and will make the dough slack.

Why do I need to chill the dough?

The sour cream and butter make this dough soft and sticky at room temperature — skip the chill and it will stick to the counter, absorb too much extra flour during rolling, and spread more in the oven. One hour in the refrigerator firms the butter and hydrates the flour evenly, making the dough workable without extra flour (which toughens cookies). If you're in a hurry, 30 minutes in the freezer is a workable shortcut, but 1 hour in the fridge gives a cleaner result. You can also refrigerate the dough overnight and bake the next day.

How do I get the frosting the right consistency?

Beat softened butter until creamy before adding any powdered sugar — this prevents a gritty texture. Add sifted powdered sugar in two additions (adding it all at once seizes the butter). The right spreading consistency is thick enough to hold a peak when you lift a spatula but soft enough to spread without tearing the cookie surface. Start with 3 tablespoons of heavy cream; add more a teaspoon at a time if the frosting feels too stiff. If it's too soft, add a tablespoon more sifted powdered sugar. Gel food coloring produces a more vibrant, even tint than liquid coloring; a pea-size amount gives a pastel shade. Add nonpareils (the tiny round sprinkles) rather than jimmies for the classic Lofthouse look.

How long do Lofthouse-style cookies keep?

Frosted cookies keep at room temperature, covered, for 3–4 days — they actually get slightly softer after day one as the frosting and cookie equilibrate moisture. Refrigerate for up to a week. To freeze: place frosted cookies on a baking sheet and freeze until the frosting is solid (about 1 hour), then stack with parchment paper between layers in an airtight bag or container and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Unfrosted cookie bases freeze well too — up to 3 months — so you can bake and frost a batch at a time.

Can I make different colors of frosting from one batch?

Yes. Divide the finished white frosting into separate bowls before adding color. Use gel food coloring and add a tiny amount at a time — a toothpick dipped in gel coloring and swirled through the frosting gives good control over saturation. Pastel pink, blue, green, and purple all work well; for a more saturated color, add coloring gradually and mix thoroughly before adding more. For Christmas cookies, red and green frosting with white sprinkles or white frosting with red and green sprinkles both work. For Halloween, orange and black with seasonal sprinkles.

What is the cost difference between homemade and store-bought Lofthouse cookies?

A 10-count package of Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies retails for about $3.97–6.49 depending on the store, working out to roughly $0.40–0.65 per cookie. This recipe makes 24 large cookies for about $5–7 in ingredients — approximately $0.22–0.29 per cookie, or about 50–60% cheaper than the store version. The homemade version also uses butter instead of vegetable oil and real vanilla extract, giving it a noticeably richer flavor.

Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies

Name: Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies
Prep time: PT20M(plus 1Hchill)
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 24 cookies
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: For the cookie dough:; 1/2 cup (1 stick / 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature; 1 cup (200g) granulated white sugar; 2 large eggs, room temperature; 1/2 cup full-fat sour cream, room temperature (see FAQ for Greek yogurt substitute); 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling; 2 tablespoons cornstarch; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1/2 teaspoon fine salt; For the buttercream frosting:; 1/2 cup (1 stick / 113g) unsalted butter, softened; 3 cups (360g) powdered sugar, sifted; 3–4 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; Pinch of fine salt; Gel food coloring (pink, or color of your choice); Nonpareils or sprinkles, for topping

Prep time: 20 minutes (plus 1 hour chill) Cook time: 10 minutes Servings: 24 cookies

David Stone started Lofthouse Foods in 1994 with $2,000 and a borrowed kitchen in Ogden, Utah. He named the company after his mother’s maiden name. By 2001 the company was doing $70 million a year, which is a remarkable number for a single type of cookie sold almost exclusively through grocery store bakery cases. Ralcorp acquired Lofthouse in 2002; ConAgra absorbed it in 2013 as part of the Ralcorp deal. The cookies now sell in nearly every major US grocery chain.

The distinctive feature isn’t the flavor — it’s the texture. Lofthouse cookies are cakey. They collapse into themselves when you bite them rather than snapping or pulling, which is exactly what makes them nostalgic.

Why Sour Cream Changes Everything

Most sugar cookie recipes use butter and egg as their only fat and moisture. Lofthouse-style cookies add sour cream — full-fat, not reduced-fat — and that changes the structure of the dough entirely.

Sour cream is an emulsion: fat suspended in liquid, acidified by lactic bacteria. The fat adds richness; the moisture makes the dough soft; the acid reacts with baking soda to produce CO2 that lifts the crumb as the cookie bakes. The result is a cookie that bakes up soft and slightly domed rather than flat and crispy. Think of it as a cookie with the engineering of a muffin.

The cornstarch in this recipe does something different: it dilutes the flour’s gluten network. Less gluten = a more fragile, tender crumb — the same reason many shortbread recipes use cornstarch or powdered sugar.

The Bake Timing Is Everything

Sugar cookies lie. They look underdone in the oven and overdone once you take them out — because carry-over heat from the hot baking sheet keeps cooking them for several minutes after the oven door opens.

Pull these at 10–11 minutes, when the edges look set but the tops still look slightly glossy in the center. The bottoms should be pale beige, not golden. If the whole surface looks uniformly dry, you’ve gone 2 minutes too long. The cookie will be edible, but it’ll be a standard sugar cookie, not a Lofthouse.

Let them cool for 5 full minutes on the pan before moving them. They’re structurally fragile when hot.

The Frosting

American buttercream is butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cream. It’s the simplest, sweetest frosting there is, and it’s the right one here — not Swiss meringue, not Italian meringue, not cream cheese. American buttercream sets at room temperature into a slightly firm shell (which is what gives Lofthouse cookies their characteristic snap when you break one in half through the frosting).

Use gel food coloring, not liquid. A pea-size amount of gel gives a soft pastel; add more for a more saturated shade. The classic Lofthouse color is a baby pink, which takes almost no colorant at all — start with a quarter pea-size and mix thoroughly before deciding you need more.

Nonpareils (the tiny round balls) over jimmies (the rod-shaped sprinkles) because they’re what you see on the grocery-store version. Both work.

If you like this cakey-soft style, the copycat Crumbl Pink Sugar Cookie is the same genre taken in a denser, almond-scented direction, and the copycat Crumbl cornbread cookie uses the same thick-and-tender approach with a different flavor base.

Cost Comparison

	Lofthouse (store)	Homemade
Per cookie	$0.40–0.65	~$0.25
10-count pack equivalent	$4.00–6.50	~$2.50
24-count batch	not sold	~$6.00

The homemade version uses real butter (the store version uses partially hydrogenated vegetable oil) and pure vanilla extract. The flavor difference is modest but real.

Storage and Make-Ahead

Dough: Make up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling if it’s very firm.

Unfrosted cookies: Bake and cool, then store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days, or freeze up to 2 months.

Frosted cookies: Store covered at room temperature for 3–4 days. The cookies actually get slightly softer by day 2 as moisture redistributes between the frosting and the cookie. Freeze frosted cookies by placing on a baking sheet until the frosting is solid, then stacking with parchment in a sealed bag.

Lofthouse is a trademark of its owner, used here only to describe the dish this recipe recreates. This is an independent copycat written in our own words — Copycat Spices is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Lofthouse.

Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies

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