Lofthouse Sugar Cookies

Lofthouse Sugar Cookies - made dough June 21, 2014 from Stella B's Kitchen

I've never heard of Lofthouse but from the prevalence of its recipe for sugar cookies on pinterest, I'm going to guess they have quite a devoted following as many people seem to want to duplicate their baked goods. Particularly their sugar cookies.

These are similar in appearance to the Knockoff Swig Sugar Cookies I've made earlier (I don't know what Swig is either or why people want to copy their sugar cookies). Their similarities are probably helped by the fact that they're both similar is size, color and pink frosting that I used.

But I will have to give the nod to Lofthouse over Swig because I liked these cookies more. They were sweeter but not too sweet, had more vanilla flavor, I liked the texture that was a perfect cross between chewy cookie and slightly dense cake. Plus the vanilla buttercream was much better than the sour cream frosting of the Swig knockoffs.

The dough for these was also easy to make and great to work with, not too soft or sticky but not hard or dry. Make the cookie dough balls into generous sizes, like the size of golf balls. Then flatten slightly into thick discs. They don't spread very much and will remain thick. Baking them as discs instead of as golf balls will ensure you have cookies of uniform thickness instead of mounded in the middle and spread thinner at the sides.

I tinted the frosting pink with a couple of drops of red food coloring (hey, I'm a girl) but you can omit the food coloring and use colored sprinkles instead to dress these up for any occasion. With 4th of July upon us, these lend themselves well to being patriotic cookies just with some red, white and blue sprinkles.

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened 
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 heaping tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
up to 1/4 cup milk (skim is fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla
food coloring of choice
desired sprinkles

1. Sift dry ingredients and set aside.  
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Then add sour cream and vanilla.  Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Chill dough thoroughly, at least an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  On a lined baking sheet, roll balls of 2-3 Tbsp and place 2 inches apart.  Wetting fingers slightly, press balls to about 1/2 inch thick, molding to keep nice round edges.  
4. Bake for 11-12 minutes until centers are no longer shiny.  Cool on pan for a few minutes.  Remove to cooling rack until completely cool before frosting.
5. For the frosting, beat butter and vanilla.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time.  Add a couple Tbsp of milk and beat again.  Continue to add milk until the desired spreading or piping consistency is reached.  Add food coloring.
6. Pipe or frost cookies and top with sprinkles.  Allow to set open to air for several hours before storing in sealed container.