Sugar cookies are a delightful treat by themselves, but adding these ingredients to your next
batch will elevate your sugar cookie game to the next level. It seems like herbs and sugar cookies are an odd pairing, but trust us, it's worth experimenting with
There are several ways to go about adding a little bit of variety to your cookies. Most bakers tend to blend the flavor of these herbs with other ingredients like lemon, cranberry
or brown butter to help balance the sharpness and produce a unique flavor
Take lemon thyme sugar cookies. Making this type of cookie is a breeze since you're blending your favorite cookie recipe
with a bit of lemon zest, lemon extract, and fresh thyme. The combination produces a unique flavor without needing to go too far out of your comfort zone
Other great herbs to include are sage and rosemary. Both are muted enough not to overpower your cookies, which can sometimes make them too
bitter or potent to enjoy. If you don't need stark white sugar cookies for decorating, using brown butter might be
worth a try. Brown butter produces a slightly different flavor in sugar cookies that can be a way
Welcome change to this traditional treat. Adding browned butter to your sugar cookie dough is pretty easy
although it will require a few extra steps in the beginning to get the butter ready to use
To prepare brown butter, simply add the butter you'd normally use in sugar cookies to a warm
skillet and gently whisk over medium heat. As the butter cooks, you'll notice foam and a
pleasing aroma starting to form along with a beautiful brown hue. At this point, you can
remove the brown butter from the stovetop to cool it before using it. From there
you'll simply follow the rest of your brown butter sugar cookie recipe, which will often involve
chilling the dough to help your cookies keep their shape. Once baked, brown butter sugar
cookies will render a toasty sweet flavor you'll likely fall in love with. It isn't traditional
but it sure is delicious. It's a good-ass sugar cookie. You can add cream cheese to your sugar cookie recipe in several scrumptious ways. The rich and
decadent taste of cream cheese pairs beautifully with the light sweetness of sugar cookies
It makes for an exciting upgrade worthy of trying the next time you're in the mood for baking
To use cream cheese and sugar cookies, you have several options. The first is to incorporate it into the sugar cookie dough
We don't often see recipes utilizing cream cheese this way, but when we do, they usually get stellar reviews
Another way is to add cream cheese to your iced topping, or, though messy, you could make a cream cheese filling
It'll give your sugar cookies a different yet very delicious spin on the traditional fare
Note that each of these methods will require different steps, and it isn't advised that
you use cream cheese in whatever sugar cookie recipe you've always used
Instead try to find a recipe that already incorporates cream cheese in the cookie the way you want to so that your dry ingredient ratio and fat ratio aren thrown off Be careful when adding this ingredient to your sugar cookies because it may or may not render
the results you want. Like with so many other cookie types, people differ in terms of what is
expected to make up a truly delicious sugar cookie. Some cookie connoisseurs may find themselves
feuding over which type, taste, and texture of sugar cookie is actually best. When it comes to
adding sour cream to sugar cookie dough, know that the results will produce something other
than what is considered traditional. You'll end up with a cakey and puffy cookie that may be more
akin to a cookie biscuit than a classic sugar cookie. Additionally, you may find that adding
sour cream to cookie dough makes the cookies less sweet, meaning that adding frosting as an extra
layer of sweetness is typically ideal. If you're a person who loves thicker and denser cookies that
aren't as sweet, then you'll probably enjoy sour cream sugar cookies. We've seen bakers who hate
sugar cookies love the sour cream variety because of the difference in taste and texture they create
Still, if you're a sugar cookie traditionalist, this variation may or may not be for you
You'd be surprised at how well citrus works in sugar cookies, but it does make sense. The light
and fluffy nature of sugar cookies lends itself perfectly to bright and tangy citrus flavors that
lift the taste of traditional cookies without being overly potent. Though you could technically
use any citrus flavor to essence your sugar cookies, we often find that orange and lemon
work best. To fully integrate these flavors into your cookies, add a bit of juice and the zest from
your favorite citrus. Some recipes also call for rolling sugar cookie dough in lemon sugar before
baking to further enhance all those wonderfully bright citrusy tastes. You can also infuse the
flavors of your citrus into your icing for an exciting final finishing touch
The sugar cookies you speak of, are they real or symbolic? White chocolate is often something we associate with the holiday season, and indeed, it's great for infusing into winter treats
The thing is, white chocolate also works as an amazing upgrade for plain sugar cookies
Adding the confection gives the cookies a more decadent flavor that's different from traditional sugar cookies
Adding white chocolate to sugar cookies can be as easy as throwing in a handful of white chocolate chips or even incorporating thin shavings of white chocolate into the sugar cookie dough itself
Moreover, you could use white chocolate frosting for your cookies to give them a rich taste and an elegant iced touch
Either way you use it, white chocolate isn't a fussy ingredient that requires you to alter your traditional sugar cookie dough recipe
Just toss it in and cook as usual for an elevated flavor. Also, try throwing in a handful of dried cranberries with your white chocolate once
You might just end up with an amazing sweet and sour duo your taste buds will crave Ask any cookie lover and they will tell you definitively that sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies taste nothing alike This is mostly due to certain ingredients
such as brown sugar and chocolate chip cookies, that produce a flavor much richer
than standard sugar cookies. Thus, adding chocolate chips to your sugar cookies
will yield a taste that is distinctly unique from what's considered traditional
While we will say that it's perfectly fine to toss chocolate chips into plain old sugar cookie dough
and bake away, we realized that adding chocolate chips to a regular recipe might be sugar overload
And while we want cookies to be sweet, cloyingly sweet isn't quite what we're going for
For the recipes we've found using chocolate chips in sugar cookie dough, the amount of sugar used per cup of flour was less than what's in traditional sugar cookies
So when it comes to the sugar in your original recipe, you may need to scale back when adding chocolate chips to the mix
All in all, this is certainly an eclectic addition to sugar cookies, but we think it's different enough from chocolate chip cookies to make it worth a mention
This upgrade definitely has a Christmassy vibe to it, but peppermint is such a great addition
to sugar cookies, we think you can savor it any time of the year. Adding peppermint to sugar
cookies is easy, but like so many other ideas on this list, you'll want to be careful about
how you include it. When using peppermint extract, you should be careful not to add too much
If you're not careful, you could render your sugar cookies too potent and make them unenjoyable to
eat. Even so, you should be fine adding a smidge of it to your standard sugar cookie recipe for a
peppermint flavor that isn't overly robust. If, on the other hand, you plan to use ingredients
like crushed peppermint candy to your cookies, you'll want to follow a recipe that already
includes peppermint. The sugar in the candy may make your traditional cookie dough recipe too sweet
Some of the peppermint sugar cookie recipes we've found out there sound incredibly enticing
blending together the likes of crushed candy canes with cream cheese frosting
and even a dash of peppermint for an oh-so-exciting first bite. Adding cranberries to your sugar cookies is an upgrade that might sound a little odd at first
but it truly is an addition too good to pass up. Because cranberries are tart, they often meld well
with sugary-rich and mellow flavors to help balance everything out. White chocolate works
well for this purpose, as does cream cheese, so throwing in a handful of cranberries to sugar
cookie recipes that call for either of these ingredients is a smart move. The other great
thing about adding cranberries to sugar cookies is that it gives them a slightly festive appeal
without much effort. You don't have to worry about whether or not your cranberries are in
or out of season if you used them dried. And their deep red hue can work to give your sugar cookies
a cheerful vibe that makes them perfect for serving during the holidays. Cream of tartar may or may not be something you already have stocked in your kitchen pantry but in case you unfamiliar with it it time to be introduced Cream of tartar is used for a myriad of purposes When it comes to baking sugar cookies though this is the ultimate ingredient for achieving
the right texture, taste, and color. One of the ways cream of tartar benefits sugar cookies is by preventing them from browning
too much in the oven. This can be helpful, as the white color of sugar cookies is what often lends them so
perfectly for decorating. Look how beautiful and unburnt my cookies turned out
Besides affecting color, cream of tartar also improves the texture of the cookies as the
compound keeps sugar from crystallizing, thus staving away a hard or crispy cookie and keeping
it soft. Last but not least, cream of tartar boosts the flavor of sugar cookies
It brings about a tangy element that can complement the sweetness of the cookies quite well, especially
if you've chosen to essence them with warming spices like cinnamon. All in all, cream of tartar is a great ingredient to keep in your sugar cookie repertoire
Don't be surprised if you come across several sugar cookie recipes that already include it
Putting pumpkin in sugar cookies sounds like a fabulous idea. The delicate, sweet, and vanilla backdrop of sugar cookies certainly does seem to lend
itself to unique, distinct autumnal flavors, with pumpkin becoming a no-brainer when you
think about it. There are plenty of recipes out there that add pumpkin to the ingredient list of sugar cookies
They're chock full of deliciousness from cinnamon, vanilla extract, butter, sugar, and of course
the star of the show, pureed pumpkin. What makes this upgrade even better is that you don't necessarily have to go through the hassle
of baking up a fresh pumpkin. You can simply grab a can of pureed pumpkin off the store shelf and have it on hand whenever you
need it. This is likely going to be a treat most fitting for fall, but that shouldn't stop you from making
these whenever you want. Plus, they're ridiculously easy to whip up, assuming you get your hands on the right recipe
Just be sure not to add pumpkin puree to a previously existing sugar cookie dough
The pumpkin may change the flavor and texture and not turn out quite as you had hoped
Almonds may not sound like a very appealing upgrade to sugar cookies, but believe us, adding almond extract to your cookies
along with a few thinly sliced almonds for topping, is a wonderfully easy way to change the traditional flavor of sugar cookies without overdoing it
According to several recipes, simply add the almond extract in much the same way you'd add vanilla extract
to a cookie recipe. Almond extract can be added to both the sugar cookie dough
and the sugar cookie frosting, though it's important to watch your measurements and recipes closely in order not to use too much
What you'll be left with is the distinctly sweet flavor of almond that's different enough to be noticeable
but not quite so different that it throws people off