Hey, what if you don't have buttermilk?

Hi Jonathan,

You can use 1/2 sour cream and 1/2 milk, or use 1/2 milk and 1/2 yogurt, or 1 cup milk and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. If you want to keep buttermilk on hand even if you don't use it often, buy the powdered buttermilk in a can near the dry milk in your supermarket.

-- CM

You can also use 1 cup milk and teaspoon of vinegar to make buttermilk. A trick my grandma taught me a long time ago.

In response to the buttermilk thing you can actually substitute it with 1 cup of milk and 1 tbsp. of vinegar actually, trust me, no lie, restaurant quality guarantee. Happy baking.

Hi Jonathan! For a simple buttermilk trick I've used as a Chef for 35 years, you can add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Super quick and easy with a true buttermilk flavor. This will work nicely with any recipe calling for buttermilk. Note: If any leftovers, do not save remaining buttermilk.

It was the best! I cut them out with my kids and we made colored frosting to put on them. :D

This is the B-E-S-T sugar cookie recipe. I love that you don't have to chill the dough or roll it out if you don't want to. Thanks CM! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

I've been looking for a recipe that comes out like the sugar cookies sold in the grocery store for excessively high prices (the round soft, almost cake-like ones with buttercream frosting). Does this cookie have a similar consistency? If so, thank you!

These were great! I frosted them with cream cheese frosting and they were wonderful!

I don't have vanilla right now but I need to make these for a party what can I use instead or will it not be the same?

You can use almond extract, will taste the same.

Try lemon extract. I've added it to many cookie and cake recipes.

Exactly what is almond extract?

Natalie... Almond extract comes the same way vanilla extract comes and its in the same bottle. Just a little fyi.

This recipe was great! My alters though

Instead of baking soda I used baking powder (I was out of soda lol) secondly, I replaced almond extract with more vanilla extract adding up to 2 1/5 tsp. (I was out of almond extract too) But they still turned out great! Ive made many things over the past few months (oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies, etc) and I must say this was the best. I like how they were so fluffy, and in the end, I finished them with sprinkles. My family and Myself love this, I plan to make this for our annual Christmas party this year. Thank you.

Wow, awesome recipe! My cousins and I loved it!

Can I use self rise flour instead of all purpose, I ran out of all purpose.

Hi Lukas,

You can't use self-rising flour one-to-one for all purpose flour, but you can omit baking powder/soda and some of the salt if using self-rising instead, but your results may vary.

-- CM

Loved the recipe easy and very delicious! Love how you dont have to chill it and can still use cookie cutters me and the kids enjoyed them!

Best cookies. I brought them to a party and did not tell anyone I made them and listened to everyones comments! all I heard was great cookies, the cookies are excellent and such! Great!

Loved this recipe. I used Anise extract (you gotta love licorice) in my batch and they were gone in a flash!

I just finished making these cookie and going back over your recipe to see if I done something wrong, NO I didn't so what went wrong? They are ever dry and not much taste. I baked them 10 mins

Hi Phil,

Cookies can vary in how they turn out due to a number of factors. Your flour may be older or newer, or it can be stored under conditions of variable humidity, meaning that your flour may absorb more liquid than the flour that was used in the recipe.

It's important to be able to judge when your cookie dough might need a little more liquid added to correct the consistency before baking. You can add a little milk or other liquid. When the dough is too soft, you might want to add a small amount of flour to correct the consistency for the type of cookie you're making (drop, rolled, etc.). Never over-mix the cookie dough to avoid tough dry cookies.

Another thing to check is that your measuring cups are correct, that you measure then level off dry ingredients, and that you use liquid measuring cups for measuring liquid ingredients.

Check your oven temperature using an oven thermometer. Sometimes an oven can be off by 25 degrees (or more). And make sure that you don't over-bake. Larger ovens have a tendency to get hotter the longer they are on, so sometimes the second batch will cook faster. And be sure to preheat before you start baking.

It's OK to adjust a recipe so that you have the correct type of cookie dough for your flour and your conditions. Try to add as little flour as possible for the best results.

Sometimes if you refrigerate the dough overnight the consistency will improve as the flour hydrates completely.

As far as flavor goes, it's possible the vanilla or almond you used wasn't fresh and had mellowed out in storage. I usually taste the dough (I know I shouldn't) to see if it needs a little flavor boost.

Hope this helps!

-- CM

I loved these cookies! I didn't have almond extract so I used brandy extract! I know weird but wow they were awesome! Yummy yummy and soft and perfect!