lazy sugar cookies

Between a wicked bout of bronchitis, applying to grad schools, and waiting for responses, it’s been a wild couple of months. As exciting as it is to get into your dream school, the prospect of moving halfway across the world is a stressful one, and when I’m stressed, I bake.

I like a frosted sugar cookie as much as the next person, but they’re a lot of work. Rolling and cutting out dough, making frosting, decorating the cookies, wondering how they all turned out so sloppy when you felt like Bob Ross with a frosting bag. I am way too lazy to go through that every time, so I came up with these. No frosting, no dough-rolling, minimal cleanup, none of that chill-for-a-million-years or mix-the-ingredients-in-separate-bowls nonsense going on.

Lazy sugar cookies are soft, chewy, and super simple.

A few notes:

• Cream cheese keeps the cookies super soft and adds a little bit of flavor.
• When they come out of the oven, you can sprinkle things on top to make them more interesting. Sprinkles, sea salt, powdered sugar, cardamom sugar, etc. I prefer them plain!
• Make a double batch and freeze half the dough balls so you can have one any time. You don’t even have to thaw them—just bake for one additional minute.
• These barely last two days in my house, but I imagine they’d keep pretty well for at least a week as long as you keep them tightly covered.

Try these the next time you want to stress-bake cookies and you’re out of chocolate chips. You won’t even miss the frosting, I promise.

directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter, cream cheese, sugar, and extracts until well combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape anything off the sides, then add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
2. Add in half the flour, the baking soda, and the salt. Mix by hand, then add the remaining flour. You will think there is too much flour. There isn’t. Keep mixing. The dough may be a bit stickier than typical cookie dough, but don’t be alarmed.
3. Cover and chill the dough for at least one hour, but try not to go over 24 hours.
4. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Scoop dough into generous tablespoons, roll them with your palms to get spheres, then place on an ungreased baking sheet. Leave some space between them. I only put about 6 on a sheet because these get pretty big. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until desired doneness. *
5. Once you remove them from the oven, add any extra thing you’d like (sprinkles, sea salt, etc), cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then finish cooling on wire racks.

*I used a light metal baking sheet. If yours is dark metal, cook them on parchment paper for 8-10 minutes.