Julie Clark
Updated:
Brown Sugar Butter Cookies (Soft, Tender, No White Sugar)
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Brown sugar butter cookies are soft, tender butter cookies made by creaming room temperature butter with light brown sugar instead of white. The brown sugar keeps them soft and adds a warm caramel-toffee flavor. It’s more like a soft shortbread in texture and made from pantry staple ingredients.
If you have butter and brown sugar on hand, this is the cookie to make. Creaming the butter, chilling the dough and pulling the cookies before they brown keep them tender in the instead of crisp and crumbly.
Brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses, which adds moisture and deeper flavor. Try our brown sugar blueberry muffins, too!
Can you use brown sugar instead of white sugar in cookies?
Yes. You can swap brown sugar for white in most cookies, especially in this recipe. Brown sugar carries more moisture than white, so it makes cookies softer, more tender, and a little denser. For that reason it won’t work in recipes that are meant to be light and airy, but it’s great for butter cookies.
Tips for Making This Brown Sugar Cookie Recipe:
Here are 6 key tips you can do to make sure this brown sugar butter cookies recipe is successful:
- Use light brown sugar. Although we’ve tested this with dark brown sugar, we find it works best with light brown. The cookies are soft, tender and dense. Like shortbread!
- Use a mixer. This makes sure the ingredients get combined really well.
- Cream the butter and sugar really well. You don’t want any pockets of butter because they’ll melt during cooking and cause your cookies to spread unevenly. Cream the butter, then cream the butter and sugars again. And even again for good measure.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl. Hard pieces of butter can stick to the sides of the bowl. Scraping the sides of the bowl several times during mixing prevents this from happening.
- Roll into balls, press, then refrigerate. Refrigerating the dough prevents unwanted cookie spread. All it needs is at least 30 minutes. Remember to make fork tine marks in the cookie while the dough is soft. When it comes out of the fridge the dough will be hard.
- Don’t overbake! We do not let the cookies get brown so that they stay soft. They will look set, but should be still really soft.
What shape is best for butter cookies?
I like to avoid rolling and cutting cookies as much as I can, but for these cookies, rolling worked better than dropping.
I tried the criss-cross of fork tines, but that looked so much like traditional peanut butter cookies I had to change it. You don’t want to confuse people! I went with a single press of the fork, but these could also be pressed down with the bottom of a cup, or even your fingers.
Helpful Resources:
- Our best Cookie Making Tools that every baker should have.
- Tips on how to freeze cookies.
- Do your cookies turn out flat? Find out why here.
Brown Sugar Butter Cookies
Soft, tender butter cookies made with brown sugar and no white sugar in the dough. Easy to make with simple pantry ingredients.
Servings 24 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Chill Time 30 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar (5 ounces)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or almond extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar for rolling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
- Cream together the butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. You can also use a handheld electric mixer. 1 cup unsalted butter, ¾ cup light brown sugar
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again. Add in the egg and vanilla extract, mix until well combined. 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir just until combined. 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- Scoop out dough using a cookie scoop, approximately 1 ½ tablespoons- and roll into balls. Roll the balls in the granulated sugar. (You can skip the rolling in sugar if you'd like.) ½ cup white granulated sugar for rolling
- Place onto the prepared cookie sheet. Press down with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle with a little extra sugar if you didn't roll them in sugar. Refrigerate dough balls for 30-60 minutes.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the centers are set. We do not let the cookies get golden brown so that they stay soft. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking pan for 3-4 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Video
Notes
Store in an airtight container at room temperature
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 24 cookies, with 1 serving being 1 cookie. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**
Nutrition
Calories: 156kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 54mg | Potassium: 35mg | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 250IU | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 0.6mg
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you use light or dark brown sugar?
Use light brown sugar. We have tested both, and light brown gives the softest, most tender cookie with a clean caramel flavor. Dark brown sugar works too, but the extra molasses makes them richer and a little heavier.
Can you use melted butter instead of creaming it?
We do not recommend it here. Melted butter makes a thinner, chewier cookie. Creaming room temperature butter with the brown sugar is what gives these their soft, tender, shortbread-like texture.
I love these! Making them for a second time. Was wondering if changing the shape would change cooking time? Was thinking to use a cookie cutter to make them festive. I wouldn’t want to mess the texture up though. They are so good!
Can I use shortening in place of the butter?
Made these but put orange zest and juice in there as I had no vanilla extract! Yummmm best cookies! I really wanna dip them in whit chocolate tho! Yummm
I made these. It was delicious. I put raisins as my mom suggested to add it.
I made these today. As a beginner, it’s not perfect but it tastes good. I even put raisins as my mom suggested to add raisins.
In your nutrition label, is 1 serving, 1 cookie? Need to keep track of things. I’m making them regardless!!
Has anyone tried to freeze these after they were baked and cooled? It’s just my husband and I and 24 of those babies would mean some serious trouble!
I just made these!! Im 15 and still made them. My siblings love them so much that they were gone within 2 minutes of me taking a dozen from the oven!! AMAZINGGGG
Omg, just finished baking these cookies. They just melt in your mouth. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks.
My cookies came out well…just a tad bit too crumbly…maybe I did not freeze the dough long enough…overall good recipe..
Just made these, and I my goodness. My hubby, who is butter cookie crazy loved them. Thanks for the recipe.
Just made these….. oh my goodness, they are divine! I actually doubled the salt to balance the sweetness from being rolled in sugar, and they are eyes roll back in your head good!
What if I don’t have a mixer?
Will it work if I use margarine instead of unsalted butter? I don’t have any butter but it’s so slick outside right now that I can’t go get any!
i just made these… omg. so good. i didnt have vanilla so i can only imagine how good they will be next time!