Sugar Cookies Could Use Some Acid
Enough with tough, bland sugar cookies.
Sugar cookies are downright awful. Usually, texture is tough, and the flavor is overly-sweet, yet somehow bland. We all deserve a better sugar cookie. One worthy of cutting out into shapes and decorating like Easter eggs, menorahs or jack-o-lanterns. And so we made one. With a little bit of acidity and a key starchy ingredient, you can rely on our Iced Buttermilk Sugar Cookies to be flavorful and pretty.
How to make sugar cookies taste better
We wanted a boost in flavor, but didn’t want to muddy the waters with spices, extracts, or a butter-heavy ratio. Subtly tangy buttermilk turned out to be the answer. This acidic addition balances the sweetness and complements the vanilla. It's the perfect sugar cookie canvas for a layer of royal icing—which, by the way, often needs help too.
Royal icing is a simple mixture of powdered sugar and egg whites. The sugar dissolves in the egg whites and, once dry, hardens into something that won’t smudge. But the flavor of unadulterated sugar and egg whites is not so great. Some flavoring is needed. We use a 2:1 ratio of vanilla extract and lemon juice. The extract adds warmth and balance while the lemon juice brings a touch of acidity and brightness. The warm and tangy pair reflects the flavors in the cookie dough nicely.
Improving texture
We keep the dough malleable with two key ingredients: buttermilk and cornstarch. The buttermilk is mixed directly into the dough. It works double duty as a flavoring agent and a tenderizer. The acid in the buttermilk reduces gluten development in the dough, keeping the finished cookie tender.
We further increase tenderization by cutting the all-purpose flour with a tablespoon of cornstarch. Cornstarch reduces the gluten content of the mixture by physically diluting the flour. The starch functions as a dry ingredient by absorbing water, without contributing to the gluten content. Both buttermilk and cornstarch help to keep the crumb tender and make the dough easier to handle. Having a cookie dough that doesn’t become tough and rubbery from over-developed gluten means you can re-roll the scraps too. Your second-roll cookies will be just as tender as the first.
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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
