Valentine’s Day Sour Cream Sugar Cookie Recipe

Today I’m sharing my Valentine’s Day Sour Cream Sugar Cookie Recipe. This sour cream sugar cookie recipe is at least 50 years old.

It’s one of those recipes that everyone passed around at church parties. I know my mom made some sugar cookies, but I can’t find her recipe.

My daughter, Allison, has a cream cheese sugar cookie recipe that I’m going to share with you today as well. Her recipe calls for almond extract, mine uses vanilla.

Kitchen Items You Need:

• Mixing Bowl
• Hand Mixer, Stand Mixer, or Electric Mixer
• Cookie Sheets
• Cooling rack – wire rack
• Parchment Paper or Silpat Mat
• Cookie Spatula
• Measuring Cup(s)
• Measuring Spoons

Ingredients – Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Dry Ingredients

• All-Purpose White flour (I use bread flour): You can use all-purpose flour, but I find the sour cream sugar cookies come out fluffier with white bread flour. And, my bread flour has more protein than other flour varieties, which I appreciate when making any of my pastries or bread recipes. With this flour mixture, the cookies come out with a delicious cake-like texture which I love.
• White Granulated Sugar: Used to maintain moisture, creating a softer cookie, and adding sweetness and flavor.
• Salt: Used to enhance the flavors of the other ingredients, and to help offset the flavor of the sugar.
• Baking Soda: Adds carbon dioxide to the dough, which helps to create a delicious soft and chewy cookie.

Wet Ingredients

• Salted or Unsalted Butter (softened): Due to the fat content, butter helps to produce softer cookies and enriches the flavor; it helps to keep the cookies from crumbling. Butter prevents the eggs, or any moist ingredient, from evaporating, which creates moist, soft, and velvety cookies. Due to the added salt in this recipe, you don’t need to use butter that contains added salt.
• Sour Cream: Used to add more flavor to the sour cream sugar cookies. It has a 20% fat content. The cream is mixed with a lactic acid that creates that sour taste we all love and helps to thicken the cream.
• Vanilla Extract: Adds and enhances the flavors of sour cream, sugar, egg, flour, and butter.
• Eggs: Great protein source, helps bind the cookie dough together, creating moist and soft sour cream sugar cookies. Increases browning during the cooking process. Adds a deliciously rich flavor and helps to extend the life of the cookies. I like using the large egg size when making this recipe.

How to Roll Out and Cut Sour Cream Sugar Cookie Dough

I usually frost mine with my cream cheese frosting, but today I used my daughter’s frosting made with egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar. Easy peasy recipe. Some people also enjoy using a buttercream frosting mixture.

This sour cream cookie recipe makes a sticky dough. Here’s the deal, the recipe states to put the sticky dough in the fridge. Chilling the dough mixture for about 30 minutes before you roll it out on the working surface will keep the dough from being too sticky while rolling it out and it also helps to create a fluffier cookie.

I didn’t do that because my time was limited and I thought, “Well if they won’t roll out as expected, I’ll put the dough in the frig and wait.”

So, I spread some flour out and rolled them, and picked them up very carefully with a thin frosting spatula. Continuously sprinkling flour on the rolling pin.

I used parchment paper on the baking sheet to bake them and for taking pictures. I bought a rolling pin that lets us roll out the dough evenly in increments of thickness that you want your cookies to be.

Thick cookies are the best because then they are chewy and soft. I used the purple ring which is 3/8-inch thick. You can use the rolling pin with or without the disks on the end. Adjustable Rolling Pin

I used a thin 1-1/2 inch cake spatula to “lift” the cookies onto the parchment paper. Oh, I hope you like this sour cream sugar cookie recipe! I used 4-inch heart-shaped cookie cutters.

Scalloped Heart Cookie Cutters

I bought a cookie cutter this year, it has “Scalloped” edges around the cookie edge. I love the look! Scalloped Heart Cookie Cutter Since I used a cookie cutter to create the shape I wanted, I didn’t use my cookie scoop with this recipe.

I had to go to two stores to find the sprinkles to put on the decorated cookies. You know when you add food coloring and you want a certain color?

Well, my hand was shaking because I wanted a really light-colored pink frosting and I was afraid I would put too many drops. I love it when it turns out the color you want. Yay!

I have three granddaughters coming this weekend and we will be making more cookies. I love working in the kitchen with my family, it brings me so much joy.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookie Recipe

Step One: Preheat the Oven

Preheat the oven to (350°F) = (176 C°) degrees. Gather the ingredients.

Step Two: Cream Ingredients

In a large bowl, cream the sugar, butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.

Creamed Mixture

Step Three: Add Baking Soda & Salt

Add the baking soda and salt.

Step Four: Add Flour

Gradually add the flour and mix until thoroughly combined.

Mix Thoroughly

Step Five: Wrap in Plastic to Roll out Later

If you want to make the cookies later, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

Step Six: Flour Your Countertop

Sprinkle flour on the counter you will roll the cookie dough onto. Sprinkle the rolling pin as well.

Step Seven: Roll out the Dough

I like my cookies thick and chewy so I rolled my dough out 3/8 inches thick. I used cookie cutters approx. 4-5 inches in diameter.

Step Eight: Bake as Directed

I baked mine for 15 minutes. Do not overbake. I watched the cookies for the last two minutes to make sure they did not brown.

Finished Product

Can I use a different flour to make these gluten-free?

As far as the flour, the only gluten-free flour I know is made by King Author. It’s the one that you use one cup to one cup. In other words, you substitute one cup of white flour for one cup of this GF flour.

That flour will not work well for bread, just giving you the heads up here. King Arthur Measure for Measure GF Flour

How long can I store the cookie dough in the frig?

The longest you can keep this homemade sour cream cookie dough is 3-5 days in the refrigerator.

How do I store these baked cookies?

I use a Rubbermaid or Tupperware airtight container. For best results, frost the cookies right before I serve them. I don’t store frosted cookies. I keep the frosting in the refrigerator. Wait for the cookies to get to room temperature before placing them in the airtight container.

Can I freeze the cookie dough?

Yes, you can. Just wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 3 months. The nice thing about making the dough ahead of time is that if you have grandkids coming to town you can thaw the cookie dough in the frig the day before.

The dough is ready to roll out when they get here. Then follow the recipe for rolling out the dough. Making cookies with family is so fun!

Can I freeze these cookies?

Yes, you can. Place the cooled cookies without the frosting in an airtight container with waxed paper or parchment between the layers of cookies.

How did Valentine’s Day come about?

You might be asking yourself where the idea to celebrate Valentine’s Day came from. There are various theories proposed, but the most common goes back to the third century AD.

At the time most men were expected to be good soldiers for the Roman Empire. Emperor Claudius II actually banned marriage since he thought his married soldiers weren’t as committed and made terrible soldiers.

Valentine was a priest from Rome who thought the marriage ban was unfair, so he broke the emperor’s rules and arranged marriages to be performed in secret.

Once Claudius discovered what was going on he had Valentine captured and thrown in jail, and also sentenced to death. Then a funny thing happened, Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and when he was to be killed on February 14th he sent her a love letter signed, “from your Valentine.”

The Romans had a festival that was thought to have started in 496 Ad that coincided with the start of their springtime. The “romantic” story of Valentine and the fact he was made a saint prompted the church to make the festival a Christian celebration.

Thus St. Valentine’s name and the tradition of people expressing their feelings for those they loved became known as Valentine’s Day and it is celebrated on February 14th every year.

How do you keep sugar cookies from going hard?

My experience is cutting the cookie dough thicker and don’t overbake the cookies. I store my cookies as mentioned above in an air-tight Tupperware-type container on the countertop unfrosted. I frost them right before I need to serve them.

Final Word

Today is a great day to share my sour cream sugar cookie recipe with you, I hope you try making them. The butter and the sour cream in this recipe create a really soft sugar cookie!

Keep in mind that you can make these cookies for other occasions too. They could be great Christmas cookies by using different food coloring and a differently shaped cookie cutter, like a Christmas tree or Santa. If you like chocolate flavor in your cookies feel free to add chocolate chips to the dough mixture. You could also add some mint flavoring, nutmeg, or other fun add-ins to change things up.

Let me know how you and your family like to decorate your sugar cookies. I love to hear from you.

Please keep prepping and teach others to cook from scratch. Stay safe and stay well. May God bless this world, Linda

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