![World’s Best Chocolate Cake](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/02/11/dining/YO-Worlds-Best-Chocolate-Cake/merlin_201014523_439c5c9d-7702-43e1-b121-eb3c93665e1f-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Frosted Sugar Cookies
![Frosted Sugar Cookies](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/12/13/dining/ek-lofthouse/merlin_180932583_7cf08465-f282-4d4c-a1c7-4a770fd10a72-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 55 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
- 3ounces/85 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- 1tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2¼cups/285 grams cake flour
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- Sprinkles, for garnish
- 1cup/30 grams freeze-dried raspberries, finely ground in a food processor or spice grinder
- 1cup/225 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
- 2cups/245 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of kosher salt
For the Cookies
For the Frosting
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the cookies: In a large bowl, using a spoon, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk to incorporate some air and to dissolve the sugar crystals, about 1 minute. Stir in the flour and baking powder until just incorporated.
- Step 2
Heat oven to 350 degrees and line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper. Using two spoons or a cookie scooper, plop out 2-tablespoon/50-gram rounds spaced a couple of inches apart. (You should get about 7 to 8 cookies per sheet pan.) Place the sheet pans in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and easier to handle.
- Step 3
While the dough chills, make the frosting: In a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium bowl, sift the ground raspberries, using a spoon to help pass them through, until most of the ruby-red powder is in the bowl and most of the seeds are left behind in the sieve. (Discard the seeds.)
- Step 4
To the bowl, add the 1 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt and, with an electric hand mixer, mix on low speed until the butter absorbs the sugar. Then, turn the speed up to high and beat until the frosting doubles in size, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated. Transfer the frosting to a small container, cover tightly, and set aside. (You should have about 2 cups of frosting.)
- Step 5
Remove the sheet pans from the freezer. Roll the chilled dough into even balls and flatten them slightly with your fingers so they’re about 2 inches wide and 1 inch high. Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans and switching racks halfway through, or until they no longer look wet on top, are still light in color and spring back to the touch. They will puff up and crack slightly. Let cool completely on the sheet pan. (They will continue to cook as they sit.)
- Step 6
Using a butter knife or offset spatula, frost each cooled cookie with the raspberry frosting and adorn with the sprinkles.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Freezer trick that seems to work for small spaces: make the dough and put in a thick line of plastic wrap. Roll into a tube and freeze. Cut the dough into even cylinders and bake. Much easier than making the cookies and freezing on cookie sheets in our small NYC apartment freezer.
Dying to make these today and can't find freeze dried raspberries. Any substitution thoughts?
Trader Joe's sells freeze dried raspberries.
Substituted the cake flour for 230g AP 34g cornstarch. Worked perfectly! And this icing... pretty genius.
I did not have cake flour. I used an all purpose cornstarch substitute. Per 1 cup of cake flour, substitute 3/4 cup (85 grams) sifted bleached all-purposeflourplus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch. That amounts to 191 g all-purpose flour 34 g cornstarch for this specific recipe. I dropped my dough into a Tupperware container and placed those in the freezer for 10 min (did not have room for a full cookie sheet in my freezer). They broke apart easily. Excellent recipe!
What should the end result texture of these be? Mine were pretty cakey, not unlike cupcake tops, but quite unlike what I expect from grocery store cookies which are more dense, less airy, and more chewy. For anyone who doesn't have freeze dried berries: I have made excellent raspberry buttercream with the raspberry juice that comes from thawing frozen berries and it's epic. If you have frozen berries but not freeze-dried, just try that!
These cookies are incredible. They are better than the lofthouse. I was skeptical at first that something could come close but was quickly blown away as soon as they came out of the oven. These are really unique cookies. Highly recommend! P.S. I didn’t have dried raspberries so I left them out; the frosting is fine without them as-is.
Target has freeze dried raspberries.
I made these and everything was delicious. HOWEVER, way too much frosting. You can easily cut the frosting recipe in half.
These are amazing. Used gentle stir for batter, high for frosting on KitchenAid mixer. Added lemon zest to the frosting, perfect melt in your mouth!
these cookies are terrific! I love that they are not too sweet. I made as instructed except for the frosting. I prefer a cream cheese frosting so I used half butter, half cream cheese. I was too lazy to sift the raspberries and ran them longer in the food processor. Also added some lemon zest as suggested by another reviewer. Fantastic! Will make again and again.
Didn't have freeze-dried raspberries so added some almond extract to the frosting instead. Delish!
The frosting is perfection. The most time consuming part of this recipe is grinding and sifting the raspberries. Our plan is to buy double the amount of raspberries needed and grind them and store them so we have it at the ready. Everything else is super easy. So delicious and much better than the grocery store version.
Used about a cup of frozen raspberries and heated them til broken-down, then sieved out the seeds and heated further to reduce. Added about a teaspoon of this raspberry reduction to the icing.
These are just fab! I made the cookie recipe as written, but wound up with 24 slightly smaller (but to me just right) size cookies. I made a half-batch of frosting with freeze-dried strawberries, and felt it was more than enough frosting for a full batch of cookies. I'm storing half frosted at room temp, half unfrosted (extra frosting is in the fridge), will report back on how they hold up!
had great success using ATK's gluten free flour blend. it doesn't absorb fat as well as wheat flour so i halved the butter, but kept cream cheese the same. added 1 tsp. xanthan gum (blend doesn't have any). used 50% more leavening. i let the dough hydrate in the fridge overnight in a log, then briefly froze log to slice. absolute success!
Did they change the frosting recipe? Last time I made these I remember using a fraction of freeze dried raspberries. When adding the full amount it becomes way too tart
this cookie recipe is needlessly fussy without a worthwhile outcome. i have made these twice. forgot that i had made them already and only after i had made them a second time found i'd previously written myself a private note: "The cookies are a pass, frosting 10/10." going forward will pair the frosting with a tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe.
These were only okay—and kind of a PITA to make. We much prefer the Sicilian ricotta cookies with a simple glaze as featured on this site. Those are traditionally Christmas cookies, I believe, but that’s never stopped us from making them in July.
Insanely good! Made these with strawberries the first time but used raspberries from Trader Joe’s this time and it just makes it more incredible with the extra zing. My daughter put leftover crumbles of raspberries over the sprinkles and it was awesome. We halved the size of the cookies bc that much butter is lethal.
Made these small= .67 oz and medium=1.0 oz. Should probably try 1.25 oz. These do not spread at all so flatten according to directions.
These cookies are delicious. My suggestion is; if you don’t have the ingredients, make another recipe. The berries are what make these a stand out.
I used freeze dried strawberries because I couldn't find raspberries and it was incredible. People thought I used fresh strawberries in the cookies!
Excellent cookie! Second time used a hand mixer for the dough - much easier, especially for a double batch. Used #24 cookie scoop (made 17 cookies/batch) and refrigerated portioned dough overnight. Next day put them in the freezer for 15 minutes (not sure that was necessary) then shaped and baked - easy peasy! For frosting, this time subbed 1 tsp almond extract for the raspberries - yum. Next time I'll try lemon (tartness would be good), and for ease will use a stand mixer for the frosting.
Fantastic flavor to the frosting, texture very close to the store bought variety
Fantastic! I followed the recipe exactly but subbed out the raspberries for strawberries (from Trader Joe’s), measured by weight. The frosting came out with a strong strawberry flavor that’s surprisingly not too sweet and a beautiful, deep pink color. I know a lot of other notes mention that this makes a lot of frosting, but I found I had the perfect amount. I squeezed 19 cookies out of this recipe, and frosted each generously, so there wasn’t too much leftover! Definitely will make again!
This is the best sugar cookie recipe. I couldn't find cake flour anywhere, so I did four tablespoons of cornstarch and two cups of regular white flour. Instead of frosting the cookies, I mixed 1/2 cup of sprinkles into the recipe. Freezing the dough is critical but it did take 2 minutes longer than the max time (17 min total per batch) to cook. My oven is accurately temped.
Made with all purpose flour and they were raw inside, cook 10 mins longer for better texture. Used powdered sugar and the frosting came out great.
These were good and cute for Valentine’s Day! I accidentally got freeze dried strawberries and I thought those worked great, but haven’t had raspberry to compare. I think you do need the freeze dried berry frosting, it adds a tart flavor complexity. If you did just sweet frosting I think these would be too sweet and boring.
these are wonderful. our dairy-free home necessitated a couple of changes - oatley cream cheese seems to be the best-tasting of the non-dairy options (and based upon how great the cookies tasted, i think i'm right). was thinking citrus zest might be a fun addition - in the cookie maybe? and i also realized, there is room to play with other flavors of freeze-dried fruit! though i must say the raspberry is really pretty perfect.
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