Swedish Sugar Cookies are a classic Scandinavian Christmas cookie ~ they’re deliciously simple and colorful!
This recipe for Swedish Sugar Cookies was sent in by reader Jane, who lives in Nipomo, California. Jane says it was given to her by her husband’s Norwegian aunt and she has been making the cookie for almost 50 years! Now that’s a cookie with a proven track record 😉 These cookies are utterly simple, but absolutely divine. Jane told me that “They are a bit crunchy on the edges but softer in the middle. It is by far one of my top five cookie recipes and I bake a LOT of different cookies, cookies are kind of my thing!”
She doesn’t lie, people, this classic sugar cookie is a real winner. They just have an old fashioned holiday taste, that’s the best way I can describe them. The crisp outer edge and the soft center is fantastic.
Easy scoop-roll-bake sugar cookies
- The dough is easy to whip up, and has a soft texture.
- Roll into small balls and coat in colored sugar or sprinkles.
- Arrange 3″ apart (they spread) on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- That’s it! Let your Swedish sugar cookies cool on the pan for a minute or two before transferring to a rack.
tips for decorating your Swedish sugar cookies
This is where it gets fun. Use lots of colorful sugars and sprinkles, the more the merrier.
- The dough is soft and slightly tacky ~ that’s good! It helps the sprinkles and colored sugar adhere.
- Put your decorations in small bowls so you can easily pave every side of the ball of dough as you roll it.
- Do a test! Some sprinkles perform better than others in the oven, so I usually do a few test cookies to see which ones work best.
- Add a fresh shower of sprinkles or sugar on just-baked cookies if they have bald spots. The warmth of the cookie will help it stick..
- You can easily make your own colored sugars with a drop or two of food coloring, just mix it up with a spoon. If you want to make your own colored sugar you can read all about it here.
The bottom line
I absolutely love these Swedish sugar cookies, they’re the classic Christmas cookie in my book. They’re crisp on the outside, chewy inside, with the perfect buttery vanilla flavor. The colors bring out everybody’s inner child ~ how can you resist?
Swedish Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheets
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter, salted, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla, I used 2 teaspoons of vanilla paste
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups all purpose flour, measure with the fluff and scoop method
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F
- Cream the softened butter, sugar, vanilla and egg well, until everything is combined and fluffy.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and combine with the sugar mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together and there is no more dry flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl well.
- Form into balls about 1 inch in diameter and roll in sugar or sprinkles to coat well.
- Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake until they just start to brown around the edges, about 10 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool briefly on the baking sheet and then move to a cooling rack. Sprinkle with a little more sugar or sprinkles while hot if needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Swedish sugar cookies faqs
Make sure to get your balls of dough well covered o begin with. Cookies rolled in sugar before baking can lose some sparkle as they expand and bake so I sometimes sprinkle on extra just as they come out of the oven.
They shouldn’t be crispy like a thin sugar cookie or cakey like a drop cookie. You’re aiming for tender and slightly soft in the center, with just a delicate outer edge from the sugar. If they bake up dry or crunchy all the way through, they likely baked a bit too long.
If you used naturally colored sprinkles they don’t perform as well in the oven and tend to fade. I save my natural sprinkles for unbaked projects.
More Swedish recipes
I only have unsalted butter at home. How much salt do I need to add to the butter for this recipe?
Add 1/2 teaspoon to the dough.
Thanks! I’m planning to make these!
This is the recipe my Swedish grandmother used to make. She got the recipe from her mother, so it has been around a long time.
I’ve been making these every Christmas since you posted the recipe. We have quite a collection of colored sugar and the results are always delicious, thank you!
I made this last year, and they were beautiful and tasty. This year I have tried 3 attempts and each time they spread. I am very careful to make the butter is room temperature. Not sure what I’m doing wrong.
Not sure either, but you might try refrigerating the balls for 15 minutes before baking, and make sure you use a cool cookie sheet, not one that has just come out of the oven from the last batch.
Why did you use baking powder in place of cream of tartar? Why do you use vanilla paste instead of vanilla? I’m trying to understand the underlying reasons so I know how to apply them in other recipes. I’m going to make this next week for a luncheon at work. Thank you!
Baking powder is just the more common leavener, and I use vanilla paste because it has a better flavor, in my opinion.