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?
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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 appreciate that the yield of the recipe is smaller than the usual 3-4 dozen. Living with just one other person, that cookie jar can be such temptation when it holds a huge batch. I also like the sugar colors you chose! Just so pretty!
I agree with the prettiness of the colors, but am not quite sure what makes these cookies Swedish?
My step Dad was both Swedish and Norwegian and every Christmas his parents made these. Everything we had on Christmas Eve was from their mother land. So thankful to find this recipe after so many years. Happy Happy Happy?
Beautiful cookies and I love sugar cookies (as does all my family!). I’ll be making a batch of these for the holidays 🙂
Hi Sue, what beautiful cookies, I can see myself making these for the holidays, thank you!
They are so festive with colourful sugar sprinkles.
I love reader recipes! They have some real gems 😀 And I do love the way that the Scandinavians bake. I’ve never had a Swedish cookie that I didn’t love!
These look like jewels Sue! How pretty they would be on a platter with your beautiful color sugar. It’s funny how sometimes the best recipes are the simplest ones that would be easy to pass by.
Such pretty cookies, I love the sparkling sugars!
So pretty! You did a beautiful job on the color – I love that you make your own colored sugar 🙂 Pinning!
Every year I get lazy and buy the slice and bake from the store and every year I’m so mad at myself for not getting it together to make cookies from scratch, I’m going to make these this year they look fantastic 🙂
Go for it, Irene, these are so easy!
I love these! The colors are so beautiful!!
Thanks Shaun, I love to color my own sugar because I can get an array of unusual shades without spending all that $$.