13 Ways To Upgrade Sugar Cookies

Cream of tartar may or may not be something you already have stocked in your kitchen pantry, but in case you're unfamiliar with it, we'd like to introduce it to you. Cream of tartar is used for a myriad of purposes, but when it comes to baking sugar cookies, this is the ultimate ingredient for achieving the right texture, taste, and color.

One of the ways cream of tartar benefits sugar cookies is by preventing them from browning so much in the oven. This can be helpful as the white color of sugar cookies is what often lends them so perfectly to the purpose of decorating. Besides affecting color, cream of tartar also improves the texture of the cookies, as the compound keeps sugar from crystallizing, thus staving away a hard or crispy cookie and keeping it soft.

Last but not least, cream of tartar boosts the flavor of sugar cookies. It brings about a tangy element that can complement the sweetness of the cookies quite well, especially if you've chosen to essence them with warming spices, like cinnamon (more on that later). All in all, cream of tartar is a great ingredient to keep in your sugar cookie repertoire; don't be surprised if you come across several sugar cookie recipes that already include it!

We've already talked about the benefits of cream of tartar and how it prevents sugar cookies from browning, but if you aren't in need of stark white sugar cookies, using brown butter might be worth a try. Brown butter produces a slightly different flavor in sugar cookies that can serve as a welcome change to what you may be used to whipping up with this traditional treat. Adding browned butter to your sugar cookie dough is pretty easy, although it will require a few extra steps in the beginning to get the butter ready to use.

To prepare brown butter, simply add the butter you'd normally use in sugar cookies to a warm skillet and gently whisk over medium heat. As the butter cooks, you'll notice foam and a pleasing aroma starting to form along with a beautiful brown hue. At this point, you can remove the brown butter from the stovetop to cool it before using it. From there, you'll simply follow the rest of your brown butter sugar cookie recipe, which will often involve chilling the dough to help your cookies keep their shape.

Once baked, brown butter sugar cookies will render a toasty sweet flavor you'll likely fall in love with. It isn't traditional, but it sure is delicious.

Be careful when adding this ingredient to your sugar cookies because it may or may not render the results you want. Like with so many other cookie types, people differ in terms of what is expected to make up a truly delicious sugar cookie. Some cookie connoisseurs may find themselves feuding over which type, taste, and texture of sugar cookie is actually best.

When it comes to adding sour cream to sugar cookie dough, know that the results will produce something other than what is considered traditional. You'll end up with a cakey and puffy cookie that may be more akin to a cookie biscuit than a classic sugar cookie. Additionally, you may find that adding sour cream to cookie dough may make the cookies less sweet, meaning that adding frosting as an extra layer of sweetness is typically ideal.

So, why is adding sour cream to cookie dough even worth trying at all? If you're a person who loves thicker and denser cookies that aren't as sweet, then you'll probably enjoy sour cream sugar cookies. We've seen bakers who hate sugar cookies love sour cream sugar cookies because of the difference in taste and texture they yield. Still, if you're a sugar cookie traditionalist, this variation may or may not be for you; thus, when adding sour cream, it's best to use caution.

White chocolate is often something we associate with the holiday season, and indeed, it is great for infusing into winter treats. The thing is, white chocolate also works as an amazing upgrade for plain sugar cookies, as doing so gives the cookies a more decadent flavor that is much different from the typical savor of traditional sugar cookies.

Adding white chocolate to sugar cookies can be as easy as throwing in a handful of white chocolate chips or even incorporating thin shavings of white chocolate into the sugar cookie dough itself. Moreover, you could use white chocolate frosting for your cookies to give them a rich taste and an elegant iced touch. Either way you use it, white chocolate isn't a fussy ingredient that requires you to alter your traditional sugar cookie dough recipe. Just toss it in and cook as usual for an elevated flavor. Also, try throwing in a handful of dried cranberries with your white chocolate once ... you might just end up with an amazing sweet-and-sour duo your taste buds will continuously crave.

We know, we know. This upgrade definitely has a Christmas-y vibe to it, but we think peppermint is such a great addition to sugar cookies that you could technically savor it any time of the year. Adding peppermint to sugar cookies is easy, but like so many other ideas on this list, you'll want to be careful about how you include it.

When using peppermint extract, you should be careful not to add too much. Doing so may render your sugar cookies too potent and make them unenjoyable to eat. Even so, you should be fine adding a smidge (and we do mean a smidge) of it to your standard sugar cookie recipe for a basic peppermint flavor that isn't too robust.

If, on the other hand, you plan to use ingredients like crushed peppermint to your cookies, you'll want to follow a recipe that already includes peppermint, as the sugar in the candy may make your traditional cookie dough recipe too sweet. Some of the peppermint sugar cookie recipes we've found out there sound incredibly enticing, blending together the likes of crushed candy canes with cream cheese frosting and even a dash of peppermint for an oh-so-exciting first bite. Yes, it's Christmas-y, but seriously, we'd eat these every day of the year and not think twice about it.

Putting pumpkin in sugar cookies sounds like a fabulous idea to us, though we have to admit we never thought of doing so before. Still, the delicate, sweet, and vanilla backdrop of sugar cookies certainly does seem to lend itself to unique, distinct autumnal flavors, with pumpkin practically becoming a no-brainer when you really think about it.

We've taken a look at a few pumpkin sugar cookie recipes, and honestly, they make our mouths water! They're chock full of deliciousness from cinnamon, vanilla extract, butter, sugar, and, of course, the star of the show, pureed pumpkin. What makes this upgrade even better is that you don't necessarily have to go through the hassle of baking up a fresh pumpkin -– you can simply grab a can of pureed pumpkin off the store shelf and have it on hand for whenever you need it.

Again, we know this is likely going to be a treat most fitting for fall, but that shouldn't stop you from making these whenever the heck you want. Plus, they're ridiculously easy to whip up, assuming you get your hands on the right recipe. Just be sure not to add pumpkin puree to a previously existing sugar cookie dough; otherwise, the pumpkin may change the flavor and texture and not turn out quite as you had hoped.

Among the most humble additions out of the many sugar cookie upgrade options on this list, adding cinnamon to your sugar cookies is a mighty way to boost the flavor and give your cookies that subtle difference that your taste buds will go crazy for.

Now, if you're anything like us, you're probably thinking, "Isn't a cinnamon sugar cookie basically the same as a snickerdoodle?" Yes and no. In one sense, you could totally add cinnamon to a standard sugar cookie recipe and yield delicious results. In this way, the cookie isn't technically a snickerdoodle cookie; it's only a sugar cookie with a little cinnamon added in. In contrast, snickerdoodles are usually trademarked by their tangy flavor, which is most often achieved with the use of cream of tartar. The snickerdoodle dough is also rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking, making it only slightly different from a traditional sugar cookie with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Hey, we realize that snickerdoodles and cinnamon sugar cookies are pretty close in nature, especially if you've already followed our advice for putting cream of tartar in your sugar cookie recipe. Still, the point is that adding cinnamon to that sugar cookie dough gives it a hint of something else that leads to irresistibly delicious flavor –- it may be similar to snickerdoodle flavor, but hey, why not?