231 soft sugar cookie recipes

Homemade fig newtons: a tender brown sugar and sour cream cookie dough wrapped around real homemade fig jam, baked in logs and sliced into soft bars. So much better than the boxed kind.

Intensely fudgy brownie cookies loaded with chocolate chips and cocoa. Brown sugar and a short bake time keep these thick, chewy, and soft in the center. The key: pull them before they look done.

Deep-fried Hanukkah cookies with lemon zest, dusted in cinnamon sugar while still warm. Crispy on the outside and soft inside, these traditional fried dough balls celebrate the holiday's oil tradition in every golden bite.

Pumpkin cookies sweeten with honey instead of refined sugar, fold in raisins, dates, and chopped nuts, and spice with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Soft, cake-like, and made with whole wheat pastry flour. Healthy enough for breakfast.

Chewy, loaded drop cookies hiding shredded zucchini inside a brown sugar batter packed with oats, coconut, raisins, nuts, and butterscotch chips. The zucchini keeps them soft and moist while the mix-ins bring all the crunch and sweetness.

Buttermilk whoopie pies: pillowy chocolate cake cookies sandwiched around fluffy marshmallow buttercream. The classic New England diner dessert, soft, sweet, and snack-cake delicious.

Cindy Schweitzer of Muskego offered this cherry twist on melt-in-your-mouth finger cookies.