REAL copycat Lofthouse Cookie Recipe (2024)

Recently, a reader asked me if I had a Lofthouse cookie recipe. I thought it an odd request because I'm sure I have seen about a million copycat Lofthouse cookies on Pinterest. She agreed but said that none of them taste like real Lofthouse cookies.

So the first thing I did was buy myself a box of Lofthouse cookies. The cookie was super SUPER soft, almost like cake. Very light vanilla taste and very sweet frosting. Not like any sugar cookie I'd ever tasted.

They reminded me a lot of these soft sugar cookies I ate as a child. Whenever it was time for my mom to go grocery shopping, I always wanted to go with her. Not because I was a good kid (I definitely wasn't) but because I knew that the nice lady at the bakery would always give us a free sample cookie! a WHOLE cookie all to myself.

Those cookies were soft, tender and topped with super sweet buttercream and sprinkles. Basically a kid's dream come true. I can see why Lofthouse cookies are so popular and so nostalgic.

Whenever I set out to make a copycat recipe, the first thing I do is check out the ingredients right on the back of the box. That might seem a bit obvious right? The ingredients list is our first clue.

Lofthouse Sugar Cookie Ingredients: sugar, enriched bleached wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), margarine (palm oil, water, soybean oil, salt, contains 2% or less of: mono- and diglycerides, calcium disodium edta (preservative), artificial flavor, annatto (color), vitamin a palmitate), water, eggs, corn starch, contains 2% or less of: vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, and/or palm oil and/or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil [cottonseed and/or soybean oil]), dextrin, soy lecithin (emulsifier), natural and artificial flavors, confectioner's glaze (lac resin), colors (yellow 5 lake, blue 1, blue 1 lake, blue 2, blue 2 lake, red 3, red 40, red 40 lake, yellow 5, yellow 6, yellow 6 lake), leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum sulfate, monocalcium phosphate), carnauba wax, food starch-modified, whey protein concentrate, whey, calcium caseinate, nonfat milk, polysorbate 60, sodium propionate (preservative).

I know this looks like a lot of technical words but let's break it down. First of all, I know from my own bakery owning days that ingredients have to be listed in the order of the biggest amount to the smallest.

• The first ingredient is sugar. This makes sense because of the frosting.
• The second ingredients is enriched bleached wheat flour, which is a fancy word for bleached cake flour. My first clue! Cookies made with cake flour, not all-purpose flour. No wonder they are so soft!
• The third ingredient is margarine, not butter. This might be a deal-breaker for me, I hate baking with margarine. The margarine might be in the cookie or it might be in the frosting or both.
• The next ingredients are water and cornstarch. Hmm I can't imagine there would be a ton of cornstarch in a cookie recipe so I can guess about how much based on other recipes.
• The smallest amounts are vegetable oil (probably for moisture similar to oil in cakes) dextrin which is a type of food additive to make foods taste fresher and lecithin which is an emulsifier.
• Then we have flavorings, coloring, leavening (baking soda and baking powder) and preservatives.

Now that I have these ingredients broken down, I can go about figuring out how they work together to re-create that top-secret Lofthouse cookie as close as possible.

I started looking for recipes that use margarine or butter in their recipes and came across this sugar cookie recipe from Betty Crocker that looked promising. The recipe used powdered sugar, not granulated. I remember someone once telling me that powdered sugar in cookies creates a very tender cookie. Could that be the secret to the Lofthouse cookie recipe? Worth a try.

The recipe also called for margarine (ugh). So I relented and bought myself some margarine for the first time in my life! I couldn't bring myself to use all margarine so I did half margarine and half unsalted butter.

I then adapted this recipe to what I saw on the back of the Lofthouse cookie ingredients box. I opted for bleached cake flour instead of all-purpose for a more tender and cake-like cookie.

I also added in some cornstarch which helps the batter keep its shape while baking. Almond extract for that typical sugar cookie flavor and vanilla extract. All I had was real vanilla, next time I might use clear vanilla for a lighter cookie.

The batter ended up looking basically like a thick cake batter, which makes sense!

I scooped the batter out of the bowl using a medium cookie scoop but the batter was so sticky, I basically had to remove it from the scoop with my fingers. I plopped the sticky dough evenly onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and put them in the fridge to chill for two hours.

After chilling, the dough is a bit easier to handle. You can roll the dough into balls then flatten them. They should be about 3" wide and about ½" thick. Give a few inches of space between each cookie because they are going to spread a lot.

You only need to bake these cookies for 8 minutes! You do not want to over-bake these or they will not have that soft interior.

As you can see, after baking, the cookies have puffed up a ton and spread out. Let them cool a bit before frosting them with the American Buttercream.

So I ended up testing this recipe and tweaking it about 6 times before I was pretty happy with the taste and texture compared to the original Lofthouse Cookie. I did also try the leading Copycat Lofthouse cookie recipe which used AP flour and sour cream and it was VERY dry. Not bad tasting but the texture was not soft at all.

This Lofthouse cookie is CAKEY, super soft and has a light vanilla flavor. Most of the flavor comes from the sweet bakery style buttercream frosting which I piped onto the cookie using an 804 piping tip and piping bag. Of course, I had to finish the cookies off with some rainbow sprinkles!

I compared the original Lofthouse cookie texture with my cookie and I'm 90% satisfied. The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to get these specific layers. It's almost like the dough has been laminated before it bakes. Something to keep working on in the future.

But as far as the softness, the taste, and the texture, I'm super happy with this TRUE copycat Lofthouse cookie recipe. I hope you're satisfied too. Let me know what you think if you give this recipe a try.

I also have to mention that these cookies made an appearance in Ezra's five-month birthday photo, you can see it on my Instagram.

Want more cookie recipes? Check these out!

Marbled Valentines Day Sugar Cookies
Meringue cookies
Strawberry Macarons

Recipe