These chewy brown sugar cookies are as simple as drop-style cookies come (no mixer required!), yet they deliver the kind of deep, caramelized flavor you usually only find in the richest chocolate chip cookies. No chips here, though—this recipe lets brown sugar shine all by itself!
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos and helpful success tips. After gathering feedback from readers over the years, we have also tweaked the recipe to add a little more flour, to keep the cookies from over-spreading.
I love cookies packed with add-ins—chocolate chunks, caramel, sprinkles, all of it—but sometimes you just want something simple, sweet, and chewy. These cookies let brown sugar shine in every soft-baked, molasses-kissed bite.
But don’t call them plain! They’re full of warm flavor and have such a delightfully chewy texture that they don’t need any extras.
Unfussy and cozy, these chewy brown sugar cookies are the kind you don’t expect to fall in love with… until one bite makes them the only cookie you want to bake all month. And the best part? They’re completely beginner-friendly and perfect for both holiday trays and everyday cravings.
Here’s Why You’ll Love These Cookies:
- Chewy, soft centers + lightly crisp edges
- Simple ingredients you likely already have on hand
- Sweet, buttery, and cozy
- No special equipment or knowledge of how to decorate sugar cookies required here!
One reader, Michelle, commented: “I always considered sugar cookies as the candy corn of the cookie world: a waste of butter and sugar. This recipe changed my mind. These cookies are so delicious all of my dinner guests preferred the sugar cookies over chocolate chip cookies. Let me say that again: people actively chose something that didn’t have chocolate. Sally, you’re truly a magician. Thank you for opening a whole new world of cookies! ★★★★★“
The Secret Is… Brown Sugar
Using all brown sugar in the cookie dough gives these cookies their signature flavor and texture. Brown sugar doesn’t just sweeten; its molasses content adds moisture and chew that lasts for days. It also encourages more caramelization in the oven, which translates to deeper flavor and those pretty golden edges.
Light or dark brown sugar both work here. Use dark if you’re after an extra deep flavor. If I have both on hand, I use half light and half dark.
If you love brown sugar treats, try my cut-out brown sugar cookies with icing next, or my extra-tender brown sugar shortbread for a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth variation.
Other Ingredients You Need
The ingredients for these cookies may seem familiar if you’ve ever made my recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies. I used a few of the same ingredient ratios and recipe techniques in today’s chewy brown sugar cookies.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is best for cookies.
- Baking Soda: This leavener will cause the cookies to puff up while baking, then fall and crinkle a bit as they cool.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra-soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick.
- Cinnamon: 1/2 teaspoon adds a subtle kiss of spice. If you love cinnamon-sugar-flavored treats, use 1 whole teaspoon. If you’re a brown sugar cookie purist, leave it out. Baker’s choice!
- Salt: To balance the sweetness of the brown sugar.
- Melted Butter: Melted butter produces the chewiest cookies. It can, however, make your baked cookies greasy, so I made sure there is enough flour to counteract that. And using melted butter is also the reason you don’t need a mixer to make these cookies, just like these M&M cookie bars.
- Brown Sugar: The moisture in brown sugar promises an extra soft and chewy baked cookie. You can use light or dark brown sugar in these cookies, and actually, I usually make them with half light and half dark.
- Egg: To bind the ingredients together.
- Vanilla Extract: Flavor enhancer extraordinaire!
Preparing the cookie dough is easy. Whisk dry ingredients in one bowl and whisk wet ingredients in another; then, combine everything together.
Chilling this cookie dough for at least 3–4 hours is a non-negotiable. We need to give the melted butter a chance to firm up before baking the cookies. These brown sugar cookies are very buttery and the colder the cookie dough, the less they’ll over-spread. Here are more tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading.
My advice? Make the dough ahead of time. It can chill in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, so whip it up a day or two ahead of when you have time to bake the cookies.
Scoop & Roll These Drop-Style Sugar Cookies
A medium cookie scoop is helpful to portion out the cold dough into 1.5-Tablespoon-size pieces. Roll the cookie dough into balls, then coat them in granulated sugar.
You know a cookie recipe is a winner when its softness isn’t compromised as the days go by. We all love that about this recipe! True “soft-batch” style, just like the cookies you get from a bakery.
Here’s a Storage Tip: To keep them extra soft, try storing them in an airtight container along with a piece of bread. The bread will get stale, but the cookies will stay soft! It’s the same trick you can use to soften up brown sugar that’s gotten hard in the container.
If you love the pure brown sugar flavor of these cookies, be sure to try my brown sugar shortbread cookies next!
We see this question a lot, so we tested it! Yes, you can use brown butter for these cookies, but you need to add extra liquid to the dough to make up for the loss of moisture during the browning process. Add 2 Tablespoons of water or milk to the dough when you mix together the wet ingredients.
These chewy brown sugar cookies are proof that sometimes the simplest recipes can easily become a household favorite.
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 20-24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Bake a batch of chewy brown sugar cookies with plush centers, lightly crisp edges, and cozy brown sugar sweetness. A simple, no-mixer, beginner-friendly cookie recipe. See make-ahead and freezing instructions below.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/3 cups (292g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (use 1 teaspoon if you love cinnamon)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 and 1/4 cups (250g) packed light or dark brown sugar (I like to use half light + half dark)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter and brown sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a silicone spatula or large wooden spoon until completely combined. The dough will be very soft, yet thick.
- Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 3–4 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 15 minutes if it chilled for longer than 4 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (163°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Pour the granulated sugar into a small bowl. Scoop and roll dough into a ball, about 1.5 Tablespoons (30–35g) in size, then roll in the sugar. Place 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets (8–9 cookies per baking sheet).
- Bake for 14–16 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are set and small cracks are appearing. The cookies will be puffy and still appear very soft in the middle, but they will deflate slightly and continue to set as they cool. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Cover cooled cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, if desired, before serving. Unbaked cookie dough balls (before rolling in sugar) freeze well for up to 3 months. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, preheat the oven, then roll in granulated sugar. Bake as directed. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Melted Butter: Let the melted butter cool down for about 5–10 minutes before mixing with the other ingredients. Don’t want to cook that egg with the hot butter!
- Can I Use Browned Butter? We see this question a lot, so we tested it! Yes, you can use brown butter for these cookies, but you need to add extra liquid to the dough to make up for the loss of moisture during the browning process. Add 2 Tablespoons of water or milk to the dough when you mix together the wet ingredients.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch helps promise a softer, thicker cookie. I highly recommend it. I use it in my chocolate chip cookies and shortbread cookies, too. Feel free to leave it out if you don’t have it.
- Update in 2025: Based on reader feedback about over-spreading, we increased the flour from 2 cups (250g). If you’d like to make the previous version, use 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
This is one of my top 5 cookie recipes of all times. It is so simple, but the flavor and chewy consistency are so, so good. When I make them I add 2 Tbsp. of turbinado sugar into the dough. This gives each cookie a nice little crunch. They freeze beautifully.
these are my favorite cookies i make them all the time and it is something kids can help with!
sooooo good thanks!!!! <3 what would happen if i put mint extract instead of vanilla extract
Hi Sally! I wanted to make your soft-baked white chocolate molasses cookies, but molasses aren’t being sold in my country. Is it possible to add the white chocolate chips in this recipe and have the same “effect”? 🙂
Won’t taste quite the same, but will be delicious nonetheless! Go ahead and add 1 cup of white chips here.
This is my favorite recipe! However we moved to a new house and I can’t get these cookies to come out. They completely flatten out once removed from the oven and look greasy. Please help! I love these cookies.
Hi Sally, I made these cookies yesterday and it turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!
These were the best brown sugar cookies we have ever had. They’re quick and easy to put together. I followed the recipe (almost] exactly but did make a few minor changes… Since we don’t like cinnamon and it’s optional, we left it out. We also used light brown sugar instead of the dark because that’s all I had.
I’ve made them twice in 24 hours, that’s how good these are. Thank you sharing your wonderful recipe and thank you for creating an easy cleanup recipe. Love love love!
I made these for a dinner party, and they were gone before we even started to eat dinner! They were amazing! And so easy to do!
BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!! These were amazing and I am definitely sharing them with all of my coworkers tomorrow!
Hi Sally! I don’t know why, but when I made these cookies, they came out really cake-y rather than chewy. I followed the recipe exactly, so I don’t know what happened. Most of my other attempts at cookies end up cake-y as well. Do you know what I could have done wrong? Thanks! I love your blog by the way 🙂
Hey Julie! Are you using a large egg or something larger, like extra large or jumbo? Eggs are typically the culprit with cakey cookies. Or how about the flour– are you spooning and leveling or weighing it? Making sure it’s all-purpose, right? Even the little things like that could matter here. Or the sugar– are you varying from the recipe with regards to the amount of sugar? Or even overmixing. This traps air inside the dough, which could result in cakier cookies.
This is one of the best, reliably good every time cookie recipe I have ever made and I have baked for 40 years. Very chewy but not cakey-soft and mushy. Good mouth feel, wonderful flavor and the chewiness is as great on day 4 as it was when still fresh from oven.
Follow this recipe EXACTLY (key) and you will have the best cookies you have ever wrapped your lips around. This is in my permanent collection now!
Great recipe! I also browned the butter (why not:) I baked mine a touch longer as I wanted to caramelize the bottom of the cookies a bit more–they were perfect! Caramely-crispy on the bottom and chewy in the middle:).
I’ve been following your site for a couple years now. We always try to make at least one new cookie a year for our Christmas cookie baking to try to keep it interesting. We tried these this year and they are beyond awesome! So easy to make! We freeze the cookies and these warm up great in the microwave. Simply delicious! Thanks for putting great recipes like this one out there. You are our go to at finding new cookies to try 🙂 Happy Holiday’s! Cheers!
I made these tonight and browned the butter first and added a pinch of maple flavor and they were just amazing. Thank you for a delicious recipe!
Wow! These were one of the best cookies I’ve made. Simple and not over complicated. They were soft and chewy and stayed this way! Wonderful instructions, my family and I loved them! I had salted butter so I left out the salt later and turned or fine. Thank you:).
Nice chewy cookie. They kind of remind me a little of a Snickerdoodle, and a little of an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie without the oatmeal or raisins. Must be the cinnamon. I think these could be really versatile & go well with different add-ins. I will be making these again soon!
This cookie is awesome Sally! thank you for the recipe!
These were awesome. I omitted the cinnamon and added a little extra salt. Then topped them with a sea salt caramel buttercream frosting. They were perfection. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Sally. I’m a long time drooler, first time baker : ) Last weekend I baked your ginger molasses cookies and they were so amazing (and also all GONE) that I thought I would try the brown sugar cookies today. They are currently chilling in the fridge. If the raw taste is anything to go by (I mean, who can resist “quality testing”, right?) they will be equally as delicious. I really just wanted to say thank you for your wonderful website and all of these amazing recipes. Honestly, they are such well laid out, easy to follow recipes with proper home cook type handy hints. Makes baking an absolute pleasure. So I just wanted to say thank you!
Hi Sally,
Can I sub coconut oil for the butter? If so should I reduce the amount at all?
It’s worth a try! Use the same amount.
Made these yesterday and they turned out great. They were simple and delicious. Thank you.
I made these last night and my husband really likes them! I had no regular sugar so I googled recipes that just use brown sugar and found your blog. Thanks for a great recipe! My husband was into them first thing this morning to eat with his coffee 🙂
Hey, Sally! I just wanted to let you know, I made these cookies with my kiddos on Christmas Eve for “Santa”, and they were AMAZING. The only thing I did differently was browned the butter before hand. Oh my goodness. These cookies tasted like straight up caramel with the browned butter! Holy deliciousness! I also frosted half of them with a brown sugar frosting, but they truly didn’t need it.
You always have the best recipes! If I ever need to bake something I ALWAYS check your site first. Your recipes are very reliable and help me crank out some A+ goods. Thanks for all you do, Sally!
These are SO good! My boyfriend and I both love chocolate chip cookies (without the chocolate chips). As I was looking up a recipe for that, I came across these and I am so glad I did. I felt like a professional making these soft chewy, crinkly little cookies. Needless to say, we finished the entire batch in two days and already want to make more.
Hello! Just wanted to say thanks for these – my mom is in love with them because she thinks they taste like fried dough.
I added a little bit more vanilla (just a splash) and I replaced about 1/8 of a bar of the regular stick of butter with cinnamon sugar butter instead of adding cinnamon and I think they came out much better. Thanks so much for posting this – can’t wait to try out other recipes!
Ab-so-lute-ly delicious! I made no alterations to the recipe and they came out perfect. I’m not into cookies with all the fixins’ so I genuinely gravitate toward a simpler sugar or butter cookie. This brown sugar recipe is a great compromise for my parents and I. They prefer a more decadent cookie!
Thanks Sally!
Hi Stephanie– it’s a crumbly dough after chilling. That’s expected. I wouldn’t add more butter, but you can try to reduce the flour ever so slightly next time.
Hi Sally,
Just wanted to say that these are our new go-to cookies. I make them every couple of weeks and we just love them. I use whole-wheat flour instead of the white flour because that is all I have i the house. It works like a charm.
This is, hands down, my husband’s and my favorite cookie recipe!! So much so that I typically double or triple the recipe– I keep the dough in the fridge for days and just bake a batch once we finish the previous. It never lasts more than 3 days in our house! I’ll be adding caramel chips to them today. 🙂 Thank you so much for such an amazing recipe!!!
So, I finally made these for a party and I never expected I would get sooo many compliments. They went fast. The only thing I did different was bake them longer, about 15 mins, to make them more crispy. Anyways, I am glad I found this recipe. Thanks a bunch =)
So glad to have found this recipe!! They are delicious!! I live in the upstate of SC and I am glad to have found your site! Keep those cookie recipes coming!