10 Secret Tricks to Make Store-Bought Sugar Cookie Mix Taste Homemade (2024)

Home Recipes Cooking Style Comfort Food

Updated: Feb. 15, 2024

    Your cookies will look (and taste!) like they're made from scratch with these sugar cookie mix hacks.

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    Use real butter in your dough

    Store-bought sugar cookie mixes will give the option of adding in butter or margarine, but always choose butter! It’ll give your cookies the best, closest-to-homemade flavor. Use unsalted butter to be sure your cookies don’t taste too salty. Here’s the difference between unsalted and salted butter.

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    Add extracts

    A teaspoon or two of extracts will noticeably boost flavor when blended into your sugar cookie mix. Vanilla is the obvious choice. For a more intriguing flavor, add both vanilla and almond extracts. Rum, maple and anise are other delicious varieties to consider.

    (Try these flavor hacks that work wonders with store-bought cookie dough.)

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    Stir in citrus zest

    Your sugar cookies will sing with fresh citrus zest added to the mix! Use a Microplane grater to remove one to two tablespoons of fine zest from lemons, limes or oranges, and mix the zest into your dough.

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    Add sour cream

    Stir 3/4 of a cup to one cup of full-fat sour cream in with your cookie mix, butter and egg. Sugar cookies will bake up with a wonderfully soft, cake-like texture. (Here’s why it works!)

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    Mix in tasty ingredients

    Take plain sugar cookies up a notch with exciting mix-ins like chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, toasted chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit or M&M’s. Add these after blending your butter and egg into the sugar cookie mix.

    This is our favorite hack for holiday Pillsbury cookie dough.

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    Give your cookie dough some color

    A few drops of food coloring make regular sugar cookie dough so much more fun, whether for drop or cutout cookies. Make your cookies all one color, or make batches of different colors to roll or stack together before slicing and baking.

    You can do more with premade cookie dough than you’d believe!

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    Chill the dough

    One of our favorite tips is to chill cookie dough before baking, and that goes for sugar cookie mix doughs, too. Chilling lets the dough fully hydrate for better-tasting cookies and also firms up butter in the dough so that the cookies won’t spread.

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    Roll cookies in toppings

    Form your sugar cookie dough into balls, then roll them in toppings like sprinkles or colorful sanding sugars. For snickerdoodle-like cookies, try rolling them in a cinnamon-sugar blend. After rolling, bake the cookies as directed.

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    Frost cookies with homemade icing

    You saved time with a store-bought sugar cookie mix, so make an easy, homemade buttercream, cream cheese frosting or decorating icing to top them. Add food coloring or flavored extracts to make them even snazzier. Here’s our recipe for easy royal icing.

    Our editors think THIS is the best store-bought cookie dough out there!

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    Dip your cookies in chocolate

    Gently melt chocolate or white chocolate chips in a microwave or a double boiler. Dip your baked, cooled sugar cookies in the melted chocolate, then let them cool. Once set you can even add a second dip or drizzles of a second kind of chocolate to your cookies.

    Originally Published: January 06, 2022

    Author

    Nancy Mock

    Nancy contributes writing, recipes and food photography to Taste of Home, where she covers regional eats, food history and trending dishes. Her work can also be seen on her website, Hungry Enough to Eat Six, as well as other food-focused publications. Nancy and her family live in New England and she’ll never say no to a plate of gravy-laden pouti...

    10 Secret Tricks to Make Store-Bought Sugar Cookie Mix Taste Homemade (12)

    10 Secret Tricks to Make Store-Bought Sugar Cookie Mix Taste Homemade (2024)

    FAQs

    10 Secret Tricks to Make Store-Bought Sugar Cookie Mix Taste Homemade? ›

    Use real butter in your dough

    Store-bought sugar cookie mixes will give the option of adding in butter or margarine, but always choose butter! It'll give your cookies the best, closest-to-homemade flavor. Use unsalted butter to be sure your cookies don't taste too salty.

    How to make packaged sugar cookie mix taste homemade? ›

    Use real butter in your dough

    Store-bought sugar cookie mixes will give the option of adding in butter or margarine, but always choose butter! It'll give your cookies the best, closest-to-homemade flavor. Use unsalted butter to be sure your cookies don't taste too salty.

    How can I improve my store bought cookie mix? ›

    Add brown sugar

    Adding it to the pre-made dough will give it more sweetness, a chewier texture, moisture and that homemade flavor you're craving. You can also melt butter with brown sugar and incorporate it into the dough for extra tender, chewier cookies.

    How to doctor up sugar cookie mix? ›

    Easy Add-In: After creating the dough according to the sugar cookie mix instructions, Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream to create a tangier, cakier and all-around more flavorful cookie. Flavor Twist: For a punchier twist, swap the water in the sugar cookie mix instructions for rum, bourbon or coffee liqueur.

    How to make store-bought cookies look homemade? ›

    Once the butter is lightly bubbling, place cookies in the pan. Leave them in just long enough so that they begin to brown on the bottom. Remove from heat, and with your (very clean) hand, slightly dent the tops and sides to create a slightly "homemade" look.

    Can I add peanut butter to store-bought sugar cookie mix? ›

    Sugar cookie dough mix provides many dessert options. You can enjoy your sugar cookies plain, frost them or mix in an ingredient such as peanut butter, nuts or chocolate chips to change the flavor and texture.

    What happens when you add extra sugar to cookies? ›

    What happens if you increase the amount of sugar called for in cookies? Conversely, when you increase the sugar in cookies, you'll get cookies that spread more and have an ultra moist and chewy texture in addition to a sweeter flavor.

    How to dress up store bought cookies? ›

    Insert food-safe wooden crafts sticks into sandwich creme cookies. Dip cookies into melted bittersweet chocolate chips. Add chocolate-covered pretzels for ears, candy eyeballs and a cinnamon imperial for the nose.

    How to keep store-bought sugar cookie dough from spreading? ›

    8 Tips to Stop Your Sugar Cookies Spreading
    1. Change Up Your Cookie Dough Recipe. ...
    2. Don't Overwhip Butter and Sugar. ...
    3. Knead Your Cookie Dough by Hand. ...
    4. Chill the Cookie Dough. ...
    5. Freeze Your Cut Sugar Cookies Before Baking. ...
    6. Using Warm Cookie Baking Trays. ...
    7. Don't Grease the Cookie Sheets. ...
    8. Incorrect Baking Temperature.
    Feb 9, 2023

    Can you roll out store-bought sugar cookie dough? ›

    Roll on floured surface until 1/4-inch thick. Cut with 2 1/2-inch cutter. Bake 8 to 11 minutes.

    How do you make store-bought cookies moist? ›

    You've got two options: the microwave or a terra cotta disc. Warm cookies are soft cookies, and the microwave can help revive a cookie. Wrap a cookie or two in a slightly damp paper towel and microwave on 50% power for 10 seconds. Repeat if necessary, being sure the paper towel isn't too wet.

    Why do homemade cookies taste better than store-bought? ›

    Have you ever read some of the ingredient labels for your favorite store-bought cookies? They can have a lot of additives, preservatives, and hydrogenated fats. When you make homemade cookies the ingredient list is pretty straight forward - butter, eggs, flour, and sugar, which results in higher quality cookies.

    What is the secret to making the best cookies? ›

    The key is to always use top-quality ingredients as they'll result in a better cookie; it really is that simple.
    1. Always use butter.
    2. Choose the right sugar.
    3. Choose the right flour.
    4. Check your flour is in date.
    5. Choose the right kind of chocolate.
    6. Cream the butter and sugar.
    7. Beat in the eggs.
    8. Fold in the flour.

    What to add to dry cookie mix? ›

    To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough. Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

    Can you add flavoring to sugar cookie dough? ›

    Flavors: I love flavoring this cookie dough with 1/2 teaspoon almond extract as listed in the ingredients above. For lighter flavor, use 1/4 teaspoon. Instead of the almond extract, try using 1 teaspoon of maple extract, coconut extract, lemon extract, or peppermint extract.

    How do you make box cookie mix less sweet? ›

    How do you make chocolate chip cookies less sweet? Add a bit of salt. As my mother used to tell me, you need some salt to “cut the sweet.” As an example, if you're using 2 cups of sugar in your recipe, add enough salt to equal a total of 1 teaspoon.

    Why are my Betty Crocker sugar cookies hard? ›

    You also might want to make sure your oven temp is accurate. Be gentle. If you handle the dough too much when making cutout sugar cookies, they'll get tough.

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