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Almost Swig Sugar Cookie Recipe

Make at home recipe for famous Utah Swig cookies! Best served cold with room temperature frosting!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cookie, copycat recipe, sugar cookie, Swig Cookie
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
cooling time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 18 cookies
Author abountifulkitchen

Ingredients

dough:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, slightly soft
  • 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar or powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract optional
  • 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour do not sift!
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • sugar for top of cookies

frosting:

  • 1/2 cup butter room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
  • dash of salt
  • 1-2 drops red food coloring
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk**

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 convection or 350 regular bake.

  2. Take butter out of refrigerator and microwave for about 15 seconds or just until slightl soft.

  3. Place butter, oil and cold sour cream in a mixing bowl.

  4. Mix for about one minute.

  5. Add sugar and almond extract, mix until smooth.

  6. Add all dry ingredients at once.

  7. Mix just until flour disappears and the mixture comes together in a ball of dough, about 1 minute on very low speed.

  8. Spray the cookie scoop with a little cooking spray.

  9. Scoop the dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. I use a 2 inch scoop. A 2 inch scoop will produce a cookie similar in size to the Swig cookie. If you don't have a cookie scoop, use an ice cream scoop or roll the dough into a ball about the size of a golf ball. It is best to use a scoop and overfill it a bit to get the desired jagged edge.

  10. Place about 1/4 cup sugar into a small bowl.
  11. Spray the bottom of a flat glass with cooking spray.
  12. Flatten one cookie a bit then dip the glass in sugar.
  13. Press the bottom of the glass against the cookie. Press the cookies so they are flattened a bit ( until the cookie dough just reaches the outside of the edge of the glass) twisting the glass as you press to produce a jagged edge.
  14. I bake 8 cookies per tray. Continue until all cookies are flattened.
  15. Bake in oven for about 10-12 minutes on convection or about 12-15 minutes regular bake or until edges are lightly golden and cookies are slightly firm to the touch.

  16. Remove from oven, let cool. Loosen the cookies from the cookie sheet after cooled a bit, or they will stick to the pan (even though it has been lightly greased).

  17. Place the cookies in the fridge and chill.

Prepare the frosting:

  1. Beat together the butter, sour cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. When all ingredients are incorporated, add the drop of food coloring and a little milk if the frosting needs to be thinned.
  2. Frost after the cookies are completely chilled.
  3. Makes about 18 large cookies.

Recipe Notes

Tips and (surprise) a few more comments

  • The recipe looks a little long and maybe even complicated, but it's not. Once you get the hang of the technique for scooping and pressing, it takes less than a half hour to make and bake the entire batch.
  • If you want the cookies to taste more like the original Swig cookies make this adjustment to the dough: Omit the almond extract and reduce the sugar to a total of 3/4- 1 cup.I prefer the cookies to be sweeter, so I like 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the dough. 1 1/2 cups of sugar may sound like a lot, but consider traditional chocolate chip cookies have 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar to 2 1/2 cups of flour. The ratio here is 1 1/2 cups sugar to 4 1/2 cups flour.
  • For a more crumbly cookie edge texture, use shortening instead of butter. You may use solid regular or butter flavor shortening. The first time I posted this recipe, I used: 
  • The bit of crunch on the edge of the Swig cookie could be from the baking method, or from cream of tarter substituted for the baking powder. Cream of tarter adds a bit of a crunch, but also a hint of tang, which I didn't detect in the Swig cookie. In one of my test batches, I tried 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter along with 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, and thought the cookie was too tangy, not at all like the Swig cookie.
  • This cookie measures about 3 3/4 to 4 inches across when finished baking.
  • The St. George Swig cookie is frosted with quite a thin layer of frosting. I prefer my frosting to be a bit thicker. If you want to frost the cookie with a thinner frosting, add about 3-4 tablespoons of milk to the frosting.
  • This cookie stays quite well in the fridge for about a week  or two if kept in an air tight container. I frost the cooled cookies, then store them in the fridge. Once the frosting is set on the cookie, you may layer the cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper. This allows you to stack the cookies without taking up too much space in the refrigerator.
  • This cookie freezes well frosted or unfrosted.
  • If you are making this for a gathering where there will be other desserts, use a smaller cookie scoop and bake for less time.