Back in 2011, after many requests for a Potbelly sugar cookie clone, I came up with a recipe that was similar. Like the Potbelly cookies, the clones were very chewy, weighed about 4 oz and had red sprinkles on top. But guess what? Potbelly Sugar Cookies are no longer the same! They're still extra tasty, but the packaging is completely different and they do include the ingredients on the label. Here's a picture of a cookie I bought today.
Potbelly Sugar Cookie Description
And here's a picture of the old cookie. The old cookies were more compact and didn't spread quite as much. The new cookies, pictured above, weigh 3 ½ oz and are thinner and just as tasty. They have that outstanding chewy texture and lots of sparkly sugar on top for a little crunch. I guess they decided to abandon the red sparkles in favor of clear, and that's fine with me.
Homemade Version
The question is, can you make a homemade cookie similar to the ones from Potbelly? Well, the ingredients in the new cookies are pretty much the same as what a home baker would use so I'd say yes! You'll have to guess at those "natural flavorings". Do I detect a litte pineapple? A little almond? I'm still playing around with flavorings, but here's my almost copycat of the Potbelly sugar cookie.
Recipe
Giant Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, preferably bleached, (265 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup salted Land o' Lakes brand butter, softened (230 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- ½ cup brown sugar (100 grams)
- 1 large egg, room temperature (48 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon butter extract or Happy Home butter flavoring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two large rimmed baking sheets OR AirBake type cookie sheets with parchment paper. If using a convection oven, preheat to 330 degrees F.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and both sugars on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Stop mixer, scrape the bowl and beat on medium high for another 2-3 minutes or until light and creamy.
- Add the egg and beat for another minute, stopping to scrape the side of the bowl after 30 seconds. Beat in the flavorings (vanilla, almond and butter flavoring, if using)
- Add the flour mixture, stirring just until it’s incorporated. The dough should be soft and scoopable.
- Using a large cookie scoop, scoop 8 balls of dough onto a dinner plate. Shape them into balls then press down slightly to make ¾ to 1 inch thick rounds.
- Cover tops with sparkly sugar.
- Arrange the cookie dough rounds about 5 inches apart on baking sheet. You'll probably be able to fit about 4 on one baking sheet. I recommend baking one sheet at time.
- If you are using AirBake type cookie sheets, skip this step and just bake until done. But if you are using normal baking sheets, try this. Put a rimmed baking sheet on the rack and stack a slightly larger baking sheet with the cookies on top of it so that there's a layer of air beneath the bottom of the baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, or until the cookies are lightly brown around the edges and the center appears set but is still a bit pale. It should have tons of little wrinkles and crevices.
- Let cookies cool directly on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes or until they are firm enough to stay on a rack without falling through. Transfer to a rack and let cool completely.
Anna says
Hooray! Laurel, you're the first person I've heard from who has tried the new and improved version. I'm so glad it worked and that you're happy with the cookies. Thanks for letting me know.
Laurel G B says
Just made these (made 4, specifically, froze the remaining dough for later use) and they. are. GREAT! The flavoring combo is RIGHT ON. Also, I used your "mock AirBake sheet pan trick" and you were right!.....I had LIGHT cookie bottoms! Next time, I'll line with parchment instead of Silpat. Thank you SO much for a great recipe! ❤️
ds says
The Potbelly wrapper has the ingredients listed: Enriched flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, whole eggs, sodium bicarbonate, salt, water, natural and artificial flavor. No baking powder, shortening, or corn syrup. Maybe pineapple or almond or vanilla or nut & butter extract, if that might be included in "natural and artificial flavor." But I'm very sensitive to almond extract, and haven't detect that flavor in actual Potbelly sugar cookies.
Anna says
Hi Teri,
Yes! I liked the pineapple extract, but the flavoring that reminded me of Potbelly's was actually McCormick's Butter & Nut extract which can be found in some grocery stores and bought on-line. Also, the recipe that I now think is most like Potbelly's is this one. It has a combination of cream cheese and oil which gives it an interesting texture.
https://www.cookiemadness.net/2013/10/my-new-favorite-sugar-cookies/
Teri says
Anna,
Have you had a chance to try them with the pineapple extract, and if so did you like it? My husband is just crazy about Potbelly's sugar cookies so I can hardly wait to try your recipe!
Stephanie says
Oh my gracious! These are amazing. Better than Potbelly in my opinion! Thank you so much for posting and researching. Can't wait to share with my family and son's teachers:)
Elianna says
I also doubled my recipe and I thought that perhaps that could change the flavoring but I don't know. They still tasted amazing.
Elianna says
I tried this recipe out a couple weeks ago.. I LOVED IT! It tastes so much like the PotBelly cookies.
I did not have Almond Extract when I made mine, but I thought it tasted just fine. I think to really get the taste of the creaminess of the cookie, you do have to flatten it out a good bit. I only fit 4 cookies on one normal sized cookie pan and it fit pretty well.
I will be making these for a LONG time!! (I'm actually getting my ingredients together now so they'll be ready by the end of the day!)
Anna says
Hi Aaron,
First off, thanks for being so thoughtful in your critique. Not everyone is as nice! LOL. Mine weren't dry, but there are so many variables that could contribute -- weight of flour is the big one. If you didn't weigh the flour with a scale, it's possible you used more than I did. And you DID use cake flour, so that's good, but I always test with Swan's Down, so maybe you used Soft as Silk or Presto or Self Rising and got different results. Did you cut the sugar? Sugar helps maintain moisture and helps the cookies spread, so if you didn't pack your brown sugar quite as much as I did, that could play into it.
What's interesting is JayRay's cookies spread too much! So here we have the same recipe where one person's spread too much, while the other cookies didn't spread at all. Looks like I need to run a test and be more specific with what brands I used, the weight of the brown sugar, etc. I have the ingredients so I'll run another test today and see if I can figure out what's going on. I haven't made these in a while.
In the meantime, try the Fine Cooking sugar cookies I linked to. They're really good!
Aaron says
Hi Anna,
Thanks for doing all this testing. I am an extreme novice when it comes to baking but I have a huge soft spot for the PB sugar cookie. So after putting it off for a bit I finally tried this recipe. I too chilled the whole cookie sheet during the three hour chilling and my cake flour may have been a bit under . The cookies came out and didn't spread at all, instead I don't think I pressed them out far enough as the entire cookie ended up being about twice as thick as the typical PB cookie, which is not too much of a problem for me personally. The color on both the underside and the edges was perfect.
The real problem I experienced, though, is that the cookie turned out to be incredibly dry. I sat down with a cup of milk and drank the whole thing after 3 bites. The flavor seems to be there or very very close but the lack of doughy moisture killed it unfortunately. Do you have any idea what would cause that? Perhaps I didn't mix the ingredients properly?
Thanks for your help and for the site, it looks great.
Anna says
Well thanks for being diligent! Maybe it does have something to do with altitude. I wish I knew more about baking at different altitudes, but it's a subject that completely foreign to me at this point in time.
JayRay says
I tried again today and this time didn't get enough spread . . . I did up the flour content, lowered the baking powder to 1/4 tsp and increased the oven temperature. So the happy medium is somewhere in between I guess. I do live at 2000 ft. so that could have something to do with it also. Anyway, thanks again.
Anna says
I'll make a batch today and see if I can isolate the problem.
Interesting about the chilled cookie sheet! I may try baking two of the cookies on a cold cookie sheet just to see what happens.
What brand of cake flour do you use? I use either Swan's Down or my grocery store's house brand. I think both of them are bleached, and sometimes cookies made with bleached flour don't spread as much as unbleached. So if you chance you are using cookies made with unbleached cake flour (KA makes it), that might have something to do with it.
Also, you might want to weigh your brown sugar just for kicks. Sometimes the volume amounts very due to moisture and brands. I think I use Imperial, but will check today.
JayRay says
Thank you for the troubleshooting tips. I'll try again and chill the dough longer, I did put the whole cookie sheet in the refrigerator to chill the dough - maybe that had something to do with it. I did use the called for shortening and light brown sugar. I'll weight my flour next time (instead of using a cup) and use a different baking powder. I am very impressed with the actual cookie flavor - it is just as good if not better than PB. Thanks again!
Anna says
JayRay,
Hmm, let's troubleshoot.
--Did you happen to substitute use butter instead of shortening? Omitting the shortening and using butter in its place could cause spreading.
-- Did you use dark brown sugar instead of light?
-- Is it possible you used a very, very light hand with the flour and got under 6.25 ounces?
--Is your baking powder out of date?
-- Did you chill the rounds of dough? Sometimes you can skip that step, but with this recipe it's important.
Let me know if any of these apply. Sometimes it's other things like brands of flour, oven temp or cookie sheets, but this recipe is pretty straightforward and seems to work.
JayRay says
The taste of the cookie is fairly close to the real thing. I'm not sure how you got your cookies to stay so thick, I followed the recipe/instructions closely and got major spreading.
cici says
I LOVE potbelly's sugar cookies! It takes everything in me to not buy them every time!! Thanks for the recipe:)
Anna says
Hi Tom,
Wow, thanks for that hot tip! Now I'm going to try to find some pineapple extract.
Tom says
Potbelly Sugar Cookies DO NOT have Almond Extract in them. Potbelly's secret ingredient that makes them so unique is Pineapple Extract. Use 1/4 teaspoon of Pineapple Extract instead of Almond Extract.
Sarah says
I LOVE Potbelly's sugar cookies. Thanks for the recipe! I unfortunely left Chicago and live in Kansas. I tried this recipe and they are great! I split the recipe in 8ths and thought the first batch at 12 min. came out perfect but the second at 12 came a little overdone. Next time, I will cut the second time to 10 min. I also make my own amaretto. I think I will substitute that next time!
Brent Barrow says
Could you do the same experiment with the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from Potbelly's?
Anna says
Karen, thanks for the tip on the Paradise Bakery recipe. I think I may have tried that recipe or put it in my collection at one point, but I don't remember making it.
About Potbelly, you aren't the only one who's found them underwhelming. I think they appeal to people who like cookie dough or just really dough, heavy, cookies. I'm going to try the Paradise recipe. Thanks again.
Karen says
Hi Anna,
I just found your site and absolutely love it!!!! I was intrigued by the "cult" following of the Pot Belly sugar cookie and you trying to duplicate it. So I sent my husband for sandwiches and of course the "infamous" sugar cookie!
I have eaten and baked a lot of sugar cookies during my lifetime and have to say," I DON'T GET IT!" I did not dislike the cookie but it definitely was not spectacular!!! If you want to MAKE/TRY an EXCEPTIONAL SUGAR COOKIE, Paradise Bakery is the one!!! This cookie melts in your mouth, they are crumbly with a semi-crisp outside and soft in the inside. These are the most incredible cookies ever!!!!!
The Original PARADISE BAKERY RECIPE was printed in the Arizona Republic newspaper in 2001. The recipe I use can be found at
http://www.food.com. Search for "World Famous Paradise Bakery Sugar Cookies." Read the reviews for this recipe; I guarantee you will not be disappointed with this recipe!!!
Sue says
Hi Anna!
I was near a Potbelly sandwich shop at lunchtime yesterday and remembered your experiment so I purchased one of their sugar cookies for dessert. I liked the edges, but didn't love the softer centers.
You're really a trooper for doing the extensive testing to come up with clones like this!
Gloria says
This comment is about the potbelly sugar cookies you posted a while back...I was there today and remembered to try the cookie. Now they have the ingredients on the back of the wrapper. Mine was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I do think they could have used a pinch of salt to add some depth of flavor. It seems they use more white than brown sugar and just plain old butter. It still like crispy sugar cookies the best.
PhillyGirl says
Bless you, Anna! To me, Potbelly cookies are sugar cookie perfection and the possibility of making them at home is exciting! Thanks for doing the R&D on this one!!
Nancy Baggett says
It's great that you are taking the time to really test, experiment, and create new recipes! I know from experience that it is really hard to come up with a version of an existing recipe--but it is always so gratifying when you succeed. And once you learn the key secrets, you never forget them. Keep up the good work!
Erin says
Actually, I think Potbelly's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are TO DIE FOR. You can get a giant one that's perfectly crisp on the edges and soft in the middle or a bag of bite-size ones.
The be all, end all though, is the Oreo smoothie. YUM!
Yeah, I'm kind of a Potbelly's fanatic.
Hannah at FleurDeLicious says
I've never tried Potbelly's sugar cookies, but Otis Spunkmeyer brings back memories of middle school. They used to sell them at our gym concession stand, and I would buy them after difficult volleyball practices. YUM. Thanks for testing so diligently and sharing!
Paula B. says
I applaud the extensive research on this, a lot of time and tasting was expended on your part! I love sugar cookies, all kinds, but I can see why that soft texture appeals to many. For my bday on Wednesday I treated myself to a sugar cookie (two) from a local bakery. One of my friends and I feel that this bakery has the old fashioned recipe down pat! I never tire of trying new sugar cookie recipes at home, wish I was your neighbor so I could have helped in the testing!
Mackenzie@The Caramel Cookie says
A Potbelly's just opened opened near my house. Now I'm going to have to try their cookies :).
Jenny W (The Housewife Project) says
I never knew about using cake flour to make cookies softer. Thanks for the tip!
Danielle says
I recently just had my first potbelly cookie and loved it!! Mine did have an ingredient list and I looked to see if there was anything unusual. Just butter, brown sugar, vanilla, flour...nothing unusual, maybe milk? Anyways thanks for the recipe, excited to try it!!!
Gloria says
I love sugar cookies with almond extract! These look yummy! My husband loves to go to Potbelly and I've seen those cookies, but never tried one. I will next time!
Adam says
These look fantastic. And I love the fact that you made so many test batches, I'm quite envious :). How many cookies did you enjoy eating before you felt like you "had" to eat them :)?
Amy says
Try the Cooks Illustrated one from a couple of months ago that has a tiny bit of cream cheese. The texture of it sounds like it *might* be what you're describing.
Sue says
I love the name! 😉
Debbi Does Dinner Healthy says
I love when you do many half batches and test out a cookie. That means it's really good! I've never had Potbellys but these I want to try! Thanks!
natalie (the sweets life) says
great recipe trials there! i love potbelly's shakes but i've never had their cookies! i'll have to try your version though 🙂