TikTok Exposes What Made Iconic Iced Sugar Cookies Taste So Good

You've seen them at your local grocery store, children's birthday parties, and every holiday work event that has ever been thrown. Lofthouse Sugar cookies are the delightfully cakey sugar cookies with festive frosting that have fed countless sugar fiends since their creation in 1994. And they never disappoint! Except ... lately, they've been a little disappointing, right?

At least, that's what TikTok user @jordan_the_stallion8 claims in a video that has garnered nearly 11 million views. Jordan points out that while we all used to love Lofthouse cookies as children, recently, people have been complaining that they have lost their oomph, claiming that "they all taste like flour and they're dry." He goes on to say that the reason behind the deflated taste and texture has to do with a recipe change that the company behind the cookies never made public. "The original recipe had sour cream in the cookies. That's why they were moist. That's why they tasted better," Jordan suggests.

While he doesn't reveal how he discovered the information about the recipe change, Lofthouse cookies changed hands a couple of times over the years — being acquired by ConAgra in 2002, and then Treehouse Foods Inc. in 2016 – making a recipe change a plausible explanation for the changes in taste and texture.

While removing sour cream from our favorite cookie recipe may not seem like a big loss, it could be the reason why so many lifelong fans are underwhelmed with Lofthouse's cookies as of late. Sour cream is created by adding lactic acid-producing bacteria to cream, which gives it a thick consistency and slightly tangy taste. It's that thickness that allows the sour cream to add a little extra moisture to your cookies without taking away from the consistency of the dough. What's more, a serving of sour cream has nearly six times more fat than a comparable serving of milk or buttermilk. The additional fat in the sour cream lends a certain richness to baked goods that simply cannot be achieved with other dairy products.

The acidic nature of sour cream also works wonders to improve the texture of baked goods like our once-beloved Lofthouse cookies. When acid meets gluten molecules in the dough, it acts as a tenderizer, breaking down its structural proteins, making for a sufficiently softer final product with much finer crumbs. Acid also acts as a catalyst for baking soda's leavening abilities, which contributes to a much fluffier cookie.

While Lofthouse may have underestimated the power of using sour cream in their dough, you don't have to! Jordan wraps up his TikTok by revealing the original Lofthouse cookie recipe so you can whip up your own batch at home – sour cream definitely included. "It won't be dry and it will taste nostalgic," he promises.