This Sugar Cookie Recipe has been a crowd favorite for YEARS because it produces a consistent cookie with the perfect buttery flavor. These cookies hold their shape beautifully when cut with cookie cutters and one of the best things is that you can choose to bake these sugar cookies soft and thick, or thin and crisp and both ways are phenomenal! You can cut them out with cookie cutter shapes, or simply roll balls in sugar and flatten with the bottom of a glass. We love them topped with our Classic Fluffy Buttercream or for something more fun and fancy, our Glace Icing.
Ingredient and Equipment Notes
- Butter – unless you have a dairy allergy or preference that prohibits butter, I recommend real butter for these cookies. I have not tested with plant-based alternatives so I cannot speak to that. Your butter should be a room temperature. If it’s not at room temp already, I like to cut my butter into small pieces and leave on the counter for 20-30 minutes. This generally works better than softening in the microwave, which often leads to uneven melting.
- Sugar – These cookies use white granulated sugar for sweetness and texture.
- Egg– It’s important to use a large or extra large egg in this recipe. If you use a small egg, there might not be enough liquid to bring the dough together.
- Extract – You may use vanilla or almond extract in these cookies, or a combination of both! My personal favorite is almond extract.
- All Purpose Flour– Use all purpose here, and make sure to measure carefully. Too much flour and the dough will be dry and crumbly. I recommend using a scale to measure by weight, but if that is not available, fluff your flour first with a spoon before measuring, then measuring by lightly spooning the flour into the measuring cup and leveling off with a knife.
- Stand Mixer – You can absolutely make these cookies with a hand mixer, but if you have a stand mixer, I recommend you use it. After your dry ingredients are added, the dough will sometimes look a little dry and crumbly but it will come together quickly into a soft, cohesive dough. It takes a little more time with a hand mixer, but a stand mixer will whip it up in a hurry!
Instructions
- Start by beating your real butter and sugar and continue creaming for a full 2 minutes or so. Your mixture will turn light and creamy in texture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
- Add egg and extract and mix to incorporate.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined. Your dough will first look crumbly, but keep mixing with a stand mixer and it will quickly turn into a soft cohesive dough.
- You’ll need to chill your dough for about 1 hour. You can do so with dough gathered into one large mass, or use my preferred method which not only cuts down on chill time, but saves effort by rolling dough while it’s soft!
How to Easily Roll Sugar Cookie Dough with no Additional Flour
One of the problems with dusting your surface with flour before rolling cookies, is that you add a bunch of extra flour to your dough. Try to handle it as little as possible. Here is the best method to do that.
- Start by taking half (or all) of your dough and forming it into a rough ball and then flattening a little onto a silicone baking mat. If you don’t have a silicone baking mat, you can use parchment or plastic wrap but they tend to slide around the counter so it just takes a little more effort.
- Then place a piece of parchment paper (or plastic wrap) over your dough and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough between the baking mat and the parchment. This makes it so you can easily roll the dough with no flour needed, and nothing sticks to anything.
- What I do next is pick up my silicone baking mat and flip the whole “package” over, so the parchment is on the counter, the dough in the middle, and the baking mat on top. Peel off the baking mat and place your parchment and dough on a baking sheet that can now go in the fridge or freezer to chill. I put it on a baking sheet or directly onto a flat surface in the fridge or freezer.
How to Cut the Best Sugar Cookies
This dough retains its shape incredibly well, just make sure it’s chilled. I like to place mine in the freezer for 15 minutes or so, but you can also place it in the fridge. If you’ve used my method of rolling the dough out first, it needs far less time to chill. Then cut out shapes and repeat the rolling process with the remaining dough. If you want super crisp edges on your finished baked cookies, you can even pull out your cutter again and re-cut when they are hot right out of the oven.
How long do I bake Sugar Cookies?
The great thing about this recipe is that you can roll these cookies thick and under-bake them and they will be crazy soft and delicious. OR you can roll them thinner (1/4 inch or less) and bake until you see the edges start turning golden brown and they are perfectly buttery-crisp on the edges. Many recipes will simply be dry when baked till golden brown, but these are incredibly good- similar to a shortbread cookie that melts in your mouth. I love them both ways! Here’s a photo example of what you’d be looking for:
Frosting the Best Sugar Cookies: 3 Ideas!
For straight up flavor, we love our Classic Buttercream Frosting on sugar cookies. It’s the most traditional combination!
If you’d like something a little more fun and artistic, try our popular Glace Icing and glaze.
And if you’d like to top them with royal icing, you can try my hand painted decorating technique!
How do I store Sugar Cookies?
If I’m making a large amount of sugar cookies I will almost always make them ahead of time because sugar cookies freeze beautifully! Simply cool completely after baking and then layer between parchment in the freezer. When you are ready to frost, just pull them out of the freezer- you can even frost them while still frozen and let them come to room temperature on the counter. Alternately, you can simply place baked cookies in an airtight container and store at room temperature.
Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: About 30, 2 1/2 inch cookies
- Category: baking
Description
Perfect buttery sugar cookies that can be baked either thick and soft or thin and crisp. They hold their shape well and are perfect for decorating! Pair with our Best Buttercream Frosting for the perfect cookie!
Ingredients
1 cup real butter at room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 large or extra large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
3 cups flour (390g) lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled (don’t scoop!)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Instructions
Note: I recommend a stand mixer for this recipe, if you have one. If not, a hand mixer will work just fine.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add in egg and extract and mix to incorporate.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Tip: Don’t use your measuring cup to scoop up the flour. Either weight it, or use a regular sized spoon and lightly spoon the flour into the cup and then level it off with a knife.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined. Your dough may at first look crumbly, but keep mixing and it will quickly turn into a soft cohesive dough.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour, OR use my method of pre-rolling as explained below.
- Preheat oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll chilled dough and cut into shapes.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies. Baking time is a personal preference. Watch for the edges and tops to be set. If you like your cookies crisp on the edges, roll them thinner and bake until just golden brown on the edges. If you want thick, soft cookies, remove from oven when cookies are puffed and set, but no browning is visible.
Suggested Pre-Rolling Method:
Gather half (or all) of your dough and form into a large ball. Place on a silicone baking mat (or a large piece of plastic wrap) and press down gently. Place a sheet of parchment paper on top of your dough and then roll on top of the parchment into an even layer about 1/4 inch thick, or thicker if you desire thick cookies. Pick up your silicone mat and flip the entire thing over. Peel off silicone baking mat so you are left with your sheet of parchment with your rolled dough on top. Place this parchment-lined dough on a baking sheet and place in the fridge or freezer. Repeat with remaining dough. (See recipe tutorial for photos of this process.) Refrigerate for about 20 minutes or pop in the freezer for about 10. Continue with recipe as written.
Micky- just never scoop flour with your measuring cup. Use a spoon to lightly spoon it into your cup and then level it with a knife. That should work just fine!
Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Homemade sugar cookies that taste good on their own… now that's a fantastic concept! 🙂
I'd really like to give it a try and was wondering if you could please say how you measure the flour, or how much one cup should weigh?
Thank you for a wonderul blog!
I baked the chocolate dough and it turned out pretty tasty just hard to roll out and when it finally loosened it's grip on being frozen it didn't want to work with the cookie cutters. but I forced it into submission and it was worth it! thanks for the tips and your blog has completely sucked me in I have a "recipes" bookmark folder that's just filled with things from here; not to mention having our best bites on my hotbar.
spiritleaf- You don't want to just add cocoa powder, you want to *remove* some of the flour first. I have made these chocolate before with excellent results. I think I replaced about 1/4 C of the flour with cocoa. You could also probably keep all of the flour and add in some melted chocolate but I've never tried it that way. Good luck!
So I'm in this long distance relationship with my boyfriend and he's coming over in a few days and my valentines "treat" for him is cookies. I wanted a third of the recipe to be chocolate, so I fluffed up the butter and sugar(and whatnot), separated out a third, mixed up the flour mixture and separated a third of that, then I added 1/4 cup cocoa powder to the removed third of flour as about with the measurements from this post http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateSugarCookie.html
So to make sure I did this right I mixed the chocolate first and this is where I realized by adding the cocoa it needed more moisture; of course this is after I've added more of the butter fluff than intended. So now both of them are dry and I don't feel like thawing out more butter to fluff so I just added an egg to each and compensated any extra moisture with flour…. any tips you have for making this recipe chocolate without the trouble I ran in to?
and I'm baking them later so I hope the egg won't mess them up
( made homemade puppy(for chocolate) and heart(for normal) cookie cutters out of card stock tape and a lot of will power, surprisingly they work great.)
OH MY GOODNESS!!! I just made these cookies and they are amazing!! This is the first time I have ever made sugar cookies from scratch and they turned out perfect. Yum yum yum!
I'm not a big fan of sugar cookies b/c most of them taste like cardboard, but I love how pretty they look once decorated. So I thought I'd give your recipe a try, after 2 stops at the grocery store on the way home (1st for Flour & Karo Syrup, 2nd for Real Butter – I read the other post so I knew the 2nd stop was a must) I haven't even baked the cookies yet (they are chilling in my fridge) and this is already the BEST SUGAR COOKIE RECIPIE EVER…. I couldn't stop eating the uncooked dough. I used lemon extract and added a bit of fresh grated nutmeg simply b/c I love the smell and I like the way the nutmeg looks sprinkled throughout the dough. Can’t wait to bake them later on today.
Thank YOU so much for sharing the recipe. These cookies are great; everyone loves them (and the icing). I love that they remain soft even after a few days. I didn't have any break up on me after I iced and boxed them. It's a hit with the kids too. 🙂
Thank YOU so much for sharing the recipe. These cookies are great; everyone loves them (and the icing). I love that they remain soft even after a few days. I didn't have any break up on me after I iced and boxed them. It's a hit with the kids too. 🙂
I did use just large eggs. Did you use extra large eggs? I added milk to the dough and got it to the point where it started to stick together, and the cookies turned out, but without the milk it would have been impossible to roll.
I'm not sure what the crumbly issue is! I make these from the recipe here on the blog so I know it's written right. Are you using large eggs? Or extra large? That could definitely make a difference. Otherwise maybe some sort of environmental factor, or maybe you're just used to softer doughs? I wish I had a better answer!
I had the same crumby problem with my dough. it got very crumbly and it was very difficult to roll it flat between the wax paper before I put it in the fridge. I haven't made my cookies yet so I'm not sure how it will turn out.
My dough was super crumbly too! I double checked the instructions, and I had everything right… I just added some water…which probably was not smart, but I am out of milk! The dough is in the fridge right now, so I won't know if my water remedy helped or not for awhile.
I am so sad! I followed this recipe exact, although I did double the batch, and the dough turned out WAY too crumbly. I would have put less in, but my baking powder and salt was already mixed in the flour. I counted 6 cups of flour out loud as I measured exactly each one into the bowl, otherwise I would have just assummed I misscounted. Are you sure that if you double it, you would add 6 cups of flour?
Ya know, that's just how it is. I think it's a matter of making it enough times that you get a feel for how the dough works. You should only have the crumbly problem if you try and roll it out when it's too cold. The easiest thing is probably to use the tip mentioned in the post. Before you chill the dough at all, roll it between 2 sheets of parchment or waxed paper and *then* pop them in the fridge. That seems to work the best!
Thanks Sara, I was concerned that I would never be able to roll it out with it being that hard. Also, I read in the other comments that some people had a problem with it being kinda crumbly. I had that problem too and I followed your directions exactly. Any tips on what to do if that happens the next time I make them? The dough tastes yummy by the way 😉
Jaymie- nope, that sounds right! This dough gets very hard if chilled for extended periods of time. That's why the instructions say to chill for 1-2 hours. But overnight is just fine, you'll just need to leave it out at room temp and when it's soft enough to handle, go for it!
After reading all the great comments on this cookie recipe I decided I had to try it myself. I've never done cookies like this before. I put the dough in the fridge overnight and it is rock hard this morning..is it supposed to be this hard or did I do something wrong? I followed the directions exactly I'm sure.
I have to repeat what everyone else has already said because these are definitely the best sugar cookies I've ever made…and as an added bonus they require so few ingredients and they were easy to make. I did run into the problem of really crumbly dough (I used real butter and measured correctly) so I just added a tablespoon of milk and it remedied the problem. I can't wait to decorate them, although they already taste good without the icing.
I just made these cookies with the glace icing. I have to say, these were by far one of the best sugar cookies I've had. And they were so pretty! The icing was so easy to make, and use! My cookies always have looked like a 5 year old has decorated them, but not this year! They were gorgeous…I've already gotten compliments on them! Thank you so much for these recipes! I'm already planning to make another batch for gifts. The only problem I had was that no matter how much I floured my rolling pin, the dough still seemed to stick to the pin…it was almost like the dough had air bubbles, too? In the end though, the cookies were still worth the time it took to roll them out! Thank you! I just adore your blog!
Jen
Josie, use a KitchenAid if you have one… 🙂
do u use a mixer(hand)or kitchen aid to cream sugar and butter?
Sugar cookies sound yummy!! Do you have the recipe for the Almond Cream Cheese Frosting too? Thanks!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Finally a sugar cookie and icing that taste amazing and look fabulous too! I made these for a bake sale and people were really excited and they sold right away.
I've tried to make sugar cookies before, and they just turned out bad, especially the icing.
I just made these last night for a church activity. I have a 'go-to' recipe for sugar cookies, but realized I didn't have one of the ingredients. Not wanting to haul the kiddos to the store, I looked to see what OBB had. I've tried many recipes in the past and always loved the results, so I committed to the cookies!
They are different from my cookies, but they were wonderful! The flavor was delicious and the glace icing was beautiful! Thanks for helping me out of a pinch!!
My son and I used this recipe to make our Halloween cookies and they held their shape very well. We did cats, ghosts and pumpkins and used the glace icing recipe from your site to top them. This was my first time making cookies from scratch; it was easy and they were awesome! I can't wait to make more at Christmas!
I tried your sugar cookie recipe for my nephew's 1st Halloween B-day Party & they were a huge hit, everybody loved them. I'll have to try the glace icing next, I just used store bought cookie decorating icing, thanks.
These looked so cute, I had to run to the kitchen and whip some up. I have 6 batches cooling in the fridge for tomorrow right now 🙂
Hi Sara,
I am going to give this another try tonight and this time I am going to try other methods to ensure the sticks adhere to the dough after baking… wish me luck.
Will 'report' back here after 'work' 🙂
Kristie- nope, none of that sounds normal! Did you use real butter? Are you sure everything was measured correctly? I'm not sure why it would be super soft. After chilling it's actually on the super firm side. But I know somewhere in the comments someone else asked the same question- so I'd love to pinpoint your problem!