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.
These were wonderful!!
Salted or unsalted butter?
Unless a recipe specifies unsalted butter, you can always default to salted. Hope that helps!
This post changed me from a mom who wouldn’t do sugar cookies with her kids to one who hosts a sugar cookie making party with a dozen kids every year. I love that this recipe turns out really well every time (I even tripled the batch this time) and the parchment paper method is a game changer. Thanks!
Hello Sara
We are from different sides of the track. Over there is you a self admitted sugar cookie snob. On this side of the tracks is my home. While i handle my problem well the rest of the year i fall off the wagon every Christmas season. You see i am a sugar cookie junkie. East does meet west today, thank you for the recipe. Have a joy filled Christmas season.
Jay
Hi, do you know if these would work as drop cookies?
These ones not so much!
Just made these delicious cookies. Thank you so much for a recipe I’ll use again and again! My son loves them and I actually like them–and I don’t even really like cookies!
This is the best recipe however, I think it changed! Didn’t it used to tell you to put the dough in the refrigerator for a while to chill before rolling? I thought there was a whole short cut to doing that also. Where did it go? The dough is a bit too soft to work with right out of the bowl, right?
You’re right–I think it got lost in the shuffle when we added a recipe card! I’ve fixed it. My favorite trick, though, is to roll it onto a sheet of parchment while it’s still soft (as thick as you want the cookies, then top with another layer of parchment and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. It’s way easier than trying to roll out rock-hard dough! 🙂
Yes! That’s the shortcut! Thanks so much Kate!
Can you provide me with your recipe for the frosting you use on the pink frosted sugar cookies above. Thank you Sara. Warm regards Michele
Best best best sugar cookie recipe! It’s my standard now. I like them thick, they bake up just like Lofthouse cookies. They freeze awesome, with or without frosting first. They stay soft and delicious on the counter for a good week, almost getting better. My husband’s fav!
I made these for my daughter’s birthday party and they were a total hit. I managed not to burn them in the oven which says a lot about the easiness of the recipe, and everyone loved them. We decorated them with different colors of frosting and different sprinkles, and used black frosting to draw ‘button holes’ on the cookies (it was a sewing party). All in all a great recipe that I’ll come back to for future fun times!
Hi, This is a very simple sounding recipe. Haven’t tried it yet but have searched high and low for a good SOFT sugar cookie and tried many of them all with disappointing results. I can make great crisp cookies tho’. I have a recipe that my grandmother gave me years ago that was so good the cookies just seemed to melt in your mouth. She said the secret was don’t handle the dough much, use only sour cream from Jersey cows (they had them…I don’t) and lard was best for the shortening. Maybe so. I have made this recipe dozens of times and cannot duplicate her results. The taste is there but they lack the the cakelike softness. I will try your recipe next time and hope for the best.
So, tonight I was looking for the recipe for the glace icing, and I started poking around on the site. I have already made my cookies, and was just looking to see what icing recipes you had. We have been using this recipe for years – like my mom used to make these when I was a kid. I’ve wondered where it came from, and my mom has no idea, she said her mom used to use it 🙂 I love this recipe, and the cookies are amazing. I’m glad you got it out there, so more people can stop making bland cookies!
Wish I had known about the unsalted butter before I added the salt. They were s little salty. But the rolling out to chill and cut was the BEST hi t ever. Do easy!
Sara, from one Cookie snob to another, your dough is delicious!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!!!!
I searched for a sugar cookie recipe without shortening, and I came across a Sugar Cookie recipe by Sara@Our Best Bites. And I just have to say it is the BEST sugar cookie recipe ever. I was so happy with how my Halloween cutouts came out. The taste is great, even my husband enjoyed them and he don’t care for cookies. Thanks for the great recipe, Christmas cookies are next and this is going in my collection and is now my only sugar cookie recipe for me.
Trying these right now with the kiddies!!!!! 😉 Thank you!
Jess asked about butter…always use unsalted in baking unless the recipe specifies otherwise. I’ve had cookies nearly ruined b/c all I had was salted. Made them flat and I could taste the extra salt. You never know how much salt a particular brand will have in it.
Delicious!!! Super easy! They cut with cutters beautifully. Made two batches for my kids to decorate for Easter. I saw several posters had problems. Always use soft butter. I set mine out on the counter the day before. I always sift my flour into one bowl, then spoon it into my measuring cup to dump in a second bowl before adding the rest of the dry ingredients. As a test, I scooped out six cups of flour, sifted, then measured into a second bowl. I still had about two cups of flour in the first bowl. That’s a huge difference in measurement, especially with cookies. Love the advice to roll out between parchment before refrigerating! I rolled mine straight onto cookie sheets. After I cut my cookies, I balled up the scraps, rolled it out again and refrigerated. The key to keeping your cookies holding their cut shape is COLD dough, no matter how many times it has to go back in the fridge. My kitchen was warming up from double ovens so re-refrigeration was a necessity. I used your glaze recipe, too, and it rocks! I did an initial glaze on most of the cookies (set them back on cooling racks over cookie sheets for drips) and after the glaze set up, I mixed up several recycled snack applesauce cups with gel paste colored glaze (not re-thickened though), gave my two young kids (3-1/2 & 6-1/2) some paint brushes and sprinkles and let them have at it. I also put a few colors in small-tipped squeeze tubes for them. They had a blast! This is definitely a keeper recipe and I shared on Facebook. Thank you!
i am riting the cookie recipe rigtr now and am am ready i f we do purt it in the frige four and houre are us pachment paper do i
salted or unsalted butter?
I replied below.