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
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: About 30, 2 1/2 inch cookies
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.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: baking
Questions & Reviews
Hi Sara,
I finally tried out this recipe, I used almond extract and it tastes really yummy.
I have a few problems though:
-The dough was really soft to handle even though I chilled it in the fridge. Therefore, while cutting the dough using cutters, it was so soft and it broke, I hand to really handle it with TLC… Is this normal?
-I followed ur instructions for cookie pops, I placed a stick and directly place dough on top of it, halfway up and pressed it slightly. However, after baking, the cookie didn't adhere to the stick, is it cos I didnt press hard enough?
Thanks.
Thanks Sara, sorry for replying u late. My son has not been feeling well the last few days.
Thanks for ur reply, I will half recipe and try out first!
thanks hun–that is totally what i thought but i didn't want to mess them up somehow without asking first!! can't wait to try them!
Marcy- by all means, use any flavor you like! If you can't do almond try vanilla 🙂
Kristie- the yield depends on the size of cookie cutter and the thickness of the dough. The last time I made 2" cookies on the thin side I got 40-50. If you want to make a good sized cookie, I would double it because you can always freeze the left overs 🙂
Hi Sara,
I'm planning to make cookie pops for my son's 1st birthday, how many cookies did this recipe yield?
Thanks 🙂
Hi- I am a newbie to your site and seriously haven't gotten anything done around my house for the past 2days because i can't seem to do anything else during nap time but look at new, fun recipes. I would love to try these sugar cookies but my oldest is allergic to nuts of all kinds- and therefore i cannot use almond extract–what else should i use in place of that?? any suggestions. in fact–there are a ton of your recipes that call for PB that i wish i could make. but that is just the way the 'cookie' crumbles i guess huh?
anyway–love love love this site. thanks so much for taking the time to help all of us moms out! it is much appreciated by me and i am sure my hubby will soon agree!!
it says in the recipe that you use any type of extract flavor
OK, so I am making lots of sugar cookies lately…but today has me frustrated.
I can get 1 or 2 cookies onto the cookie sheet before the dough turns to goo.
I pre-rolled the dough last night in between 2 sheets of wax paper. I did the same thing last time and was able to get about 4 cookies before the dough turned to goo.
So, is there some kind of trick I am not thinking of to get more shapes out?
I followed what you have written exactly.
🙁
Oh, I’m sorry some of your shamrocks broke. That’s not very lucky, is it? lol. That can happen sometimes with sugar cookies when there’s a larger piece connected to the cookie by a smaller piece (like leaves). One thing that will help is to roll the cookies a little thinner and cook them a little longer Thick, soft cookies will break a lot easier because of the weight. And cookie glue? Yes- it’s called frosting! haha. I personally like broken cookies because it gives me an excuse to eat them 🙂
I made some shamrock cookies with this recipe and on several cookies my “leaves” broke. Any idea what I did wrong to make that happen? Is there a way to fix it. like some sort of cookie glue???
So, I made the cookies. I was doing a test run for a craft day with the kids. (Making shamrocks for them to frost on St.Patty’s)
I ended up making the batch for a birthday party we went to today. They were a hit. They loved them and I am about to forward on the recipe to the others.
For me…I would like them a bit more sweeter…
But they are good cookies, don’t get me wrong! My son and husband ate them up!
It’s a keeper and now to try out those breadsticks! I think I’ll have all my meals taken care of for a while now! I have a lot of new recipes to try out! 😉
Thank you! I thought so but I wanted to make sure!
I couldn’t find a key anywhere! lol
I am going to make the dough right now. I hope they come out yummy! I haven’t had a great let alone a good sugar cookie in sometime. I like them to be soft. So, I hope this will be the one!
I’ll let you know! Thanks!
Adriana- a lowercase “t” in a recipe always stands for teaspoon and a capital “T” is always Tablespoon 🙂
What does the “t” stand for??
teaspoon or tablespoon…..??
Thanks!
Sara,
Hmm, I am totally stumped. I did use real butter (it’s all I cook with). I wonder what I did wrong. The cookies tasted great in the end. I’ll have to try it again and just have more cookies to eat 🙂
Amber- no, it shouldn’t be be crumbly, in fact it’s usually on the soft side before it’s chilled (once chilled completely it gets pretty hard)did you real butter?
Sara,
I just gone done making the dough (with my special little helper), and I have a question. When all done, my dough was really crumbly in the bowl, is that supposed to be? I was able to mash it all together into two balls, and my little taste tester said it was yummy dough, but I just wanted to know if it’s supposed to be totally crumbly. Thanks.
Glad to know that there are other sugar cookie “snobs” and have admitted it’s okay to proudly claim it. I’m making these for my nieces birthday with pink frosting 🙂
I’ve been looking for a good sugar cookie recipe and this was my answer! I made them and loved the result. Thanks for sharing!
Kara, I totally haven’t written it down. Mostly because right after I posted about these I started a diet! lol. But I think when I wrote it down before I said I used equal parts cream cheese and butter, and that’s not true. I probably use twice as much butter than cream cheese. So just go with that, and add sugar till it’s just sweet and some almond and vanilla extract. Can’t really go wrong with those ingredients!
Sara, have you ever written down that Almond Buttercream recipe?? I am totally wanting to make these today. I know you wrote a basic recipe down, and I may go off of it, but just wondering if you have more exact recipe?
Thanks so much for the recipe. I made these with my daughters on Christmas Eve and they were great. I also made some icing using your recipe and I loved it.
Just wonderful! This recipe is very simple and wonderful. I made these this afternoon. I will give you a link of the finished product later. Thanks for posting this! =)
Melissa Melissa Melissa… I can’t help ya if you use margarine AND extra flour! lol That’s the problem right there girl. Try it as the recipe is written and you shouldn’t have any problems. The dough isn’t goopy, so you shouldn’t have to add anything extra. If it’s just really soft, then you just need to make sure it chills for long enough. When it’s completely chilled, it’s actually quite hard, so goopy-ness shouldn’t be a problem. Hope you try it again with more success!
Okay. I made these cookies a few days ago, and they didn’t turn out quite like yours.
First, I used margarine instead of butter. (shame on me) When I mixed everything together, the dough was still goopie, so I added more flour.
I baked them for 8 minutes. They were a little soft, but then turned hard .. probably from all the flour.
Does real butter help the dough not be so goopie?
Thanks for the heads up Heather! 10 bucks is a GREAT deal on a Silpat!
Seems that in honor of your post, Amazon has a Silpat sale: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008T960?tag=slickdeals
Oh ok! Wheuff! (or whatever)
Good. I am about to make the dough, so thanks for the prompt reply! 🙂 Wish me luck
oh Waddledee don’t worry, that’s not a technical phrase at all! All you have to do is put the dough in the fridge 🙂
I just take it out of the mixing bowl (so I can wash the bowl) and then I take the dough and divide in half. Less dough is easier to work with and it will chill faster. So I take the two dough balls and pat them down just to flatten them a little (again, only so it will chill faster) and wrap in waxed paper, or plastic wrap or whatever. Does that make sense? Like I said, it just means “stick it in the fridge” lol.
Hi, Im new to this, so could you email what “Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. ” means? What do the disks look like, and how big are they? Thanks for the recipe!
Yay! I love cookies! I’m excited to try these tomorrow as a little family activity. Though decorating cookies with a two-year-old sounds a bit…ambitious?