Classic Sugar Cookies Recipe (2024)

By Alison Roman

Classic Sugar Cookies Recipe (1)

Total Time
1½ hours, plus 2 hours' chilling
Rating
4(2,864)
Notes
Read community notes

Everyone needs a good sugar cookie recipe. If you can master the very simple technique behind this one dough, you have several variations at your disposal, most likely without a trip to the grocery store.

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Ingredients

Yield:4½ dozen cookies

  • cups/510 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 1teaspoon kosher salt
  • cups/340 grams unsalted butter (3 sticks), at room temperature
  • cups/250 grams granulated sugar
  • 2large eggs
  • 1teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Frosting, glaze or royal icing
  • Edible glitter or food-grade luster dust

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Make the recipe with us

  1. Step

    1

    In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

  2. Step

    2

    In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium-high until the mixture is light, fluffy and pale, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl, and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, and beat until everything is well combined, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed.

  3. Step

    3

    Add dry ingredients all at once, and mix on low speed just until incorporated.

  4. Scrape dough out of bowl and divide it in half. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap, patting into a 1-inch-thick disk. Chill at least 2 hours and up to 5 days.

  5. Step

    5

    Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out dough, one disk at a time, on lightly floured parchment paper or work surface until it's about ⅛ inch thick. Create shapes, using a lightly floured cookie cutter. (Alternatively, using a knife, cut the dough into squares, rectangles or diamonds.) If at any point the dough becomes too soft to cut and cleanly remove from parchment paper, slide it onto a cookie sheet and chill for a few minutes in the freezer or refrigerator. Gather any dough scraps and combine them into a disk. Roll and repeat the cookie-cutting process, chilling as necessary.

  6. Step

    6

    Place shapes onto parchment-lined baking sheets 1 inch apart and bake until cookie edges are lightly browned with sandy, pale centers, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Cool the cookies on a rack, if you have one. Otherwise, let them cool on the pan. Decorate with a glaze, royal icing, frosting, glitter, food-grade luster dust or whatever you'd like. Don’t forget the sprinkles.

Tip

  • Cookie dough can be made 5 days ahead and refrigerated. Cookies can be baked 2 days ahead, wrapped tightly and stored at room temperature.

Ratings

4

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2,864

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

GillianPagel

This is very close to the recipe my mom used in her bakery. We made these without the baking powder. Since we are cutting out shapes we find no leavening results in cookies that keep their shape when baked. And they taste delicious. You can brush lightly with water and sprinkle with colored sugar crystals before baking.

Mary Rae Fouts

This recipe makes a fabulous drop sugar cookie. I made half of the recipe, with the exception of leaving the vanilla at 1 tsp, made 29 cookies. Chill dough for 20-30 minutes, form balls slightly smaller than a golf ball, roll in Sparkling Sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet (no parchment needed), slightly flatten with 2 fingers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 14 - 16 minutes, rotate multiple sheets half way through time. Soft cookie with crunchy edge.

Jane

It is a Grandchild favorite for both cutting out with cookie cutters and especially decorating. It is very similar to an old Tupperware cookie cutter recipe. To have control of rolling out dough, I would suggest dividing dough in quarters versus halving. Also, a tiny bit of water can be added to the last bits of dough scraps to add moisture for rolling. Fun to make and delicious.

Cait

Really delicious and not overly sweet. This is a great cookie for frosting if you don't want the cookies to be painfully sweet at the end. (Without frosting, they're great for people who like less-sweet desserts.) Nice texture as well, and easy to cut with a cookie cutter. This is going to be my go-to sugar cookie from now on. A+.

marteycostello

I should have divided the dough in quarters, note to self! My dough was very soft, perhaps my eggs were larger. I found it helpful to roll the dough out between sheets of parchment, freeze it for a few minutes, and then cut out the cookies.

Kate

We followed this recipe as written with a kitchen scale for precision. My 4 year old and I made maple leaf cookies. The first batch came out of the oven with rounded edges. We put the next batch (baking tray and all) in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. Presto! Beautiful sharp edges. The cookies are not too sweet and are perfect for icing. Make sure cookies are at least 1/8 inch thick or they will brown too quickly.

Limolady

Do you have the recipe for colored royal icing?

Megan

Perfect sugar cookie dough for decorating. I echo another commenter's idea to divide into quarters; it will give you enough time to roll and cut the dough before it gets too soft.

esther

340 grams is 3/4 of a pound or 3 sticks. A stick of butter is 1/2 cup. 3 sticks = 1 and 1/2 cups.

esther

there are 128 gms to a cup of flour. Flour is lighter than liquid.

Nao

Came out well with Bob’s Mill Gluten Free Flour 1 to 1(I used butter and egg as directed) and longer baking time. But it way too sweet for me, I will try again with modified amount of sugar. Anyone who likes less sweet cookie then reduce the amount of sugar.

portabillie@gmail.com

Regarding the cups/grams of flour equivalency, I believe the gram measurement is incorrect as it relates to 3.5 cups. There are 227 grams to a cup. This, multiplied by 3.5 equals 794.5. I made the recipe with 795 grams of flour and it was perfect.

Rick DeAngelis

I like to use grams in cooking and I noticed that 510 grams is about 4 and 1/4 cups and not 3 and 1/2 cups . So which is it? We'll see.

Beau

Great tasting recipe! However, made these exclusively for cookie cutter shapes and found it to be too much baking powder. I used about ¾ of a tsp and it was still to much. I would cut that down to about a ¼ tsp to insure the cookies hold the shape.

SusanE

Wonderful sugar cookies. Followed exactly as written. The dough rolled out beautifully and baked without puffing around the edges, thus holding the cut shapes. Valentine's cookie success! I'm saving this one for sure.

Renee

In the tropics the dough became so soft so quickly, I portion the dough into 8 balls, placed the balls into the freezer, then rolled each ball out, put the rolled disks into the freezer, cut smaller biscuits, back into the freezer - then finally baked when I had a full tray of biscuits to bake - so it added at least 1h30 onto the process. Biscuits tasted great - but have gone soggy in the humidity very quickly

Victoria

DEFINITELY cook at 350F - same timing. 325F makes pale sad cookies...

Charles A

I don’t bake often. So when I do, I like to weigh the ingredients when possible. So when adding the flour I used the amount specified in the recipe, 510 grams. What I found out later was this was 90 grams or 3/4 cups too much. For nearly all All-Purpose Flour one cup weighs 120 grams. As a result the cookie dough was too dry and hard to work with. While it would be best if the recipe was corrected, if you are referencing the ingredient weights, please beware of this discrepancy on the flour.

Leslee

Delicious cookies but because of the high butter content, they start melting very quickly. I was making them with my toddler granddaughter and you can’t rush that! I recommend that when you have scraps after cutting, to freeze them for a few minutes instead of refrigerating as the recipe recommends. You’ll have better success in them staying firm until you cut them.

Laura S

Good, simple, not too sweet, works well for cutting.

Jo

Made labradoodle cookies with this recipe. Great recipe

Perfect Cookies - Great With Stamps

These cookies are great. They don't even need icing to taste amazing. If you have stencils that stamp the top with a design they also work perfectly.

Nancy M

Cookies taste good, but with the amount of butter they were extremely difficult to roll out. The chilled dough began to melt even before I had the first bit of dough (1/4 of the batch) rolled and cut out. Had to keep cutouts intact on parchment and place in fridge before separating to place on cookie sheet. Placed cutout trays in freezer 20 minutes before baking and they lost their shape anyway. I will not be baking these again, but go back to my tried and true recipe that uses less butter.

Ananya

Are these soft or crisp?

giulia

Suggestions from reading comments: even if you half the recipe, maintain dose of vanilla extract; divide the dough in half before chilling. To help maintain the size: Chill again after cutting in shapes and before baking? Or skip baking powder?

lindsay

No baking powder

Acal

Second time making this and it was great again. After frosting they keep well and have a bit of moisture. Not a crunchy cookie once frosted but pleasantly tender.

Sonia

Everyone loves the taste of these cookies (and I kept the dough in the fridge for more than a week and it was still fine - even better maybe!)

Kris

Can you freeze dough for longer than 5 days?

dhwsmith

Added 1 tsp lemon flavoring and one heaping TB of lemon powder to half the dough. Gave cookies from that half a very nice lemon flavor.

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Classic Sugar Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Do you need to chill sugar cookie dough before baking? ›

Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you're making cut-outs. Even if you're tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it's only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.

What happens if you don't add enough sugar to cookies? ›

Flavor flat-out: Cookies won't be sweet, obviously! Sugar adds sweetness and balances other flavors. Texture troubles: They might be drier and crumblier, as sugar helps hold moisture and creates a chewier texture. Browning bummer: Expect a paler color, as sugar helps with browning during baking.

How do you make sugar cookie dough taste better? ›

Almond Extract: For a twist on the traditional sugar cookie flavor, try adding a small amount of almond extract. Start with 1/2 teaspoon and adjust according to your preference. Citrus Zest: Incorporate the zest of citrus fruits like lemon, orange, or lime into the dough. The zest adds a bright and refreshing flavor.

What happens if you don t refrigerate sugar cookie dough before baking? ›

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

What happens when you add too much butter to sugar cookies? ›

Too much butter makes cookies turn out just as you'd expect: very buttery. This batch of cookies was cakey in the middle, but also airy throughout, with crispy edges. They were yellow and slightly puffy in the middle, and brown and super thin around the perimeter.

What happens when you add too much flour to sugar cookies? ›

If your cookies come out looking more like biscuits, you've likely added too much flour. Our cookies didn't expand much from the rolled-up balls we put on the baking sheet. They also didn't brown as well as the other cookies. It doesn't take much—in this case, my mom and I added just 3/4 cup extra flour to the dough.

What makes cookies fluffy and not flat? ›

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

Is it best to chill sugar cookie dough? ›

Chilling the dough also improves the way your cookies taste. "In terms of flavor, you'll notice more depth of flavor from the vanilla and the sugar will taste sweeter," says Haught Brown. "In terms of texture, chilled cookie dough produces a more evenly golden-brown cookie with a crisper edge and chewier center."

Why do you chill sugar cookie dough? ›

Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid.

Can you roll out store bought sugar cookie dough? ›

Just roll the dough into one inch balls and then coat them in equal parts cinnamon and sugar. Then I press them gently with a glass before baking them according to the directions on the package. That's it!

Why do you put fork marks in sugar cookies? ›

Basic reason..the dough is more dense than most cookie doughs, and the pressing with the fork tines helps the dough bake evenly. Secondarily, its pattern makes it easier to tell them apart from other cookies with similar appearance.

How long to keep sugar cookie dough in fridge before baking? ›

Most cookie dough can be refrigerated, well-wrapped, for 3-5 days before baking. If you want to make it farther in advance, freeze the dough. You can either freeze the entire brick of dough or divide it into portions for quick baking.

Why do we chill sugar cookie dough? ›

Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid.

Should I put my sugar cookie dough in the fridge or freezer before rolling out? ›

It's best to chill your dough in the refrigerator for the entire recommended time.

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