These are the best sugar cookies! This recipe makes a simple, versatile vanilla sugar cookie; the dough is easy to roll and to work with and doesn’t spread when baking, so your cookies will always have sharp, defined edges! You can decorate these cookies with sanding sugar, or you can use my recipe below for a simple (and tasty!) pipe-able sugar cookie frosting (one that’s not royal icing!).
The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
This is just a friendly reminder that Christmas is officially less than one month away, so if you aren’t freaking out yet about not having all of your Christmas shopping done, or even started, now is the time to start freaking out.
Wait. Breathe. Have a (sugar) cookie.
While my gift buying situation is not at all under control, I at least have the Christmas cookie situation locked down with this easy sugar cookie recipe. I started working on this recipe a long, long time ago, but made myself wait until after Thanksgiving to finally share it. It was a lot of work, but the end result was perfect cut-out sugar cookies that were well worth the wait.
This recipe yields perfect homemade sugar cookies that:
- Don’t spread in the oven, so you have perfectly defined shapes.
- Have a soft texture and buttery flavor (and instructions for adding other flavors, if desired).
- Can be made thicker and softer or thinner and crisper, depending on your preference.
- Have a simple, shiny, foolproof sugar cookie icing that you are going to love (and it’s not Royal Icing!).
This is an easy cut-out sugar cookie recipe and is destined to be your future cookie platter staple. Sugar cookie dough always shocks me with its simplicity; it only calls for a few ingredients and no fancy techniques.
When you first make your dough, it will be a bit sticky and tough to manage so you are going to need to chill it before you can roll it out. I divide my dough into about two equal parts, wrap each in cling wrap and form it into a disk, then chill for 2-3 hours (though you can certainly chill it overnight, or even make it several days in advance).
I know, chilling is a pain. I played with some no-chilling-required recipes, though, and this recipe that required chilling beat out all of my no-chill sugar cookie recipe versions, so trust me when I tell you that the wait is worth it! It also makes your dough very easy to manage when it comes time to roll it out, simple and frustration-free.
An Easy Sugar Cookie Icing
For the frosting for these cookies, I did not use a royal icing, which I know is popular. Truthfully, I don’t really love the taste of royal frosting, and I know many of you don’t keep meringue powder in your cabinets or feel comfortable making egg white frosting.
Instead, I used the same frosting that I used for my Galaxy Cookies. It’s easy to make, easy to pipe, and dries hard for stackable cookies. This recipe uses light corn syrup (which is not the same as high fructose corn syrup!) for a nice shiny frosting.
I frosted my cookies and then topped a few of them off with colored sugars, but if you want to skip the frosting you can sprinkle your cut-outs with sanding sugar just before baking. This is the way my mom always makes her sugar cookies, they still taste delicious!
Tips for making perfect sugar cookies:
- When cutting out your sugar cookies, make sure to keep your cuts as close together to get as many cookies out of your dough as possible. You will want to re-roll any scraps so that you use all of your dough. Keep in mind that with each re-roll you’re adding more flour into the dough, so you want to get as much as possible out of that first roll.
- Bake cookies that are about the same size together. Otherwise the small ones will burn and the large ones won’t finish baking.
- For thinner, crispier sugar cookies: Roll cookie dough thinner (about ⅛″) and look for the edges of the cookies to be just beginning to turn golden brown to know that they are done.
- For thicker, softer sugar cookies: Roll dough to about ¼″, and watch for cookies to be just beginning to turn lightly golden around the edges. Let them cool completely on the cookie rack as they may break if you try to move them while they’re still warm.
- When making the sugar cookie icing: It’s hard to mess this one up, because if you make it too thin, just add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, just add more milk!
Alright, that’s how to make the best Sugar Cookies from scratch. Hopefully you guys love cookies as much as I do because I have so many more coming up this month that will be great for your holiday cookie platters (especially excited to share my gingerbread cookie recipe!).
Enjoy!!
More Classic Christmas Cookies to Try:
I included a brief video on how to make this Sugar Cookie Recipe in today’s post. If you are looking for my detailed video, you can see my Sugar Cookie Video on YouTube.
Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
- 1 cup sugar (200g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract²
- 1 large egg
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (315g)
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Sugar Cookie Frosting
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g)
- 3-4 Tablespoons milk
- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Gel food coloring optional
- Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating optional
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric hand mixer) and beat until creamy and well-combined.
- Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
- Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that's OK!).
- Cover with clear wrap and mold into a disk. Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours3
- Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Generously dust a clean surface with flour and deposit one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to ⅛" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or ¼" (for thicker, softer cookies). Continue to add flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn't stick.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet.4
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-10 minutes5, or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before moving and frosting.
Sugar Cookie Frosting
- Combine sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.
- If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
- Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton 5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).
- Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.
- Allow frosting to harden before enjoying (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting)
- Keep uneaten cookies sealed in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
Full-Length Video:
I shared a quick, short video for how to make this sugar cookie recipe in today's post. If you prefer my longer, more detailed videos, please check out the detailed video I made for my YouTube channel.Nutrition
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Kathleen
Hi Sam
How can I get a consistent
Thickness in my dough? Would this cookie be a good one to mail? Thanks for all your great recipes!
Sam
Hi Kathleen! You just need to roll it out to the same thickness. I find it’s pretty easy to do with a nice rolling pin. They should ship fine. If it gets really warm you may have some issues with the frosting melting a little bit.
Kim
Love this recipe. Cookies hold their shape well and taste great!
Angela
Hi, just wanted to ask two things, how long can the dough last in the fridge for and can I use glucose syrup instead of corn syrup for the frosting? I can’t seem to find light corn syrup where I live :/
Sam
Hi Angela! This dough will last at least a week wrapped tightly in the refrigerator. You can just omit the corn syrup from the icing. It will still turn out the frosting just won’t be quite as glossy when it hardens. 🙂
Erin
These are THE BEST sugar cookies!! I get requests regularly to make them for birthday parties and holidays and just for no reason at all. I make a batch once or twice a month and it’s by far my favorite. If I split the batch into sandwich size Ziploc baggies and put it in the fridge, they last for at least 2-3 weeks before they start taking on other flavors from the fridge or the zippies themselves. I have found that I can’t over-mix this recipe. I turn on my stand mixer and mix the bejesus out of the dough. I often bake the cookies fresh and don’t refrigerate the dough before I cut them. I find it easier to roll out and I’m just not patient enough to wait 2 hours. I haven’t had any issues with them not coming out. They are slightly more challenging to get out of the cutters but as long as you’re super gentle then you won’t get any finger prints in your finished product. The frosting is amazing as well! I wing the ratios of ingredients every time (on the frosting only) but it still manages to come out. I add more vanilla that the recipe calls for and usually less milk. I put the frosting in Ziploc bags as well and cut the tip of one of the bottom corners to whatever size I want. The frosting lasts in the zippies for about 5 days before it starts separating. It can still be massaged back to the original frosting consistency but if you’ve already cut your hole in the corner, it can be a little messy. Happy baking!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoys them so much, Erin! 🙂
Catherine Hinds
Even with a significant mistake (mentally read one cup of butter as one STICK of butter), these cookies turned out great. I didn’t discover the error until I was done mixing everything and added the second stick of butter at that point. Still turned out great! The frosting was super also.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Catherine! 🙂
Jade
I think I might have creamed the sugar and butter to much, the dough is “fluffy”. After it chills should it still work?
Sam
Hi Jade! I’m not sure what you mean by fluffy. Did you compare it to the dough in the video? I hope they turn out for you. 🙂
Celine
This was not a good recipe for me, the cookie dough spread every single time, it had 2 days in the freezer and was still no good, just way too soft
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Celine! It sounds like your dough may have needed a little bit more flour. Did your dough match the consistency in the video? Was it really sticky when you refrigerated it?
Jonna
Have been making these for 2 Christmases, now I find a cookie cutter for the holiday if the month and give them out to the people in my apartment building. My one neighbor asked if I was making them for St Patrick’s Day. My one daughter asks for them all the time and my other daughter says they are like bake shop cookies. Thanks for the recipe. Its lived by many in my family
Sam
That is so awesome! I’m so glad everyone enjoys them so much. 🙂
Krista Mancini
Hi! I’m loving this recipe and just started making the icing, any thoughts on why after a couple of days in an airtight container the icing would get blotchy? It dried perfect initially and it didn’t happen on all the cookies only a handful. Wondering if I thinned it out too much at th end of each color?
Sam
Hi Krista! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. This blotchy look typically has to do with humidity in the air. I’m not sure of a fix for it. 🙁
Robyn
I used this recipe in December and had 8 kids over for a playdate to ice them. I made over 150 biscuits for them to ice! They were delicious! And what a pleasure to have a recipe that did not flop and the shapes had such clean edges. (I chilled the trays of cut out cookies before baking them as here in sunny South Africa December is beyond hot!) The kids had so much fun we will be doing an Easter biscuit icing day. Planning to make this a Christmas and Easter tradition for the kids.
Sam
That is so awesome, Robyn! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! I bet the kids will be looking forward to it every year. 🙂
Mich
Hi,
How long can these cookies and frosting hold before we put them together? I’m.plannimg to make it 1 week before and keep.in normal boxes while the frosting in plastic bags for a party where the kids will decorate the cookies themselves 🙂
Sam
The cookies would be fine a week in advance, but the frosting I only recommend keeping for a few days. It’s hard to store and it can start to dry out a little bit if too much air gets to it. It only takes a few minutes to stir together the frosting. To store the frosting I typically place it in a container and press some cling wrap down on to the surface. 🙂