Introducing the actual best sugar cookie recipe! My recipe makes simple, versatile vanilla sugar cookies; 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 icing (one that’s not royal icing!).
The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
If you’re looking for perfect cut-out Christmas sugar cookies, ones that hold their shape and don’t spread in the oven, come together easily with no strange ingredients, and that actually taste incredible, too, I’ve got you covered this year.
If you want a foolproof (and I do literally mean foolproof) easy sugar cookie icing that isn’t royal icing, one that dries firm but not break-your-teeth hard, well I’ve got you covered there too.
I’m adding this flawless sugar cookie recipe to my Christmas cookie tray alongside the gingerbread men, meringues, and hot chocolate bombs (am I the only one including these on my cookie list this year?) and would like to gently suggest you consider doing the same, I don’t think you (or your guests or gift recipients!) will regret it.
Why You’ll Love This Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe:
- My recipe yields cookies that absolutely do not spread in the oven, so you have perfectly defined shapes and clear cookie-cutter edges.
- These sugar cookies have a soft interior texture with a classic, buttery flavor (and instructions for adding other flavors, if desired).
- Recipe includes instructions to easily customize the cookies depending on whether you prefer thicker and softer or thinner and crispier sugar cookies.
- Includes a simple, shiny, and absolutely foolproof (you seriously can’t mess this up!) sugar cookie icing that you are going to love. While royal icing certainly has its place (and I even have a fantastic royal icing recipe, if you’re searching or would like to use that here) I generally prefer this oh-so-easy frosting instead.
What You Need
Sugar Cookies Ingredients
- Butter. I recommend using unsalted butter so that we can best control the flavor. For best results, note that the butter should be softened, but not so soft that it’s melting/oily.
- Sugar. Use granulated sugar, it gives my sugar cookie recipe that classic Christmas cookie flavor you know and love and helps keep them from spreading.
- Egg. A single egg helps the dough bind together.
- Vanilla extract. You can really flavor these cookies with whatever extract you like best (almond and lemon are popular choices), but typically I always include at least a splash of vanilla, even when using other flavors, as it gives the sugar cookies a beautiful depth of flavor. (If you have homemade vanilla extract, now is a great time to use it!).
- Flour. I have only tested and only recommend this sugar cookie recipe with all-purpose flour (often simply referred to as “plain” flour outside of the US).
- Baking powder. My recipe uses just a small amount of baking powder, which helps give the cookies the perfect soft interior texture and crisp edge.
- Salt. I mentioned above that unsalted butter is best, but if you only have salted on hand simply reduce the salt in the recipe to ยผ teaspoon.
Sugar Cookie Icing Ingredients
- Powdered sugar. Also known as confectioners sugar or icing sugar. For best results (especially if you’ll be piping the icing), sift it to remove any lumps before using.
- Milk. I use whole milk, but any variety (low-fat, skim, or even non-dairy milk like almond) will work instead. Just note that if you are using a lower-fat milk you may need less than the recipe calls for, as it is thinner.
- Vanilla extract. If you want pure white icing I recommend using a clear vanilla extract.
- Light corn syrup. Not to be confused with high fructose corn syrup, this ingredient gives my sugar cookie frosting a glossy, shiny finish and helps it to to set firmly. If you must leave it out, I’ve included notes in the recipe on how to do so, but for best results I recommend using it. Dark corn syrup could work but will add a muddy color and additional flavor to your icing. Outside of the US, you may be able to find glucose syrup, which should work instead.
- Food Coloring. Of course this is optional, but for festively decorated Christmas sugar cookies, you’ll probably want to add a bit of color. I love and use gel food coloring for best results (and linked to the kind I use in the recipe). Liquid or powder food coloring will work, but may not be as vibrant.
As always, this is just an overview of the ingredients used here and why they were chosen. For the full sugar cookie recipe with amounts and detailed instructions, please scroll down to the printable recipe.
SAM’S TIP: Don’t have time to decorate? Skip the sugar cookie frosting and just sprinkle colorful sanding sugar over the cookies before baking!
Tips for Making the Best 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. 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 on the same baking sheet. Otherwise the small ones will burn and the large ones won’t finish baking.
- For thinner, crispy sugar cookies: Roll cookie dough thinner (about โ ″) and look for the edges of the cookies to be beginning to turn golden brown to know that they are done.
- For thicker, soft sugar cookies: Roll dough to about ยผ″, 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! Look for a consistency where the icing that drizzles off of the whisk holds its shape for several seconds before dissolving back into the icing bowl.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sugar cookies should always have a distinctly buttery, sugary and (usually) vanilla flavor, but in order to maintain their clean-cut shape they are never quite as rich as drop cookies. Much of their flavor comes from the sweet sugar cookie icing. While my sugar cookie recipe is already flavorful, to make them even more so, you can add different extracts or emulsions to the dough or top the icing off with sanding sugar or decorative candies.
Yes, my easy sugar cookie icing may be colored (if desired) and stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to a week before using. To help keep the top from crusting, always place a piece of plastic wrap directly against the surface of the sugar cookie frosting when storing (or keep in a plastic bag and twist to keep the air from reaching the icing). Most likely you will need to stir (or if you stored it in piping bags, massage it) before using.
This is often a result of accidentally mis-measuring an ingredient or over-measuring the flour. Please see my post on how to measure flour properly, and remember to never scoop the flour directly into the measuring cup (for best results, use a scale!).
Add your flour gradually. Adding it all at once can make it difficult for the dough to properly absorb the dry ingredients, resulting in a crumbly, difficult dough. Make sure that your sugar cookie dough is thoroughly combined; if it still seems crumbly after you’ve added all the flour, just keep mixing with an electric mixer (or stand mixer) until dough is clinging together and no flour remains.
This is most often a result of accidentally mis-measuring or substituting an ingredient, using butter that is much too soft (it should never be melting/oily and should not be warmed in the microwave), or not chilling the dough for long enough. Dough that is still slightly sticky after chilling can often be salvaged by chilling longer or by generously dusting your countertop and the dough with additional flour.
Hopefully you love this easy sugar cookie recipe as much as I do, and don’t forget to check out the how-to video in the recipe card!
Enjoy!
Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 ยฝ teaspoons vanilla extract (see note)
- 1 large egg
- 2 ยฝ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour (Plain flour)
- ยพ teaspoon baking powder
- ยพ teaspoon table salt
Sugar Cookie Frosting
- 3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar, sifted (weigh before sifting)
- 3-4 Tablespoons milk (I use whole milk, but any kind will work)
- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup (see note)
- ยฝ 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.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.1 ยฝ teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 large egg
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.2 ยฝ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour, ยพ teaspoon baking powder, ยพ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until dough is smooth and 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 dough with clear wrap or wax paper and mold into a flat disk. Wrap tightly.ย Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of clear wrap.ย Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours and up to 5 days.
- Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (alternatively bake cookies directly on an ungreased baking sheet). Set aside.
- Generously dust a clean surface with flour and place one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface.ย Lightly flour the dough and roll out to โ " (for thinner, crispier cookies) or ยผ" (for thicker, softer cookies).ย Add additional flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn't stick. Note: if dough is cracking as you roll it, let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to soften before attempting again.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet, spacing at least 1" apart. If you are not intending to decorate your cookies with icing, you can decorate them with sanding sugar at this point before you bake them.ย
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 8-10 minutes (this is for cookies that are approximately 3" [7.6cm]; note that smaller cookies will need less time and larger cookies will need more), or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before decorating.
Easy Sugar Cookie Icing
- Combine powdered 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.ย ย3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar, sifted, 3-4 Tablespoons milk, 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup, ยฝ teaspoon vanilla extract
- If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.Gel food coloring
- 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 isnโt 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.Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating
- Allow frosting to harden before enjoying, stacking, or storing (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting).
Notes
Flavoring and extracts
You may also reduce the vanilla extract to ยพ teaspoon and add ยผ-1/2 teaspoons of either almond or lemon extract (or just about any other extract you’d like!).Corn Syrup
I highly recommend using light corn syrup for the firmest, glossiest finish on your sugar cookies. However, if you must omit it, you may, but note that the frosting will not dry quite as hard and you will likely need to add more milk to get the icing to the proper consistency. Glucose syrup may be substituted, but outside of that I am not sure of a substitute that would give the same effect.Making Frosting in Advance
To make icing in advance, store in an airtight container with a piece of plastic wrap pressed directly against the surface of the icing. It will keep for several days and may be stored either at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Icing will need to be stirred again before using. It may be colored with food coloring before or after storing.Storing
Keep uneaten cookies sealed in an airtight container at room temperature for up to ten days.ย Cookies may also be frozen for several months.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Zofia
Hi, I followed the recipe as instructed. Instead of my dough being sticky as yours was mine was crumbly. Why? Kept in fridge overnight. Pulled out in the morning, had to wait hours for it to soften up. While rolling it out the first time it kept cracking. Second time I couldn’t do anything. What went wrong?
Sam
Hi Zofia! If everything was measured properly it should not be crumbly. Make sure the butter is softened and if you beat the ingredients well enough they should come together and not be crumbly. It’s also possible that the flour might have been over-measured, since it took so long to soften and was cracking once you took it out of the fridge I am thinking that might be the case. I would check out my guide for measuring flour, that might be helpful. I hope that helps!
Linda
Not sure what I did wrong. Dough did not come together. Crumbly from the start. After chilling it fell apart. Worst time I have ever had.
Sam
Hi Linda! Was the butter softened? The dough should come together if you keep mixing it. Another possibility is that the flour might have been over-measured, this post on measuring flour might be helpful.
Linda
Think the butter was mismeasured. Cut it from a block. My bad. Much better the second time around. Haven’t cooked them yet but the dough tastes good and it was better consistency.
Jonathan
This recipe while tasty is unfortunately one of the worst sugar cookie recipes I have ever worked with. Every cookie lost its shape when baking and spread out way too much.
Sam
Oh no, that’s frustrating, Jonathan! I’ve never had them spread like that before, I’m wondering if a bit more flour when rolling them out could have salvaged them? Did they chill long enough in the refrigerator? Also make sure to not place cookie dough on a warm baking sheet as that could make them spread as well. I hope that helps and hope you give the cookies another try, one of the best things I love about them is that they’ve always held their shape so nicely!
Em
Can Salted butter be used?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi! Yes, it can. If you do, I recommend that you omit the 3/4 teaspoon of salt listed. I hope that you enjoy the sugar cookies. ๐
Em
Thanks soo much!
I was also wondering if anything can be used instead of the corn syrup for the frosting?
Sam
You’re welcome! I’m honestly not sure what would work well as a substitute for the corn syrup, I haven’t tried anything that I could recommend. Hoping someone else might be able to chime in with a suggestion that they’ve tried. Another option would be to try my royal icing recipe instead.
Carly
These taste very good but there are some tricks I learned as I made them.
1. The dough is quite sticky and I needed a little more flour to be able to roll out and cut. Even then, the dough needs to be chilled. I wouldnโt leave it out of the fridge after chilling at all. You also need a lot of flour on your surface and sprinkled over the dough. And as commented already, I would cut it into more than 2 pieces so it doesnโt warm up while youโre rolling and cutting.
2. For me, 1/4 inch was way too thick. The cookies spread and lost all shape. Making sure the dough was rolled out very even to 1/8 inch they turned out nicely.
Note I live at high altitude (~7000 feet). I adjusted cooktime to bake for 4 minutes on a high rack and move to the low rack for 3-4 minutes.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you for sharing, Carly! I am glad that you enjoyed the sugar cookies. ๐
Rebekah
I usually make both decorated sugar cookies and then use the same dough in a mini muffin tin and press Reese Cups in them while it’s still hot. But I’ve been cheating and using a store mix. Do you think this recipe would hold up to this variation?
June Jones
I do sugar cookies (store bought, sorry) with my grandchildren. I want to the icing that you have. They are young, how can I do this without it hardening with them putting sprinkles and decorations on them. Weโre talking about 4,5,6,and 7 years old. The older ones want to make candy this is something Iโve done since the oldest one was 3. Itโs something they can remember doing with Grandma. I used to use icing in the the can for cake. Do you have any suggestions to help me. Thank you.
Nicole Teeter
Hi there, I have 6 children myself and we’ve been making and decorating together for the past 19 some years now. After applying the frosting, just have them put their sprinkles and such on immediately. I know you said they’re young, but I think if they do this one cookie at a time, they should be able to finish before hardening. There are also just the regular old recipe of confectioners sugar, water or milk, and then any extract flavoring you like, which also will harden, but not as quickly as this recipe. Good luck, have fun with your grandbabies. I am off to my kitchen right now to try this recipe out! Happy Baking everyone, and Merry Christmas!
Paula Cronin
These have now become my go to recipe for sugar cookies, and yes they can be made with , instead of butter. I had to replace the butter because of dairy allergies for a family member and instead of the frosting I divided up the dough and used food coloring to dye some of the dough to decorate the cookies .
Paula Cronin
They can be made with margarine .
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Paula! I am so glad that you enjoyed the sugar cookies. ๐
Jody D
I was looking for a new sugar cookie recipe, I have moved to a remote location and my mom’s recipe calls for sour cream (which I don’t have on hand). I made a batch of these two days ago and am getting RAVE reviews…people are asking me for “my” recipe. I only made a single batch, but next time I will double this recipe. I am very pleased with the results and am happy to refer others to this link on your site for the full recipe along with your notes and tips. Thanks for sharing an awesome, easy cookie recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
What an amazing compliment, Jody, Thank you! I am so glad that everyone enjoyed the sugar cookies and I appreciate you sharing my site with them. Happy Holidays to you! ๐
Bee
Hi I made this dough and am having trouble cutting the shapes and transferring/cutting away the excess as it seems to be just melting into a sloppy dough and is very frustrating haha. Did I do something wrong or could it be thatโs itโs just too hot where I live (Australia) to be making them?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Bee! It could be too hot. I would chill the dough longer in the refrigerator. Then, I would divide the dough into small sections and only work what you need at one time. Place the cut-out shapes into the fridge on a cookie sheet until you are ready to bake. If the dough is “sticky” apply more flour to counter before rolling. I hope that this helps. I am sorry that you are experiencing issues. I hope they turn out well. ๐
Trina
How long will the cookies last in a sealed container in a cool room?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Trina! The sugar cookies will remain fresh at least a week after being baked (when properly stored). They are perfectly edible and delicious (when properly stored) up to two weeks but begin to dry out after a week. ๐
Glenda
I live overseas and don’t have light corn syrup. Can regular corn syrup be used instead?
Sam
Hi Glenda, that will be fine. Enjoy!
Kalia
Hi, I want to make this a day or two in advance of when I need them. Would they still be okay or taste as good up to a couple of days after baking and decorating?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Kalia! Yes, if the cookies are stored in an airtight container they will stay fresh up to one week. I hope that you enjoy the cookies. ๐
Hana
Hi, hoping to try these out tomorrow. How many cookies do you usually get out of this mixture?
Thanks
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Hana! I use a 3″ cutter and can get approximately 40 cookies out of the batter. I hope you enjoy the sugar cookies. ๐
Chris
Can you use margarine in place if butter?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Chris! I am not sure. I think it would work but I have only tried it with butter. If you try it let me know how it turns out. ๐