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 1/8″) 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 1/4″, 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 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract²
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (315g)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Sugar Cookie Frosting
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g)
- 3-4 Tablespoons milk
- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1/2 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 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 1/4" (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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Brook says
Lovely cookies and icing! Since this is the first time my niece and I were making them, we made some errors (like making the icing too thin) but we still had a blast. So tasty and can’t wait to make them again! 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Brook! 🙂
Bella says
loved this!!!! made this as a sort of late-christmas new years’ cookie kinda thing, and it was super fun♡ my cookies were much smaller, so I actually ended up making about 100!! didn’t make the frosting, but sprinkled my cookies with sugar/cinnamon/rainbow sprinkles before baking. really great recipe♡ (I also substituted half of the sugar for 50g stevia+50g powdered milk!)
Grace says
I echo many of the comments.
Best testing and easiest recipie! Me and my kids had a blast making these including my too cool 14 year old daughter!
Natalie Valenzuela says
Perfect recipe! Cookies are delicious and the frosting is a gorgeous royal icing hack. I wish I could post a picture. (I ended up adding about 5-6 tbsp of milk to the icing).
Sam says
Hi Natalie! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! You can tag me on instagram @SugarSpun_Sam or join my facebook group if you’d like to share pictures. 🙂
Kasia says
How can one cup be 200g and 2 1/2 cups be 315g?? This math doesn’t add up! I went by the cup sizes and now my dough is rock hard! Very disappointed!!
Sam says
Hi Kasia! It sounds like you added too much flour if your dough was hard. 200g is 1 cup of sugar and 125g is 1 cup of flour. It’s just a matter of density of the actual object being weighed, flour is light and fluffy sugar is dense and hard. If using cup measurements make sure to check out my post on how to measure flour to make sure you don’t accidentally over measure the flour. I hope this helps.
Mandy says
Hi. Could country crock or earth balance be a good substitute for the unsalted butter? I have a toddler with a cows milk allergy and would love to make these cookies with him. 🙂
Sam says
Hi Mandy! I have not tried it myself but I think it could work. 🙂
Jennifer says
Loved this recipe. Made it with my 6yo for Christmas and went with a lemon twist on the frosting for a change of pace and it was sooo good! Definitely a keeper! (happy to share pictures!)
Sam says
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Jennifer! You can share pictures by tagging me on Instagram @SugarSpun_Sam or by joining my facebook group. I’d love to see them. 🙂
Tori says
Thank you so much the cookies and icing were fantastic! Need to double the recipe next time- these were a big hit with my family.
Sam says
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them, Tori! 🙂
Debbie says
Made these with my teenagers and their friends. They were a hit! The frosting is perfect and so glossy. Will be making these again!
Susan Repasky says
I’ve always used my moms old fashion sugar cookie recipe, but the cookies never kept their shape. I’ve also over the years argued with my daughter about the frosting . She liked can and I didn’t. Came across this recipe this year and let me tell you it is FANTASTIC! The cookies kept their shape and the icing was incredible. Also the cookie itself was AMAZING! Soft with a Great taste. They literally came out perfect. Everyone loved them and wanted the recipe. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. This will be the new recipe to hand down
Siya says
Hi I don’t have cookie cutters so what could I do instead
Sam says
You could use many different objects. The top rim of a glass is a good option. 🙂
Anne says
This cookierecipe was super easy and came out perfectly! My first try with sugar cookies and they were tastier than the ones we buy at our farmer’s market which my daughter loves- she is a very happy kiddo! We did sanding sugar to finish instead of icing.
Alex says
I bake a ton, but have never done cut-out sugar cookies until requested this year. I literally tried 3 different cookie recipes and 3 different frostings, and this one won big time! Thanks for a great cookie and frosting recipe! These have gotten a lot of attention and praise. Happy Holidays!
Leslie Stewart says
I wish I could give this MORE stars!! It was the best and easiest sugar cookie recipe I’ve ever tried! Thank you!!
Tom says
Great easy recipe. I don’t make shaped cookies so formed/rolled dough into log shape, about 3 inches in diameter and refrigerated. When I want cookies, slice off 1/4 inch rounds and bake.