No-Chill Sugar Cookies

The perfect last-minute cookie, this no-chill sugar cookie recipe requires, well, no chilling! It's simple to make and yields perfectly-sweet, buttery sugar cookies with crisp defined edges.

Course Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 10

Total Time 40

Servings 2.5" cookies, see note

Calories 127kcal

Author Sam Merritt

Equipment

Ingredients

1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter see note
1 cup (200) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract optional
1 large egg
2 ¾ cup (345 g) all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cornstarch (see note)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Additional flour for rolling cookies
1 batch sugar cookie icing (click link for recipe) or sanding sugar for decorating

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer (or stand mixer) to beat together butter and sugar until creamy and well-combined (about 1 minute on medium speed).
1 cup unsalted butter, 1 cup granulated sugar
Add egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat on medium-speed until completely combined. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so ingredients are thoroughly combined.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 large egg, ¼ teaspoon almond extract
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.
2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
With mixer on low-speed, very gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture until completely combined. This is a fairly dry dough, the best way to keep it from being dry and crumbly is to add the flour slowly (in 4-5 parts) and make sure it's all been incorporated before adding the next bit of flour.
Form the dough into a disk and transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface and sprinkle the surface of the dough lightly with additional flour.
Additional flour for rolling cookies
Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll dough to be about ¼" (6.5mm) thick. As you roll, occasionally use a spatula to scrape beneath the dough to loosen it from the counter to ensure it isn't sticking to the surface. If your dough is sticky at all, simply sprinkle it with additional flour.
Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the dough (keep your cookie cuts close and re-group and re-roll out any dough scraps!) and transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 1" apart.
Transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) oven and bake for 8-10 minutes (this is the suggested time for 2.5-3"/7.5cm cookies; smaller cookies will need less time and larger cookies may need longer). When cookies are finished baking, edges will be beginning to turn very light golden brown.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before using a cookie spatula to carefully transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. Once cooled, decorate with icing (if desired).
1 batch sugar cookie icing (click link for recipe)

Notes

Butter

Butter should not be so soft that it's oily/melty and it's actually ideal if it still has a bit of a chill to it. If you want to be very precise, use an instant read thermometer to check for a temperature of 65F (18C).

I use unsalted butter, but if you use salted butter then reduce the salt in the recipe to just a pinch (about ⅛ teaspoon).

Cornstarch

This is a powdery white substance (similar in appearance to baking powder) that is often labeled as "corn flour" in the UK. If you do not have cornstarch, you may omit it and increase the amount of flour in the recipe by 3-4 Tablespoons.

Servings

How many cookies you get out of this dough will vary depending on the size of your cookie cutters and precisely how thick you roll the dough. I used 2.5" cookie cutters and rolled the dough to ¼" thickness for the testing this recipe and re-rolled out my cookie scraps.

Decorating

I recommend decorating the cookies with either my easy sugar cookie icing or my easy royal icing (for the cookies in the photo you could use either to achieve the results shown, but I used royal icing and then sprinkled on some sanding sugar while the icing was still wet for some of the cookies). You may also simply sprinkle the cookies with colored sanding sugar before baking.

Storing

Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks. Cookies may also be tightly wrapped and frozen for several months.

Nutrition