This easy Sugar Cookie recipe is the perfect year-round holiday cookie!
A simple mixture of butter, sugar, and flour with a few additions, these sugar cookies bake up perfectly every time. They hold their shape, are the perfect texture, and have a delicious buttery vanilla taste.
Pair them with our favorite sugar cookie icing to make festive cookies for any occasion!
Ingredients for Sugar Cookies
Simple ingredients, a soft and chewy texture, and great flavor make this the best sugar cookie recipe.
- Sugar – This sugar cookie recipe uses regular granulated sugar for sweetness and texture.
- Butter – I almost always use unsalted butter in baking and add my own salt to get the best flavor.
- Flour – All-purpose flour brings everything together.
- Egg – Egg helps bind everything together.
- Other – Vanilla adds flavor, while baking powder helps achieve the perfect texture. Add ½ teaspoon of almond extract if you’d like.
How to Make Sugar Cookies
I skip the parchment paper or silicone mat for this recipe. I find they hold their shape best on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Really, really good sugar cookies are ones that are uniformly mixed, shaped, and baked.
- Combine butter and sugar until fluffy per the recipe below.
- Mix in an egg. Add dry ingredients and mix, scraping the sides as needed.
- Chill dough for a few hours. Roll and cut with cookie cutters to match the occasion!
Sugar cookies look best when they are baked just until very lightly browned on the edges.
Tips for The Best Sugar Cookies
- Ingredients should be at room temperature (including the butter and the egg) before beginning.
- It is IMPORTANT to flour is measured correctly. Avoid using a measuring cup to scoop the flour or it can pack the flour resulting in a dry dough. Instead, lightly spoon the flour into the measuring up and use the straight edge of the back of a knife to level it.
- Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4″ thickness. When rolling the dough, if it gets too soft, put it in the fridge for a few minutes. Don’t add too much flour when rolling the dough.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough or the cookies will spread and not hold their shape.
- If baking in batches, do not place new batches on a warm cookie sheet. This will cause the dough to spread.
- If the dough seems powdery or isn’t holding together, it is not mixed enough. Continue mixing (for up to 5 minutes more), and the dough will hold together. Image below.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are one of the most popular cookie recipes for decorating. Feel free to have fun with cookie cutters, stamped rolling pins or simply cut them into circles.
To make Christmas sugar cookies, or any time of year cut-out cookies, ensure they’re completely cooled on a wire rack before decorating (or the icing will melt).
You can decorate with soft frostings like buttercream and embellishments, but our favorite is to use a simple sugar cookie icing that finishes shiny and firm.
Another option is to melt chocolate chips and dip half of each cookie.
Once decorated, store cookies in an airtight container.
More Cookie Recipes We Love
Homemade sugar cookies are perfect Christmas cookies and here are some of our other favorites!
Easy Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 3 cups all purpose flour *see note
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.
- Place butter and sugar in a bowl and mix with a handmixer (or stand mixer) on medium speed until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla. Mix until well combined and smooth.
- Add the flour mixture, a little bit at a time, with the mixer on low until the flour is incorporated. Continue mixing until the dough holds together, up to 5 minutes.
- Divide the dough in half, and form each half into a 5-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill the dough for 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. While the oven is preheating, remove the dough from the fridge (if it has been in the fridge overnight, it may need to sit out 15 minutes before rolling).
- Sprinkle the surface with a light dusting of powdered sugar or flour to keep the dough from sticking. With a rolling pin, roll the dough to ¼" thickness (you don't want it to be too thin) and cut shapes with cookie cutters.
- Place the sugar cookies 1-inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or just until cookies begin to brown on the edges.
- Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, transfer to a cooling rack, and cool completely before decorating.
- Once cooled, decorate with sugar cookie icing.
Video
Notes
- Ingredients should be at room temperature (including the butter and the egg) before beginning.
- It is IMPORTANT to measure the flour correctly. Avoid using a measuring cup to scoop the flour. Instead, lightly spoon the flour into the measuring up and use the straight edge of the back of a knife to level it.
- Roll the dough to 1/4″ thickness, so it bakes properly. When rolling the dough, if it gets too soft, put it in the fridge for a few minutes. Don’t add too much flour when rolling the dough.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough, or the cookies will spread and not hold their shape.
- If baking in batches, do not place new batches on a warm cookie sheet. This will cause the dough to spread.
- If the dough seems powdery or isn’t holding together, it is not mixed enough. Continue mixing (for up to 5 minutes more), and the dough will hold together.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Like our recipes?
Follow us on Pinterest!
Do nor refrigerate over night. it came out às hard as a rock and I couldn’t bake for hours which wasn’t in my timeline.
Hi there,
I’m wondering how long the dough could be stored before baking. Would 48 hours be too long?
Thanks!
Hi Christine, the dough will be fine just very firm. I would let it rest on the counter to warm up a bit before trying to roll it out.
never gave me the durn about of ingredients
To find the full list of ingredients and amounts you can find them by scrolling to the bottom to the recipe or hit the “jump to recipe” button in the top header. I hope this helps Amanda!
really good! i add half cup of cocoa pwdr to half of it n make pinweel cookies that r bomb!
Did not turn out as written in the recipe. I followed exactly and had to add about 2 tablespoons of water just to get the dough to come together. In the oven now, hopefully they’ll turn out, I don’t have time to start over.
If the dough doesn’t come together, it likely needed to be mixed longer. There are a couple of photos in the post that show how the mixture can start out a bit powdery and then if you continue mixing (about 5 minutes or so) it comes together.
I followed the recipe exactly and these just didn’t turn out for me. I really struggled with the dough. No matter how long I mixed it just was not coming together. I added a tbs of water to help the dough form together and let it set for 2 hours in the fridge before cooking. They held their shape very well but I had issues with them cooking too fast on the bottoms. My first round in the over was definitely over cooked. I cooked them for 8 minutes exactly. The second round I pulled out at 4 because the bottoms were browning already. That left them with overly done bottoms and a soggy center. We ended up throwing the rest of the dough out after that. The dough also wasn’t very sweet. My boyfriend said it actually reminded him of bread. If you have an overwhelmingly sweet icing, it would probably work out with this dough but unfortunately it just wasn’t what we were looking for. I really wanted to like these):
Oh no, so sorry to hear that Lexi! When measuring flour did you scoop the flour into the measuring cup or use the measuring cup to scoop the flour from the bag directly? That can affect the density of the flour. Did you substitute the butter for margarine? That could contribute to it as well. Hopefully, this helps!
Turned out as promised! Perfect!
The recipient did not become a dough. The more you mix like said ended up with a powdered dough that is useless.
Oh no! I’m sorry you had issues with this recipe. Did you measure the flour with the spoon method (as opposed to scooping it)? If the flour is measured properly and the dough is crumbly, we do find mixing it longer will help bring it together. We’ve had to mix for as long as 5 minutes before. I hope this helps Steph!
Not sure how everyone had issues but be sure to follow instructions very carefully. Baked goods are picky. This worked perfectly and my husband loved the cookies.
I just made these cookies, I am amazed how good they are. At first, after leaving the cookie dough in the refrigerator too long, just pop in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Perfect. My hubby likes the cookies. I may have to make more.
I am curious, do you have a gluten free variation?
Glad to hear you both enjoyed the cookies! We don’t have a gluten-free version but this recipe would probably work fine with gluten-free flour!