I only use this sugar cookie recipe because it is the best. Make sure to bring several copies of the recipe with you whenever you make these cookies for someone else—you will be asked for them, I promise! Note: I use milk and confectioners’ sugar to make icing. As I use a pastry brush to “paint” the icing on the cookies, I make it fairly thin. Thin enough to spread easily but not so thin that your cookies end up wet and runny.

Making cookies is the ideal way to celebrate any occasion. Are you marking a holiday? Produce cookies. Are you having a gathering? Heat treats. Do you require snacks? Produce cookies. Organizing a bake sale? Produce cookies. You can get the idea. This is also one of our best sugar cookie recipes, as rated and reviewed by our community of home cooks, out of the thousands of cookie recipes on Allrecipes.

You can roll out the sugar cookie dough using this recipe for The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies, cut it into a variety of shapes and sizes, and decorate the cookies to match the occasion. So, let’s get started and learn how to make sugar cookies from scratch using this recipe. Along the way, you’ll learn a lot of helpful hints and tips that will help you bake cookies well.

Ingredients for a Sugar Cookie

• Butter
  Use unsalted butter that is just pliable enough without being too warm to be greasy. The butter should not be soft and mushy when your fingertip is pressed into it, but it should leave a slight indentation.
• Sugar
  Simply level the surface of your measuring cup with the flat edge of a knife, spatula, or bench scraper after spooning white granulated sugar into it.
• Eggs
  Use large, chilled or at room temperature eggs.
• Vanilla
  extract Use real vanilla extract rather than imitation vanilla for the best flavor.
• Use all-purpose flour for the flour.
  Use a spoon to fluff up the flour in the bag or container before scooping it into the measuring cup and leveling it. Try not to pack the flour into the estimating cup or the fixing proportion will be off and your treats might turn out excessively dry and brittle.
• Leavening powder
  Baking powder aids in the rise of the cookie dough during baking.

Techniques and Tips

Beat the butter and sugar

together with an electric mixer (handheld or stand mixer) until the mixture is light and fluffy. This is the first step. This could take anywhere from four to five minutes, depending on the mixer you use. Why do you begin by creaming sugar and butter? All that matters is adding air to the mixture. The dough will rise as it bakes because of the tiny pockets of air that are created by creaming. As a result, your cookies will have a light texture rather than being flat and dense. Butter that is not too cold works best; You won’t be able to create the necessary structure with butter that is too warm.

Add the eggs and vanilla

after the butter and sugar have been creamed. Adding the eggs one at a time is a favorite of many home cooks. Before adding the dry ingredients, you will need to thoroughly incorporate the eggs and vanilla into the butter, sugar, and batter.

Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a separate bowl.

After thoroughly mixing the dry ingredients together, reduce the mixer speed and incorporate the flour mixture into the sugar and butter mixture. To ensure that the dough does not contain flour streaks, make sure to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl a few times.

Cover the dough and chill it

The dough should be covered with plastic wrap and chilled for at least one hour. This organizations up the margarine in the batter and keeps the treats from spreading as they prepare.

How to Make Cutout Sugar Cookies

While you turn on the oven, prepare your baking sheets, and gather your cookie cutters, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes. The dough will be easier to work with when you are ready to roll it. To prevent the dough from sticking, sprinkle flour on your countertop and rolling pin. The dough should be rolled to an even thickness, about 14 to 12 inches. Shapes can be made by dipping the cookie cutter’s sharp edge in flour. Leave at least an inch of space between the cutouts when placing them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. In order to ensure even baking, this space allows the dough to spread slightly and the hot oven air to circulate around each cookie.

How to Make Cookies with Sugar

There is more to good baking than just putting something in the oven. For a certain something, there’s the temperature. The temperature of each oven varies. As a result, before you begin baking, we always recommend that you use an oven thermometer to accurately measure the temperature. There are also hot spots in the oven. It’s a good idea to rotate your pan halfway through the baking time to ensure that your cookies—or any other baked goods—bake evenly.

The baking time for these sugar cookies ranges from six to eight minutes. They should have a light overall color but be slightly browned around the edges. Put them on a rack made of wire to cool completely; they’ll solidify as they cool.

Note: If you use parchment paper to line your baking sheet, you can slide the cookies, paper included, onto the rack without having to touch the warm cookies or risk breaking them if you try to remove them with a spatula. When making intricate sugar cookie cutouts, this is especially important. You can use the parchment paper for a subsequent batch of cookies after the cookies have cooled for approximately ten minutes. Be certain your baking sheet is totally cooled prior to stacking it up once more. Cookies should not be melted before baking.

Sugar Cookie Decorating Tips

The most important thing to remember is to wait until the cookies have completely cooled before frosting or icing them so that the frosting or icing doesn’t melt away.

How to Keep Sugar Cookies Fresh

Sugar cookies can be kept for about three days in the refrigerator in an airtight container before they start to lose their freshness. You are able to stack the cookies if you have decorated them with royal icing, which sets hard to the touch. If you have to stack cookies decorated with soft frosting, store them in single layers or between layers of waxed paper or parchment paper. Sugar cookies can be frozen for up to three months in freezer bags that are airtight.

Comments from the community of Allrecipes

“These are truly the best! I did not alter the recipe in any way. The dough’s stickyness did not pose any issues for me. I had ever worked with cookie dough that was so cooperative and silky smooth. I worked with a quarter of the dough at a time and chilled mine for only one hour. I refrigerated the remaining dough until I was ready to use it. According to Allrecipes home cook CRYSTALJJP, “The cookies turned out soft and moist…WONDERFUL.”

“THESE SUGAR Treats ARE Perfect,” says mom2PJnAM. ” This dish is highly recommended by me. I added one teaspoon of pure hazelnut extract; other flavors, like lemon, can be added. Due to the fact that this recipe makes a lot of dough, I have a suggestion for those of you who have limited counter space. Instead of chilling the dough balls overnight, I would immediately roll them out in batches between sheets of waxed paper.

“As long as the dough was chilled, this recipe cut well and held its shape. “To avoid reflouring and over flour, I floured it and rolled it between wax paper,” says home cook RUBINI.

Ingredients

• One and a half cups softened butter
• two cups white sugar
• four eggs
• one teaspoon vanilla extract
• five cups all-purpose flour
• two teaspoons baking powder
• one teaspoon salt

Directions

• Using an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Blend in the vanilla and eggs. Add the baking soda, salt, and flour. Dough should be refrigerated for at least one hour (or overnight).
• Bake at 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Dust a work surface with flour lightly. Carry out mixture to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Use any cookie cutter to make shapes. Put treats 1 inch separated on ungreased baking sheets.
• In a preheated oven, bake the cookies for 6 to 8 minutes or until they are lightly browned. Before decorating, carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely.