What would you choose for dessert; a sugar cookie or a slice of chocolate cake? If you’re anything like me and those two items were in your home, the sugar cookies would be hanging around long after the chocolate cake was polished off.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like sugar cookies, but love them… Not so much. But trying to decorate chocolate cake to give as gifts - that wouldn’t work as well as sugar cookies do. Which leads me to the reason why I’m writing this post today – I’ve come up with a sugar cookie recipe by playing around with some favorite recipes. It’s definitely tasty, although it’s still not in the ‘chocolate cake’ category. If you try it out I’d love to hear what you think in the comment section below.
Before I get to the recipe, let me share a little introduction to the ‘Polar Bear Parade’ cookies with you.
When I saw this ribbon months ago at Michael’s Craft Store I just knew I had to make a cookie version of it. Pretty colors, a simple shape and such a cute little polar bear.
These were finished before Christmas, but I wasn’t able to post them in time. If you’d like to create these, you could make just the polar bear or substitute another object for the gift instead. It’d be a nice winter-themed cookie I think. The ribbon is probably on sale now too!
I used the KopyKake drawing projector to help me draw the image (believe me – I need it!), but you might be able to freehand as it’s a fairly simple shape.
Some of these are made of a new gingerbread recipe I found on-line, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the results (taste).
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been playing around with some of my ’go-to’ sugar cookie recipes – a few of the main ones being Peggy Porschen’s
Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp vanilla)
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder (*take this out if you don’t want your cookies to spread)
1 tsp salt
Instructions:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.
Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.
2. Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.
3. Cut open your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Add to mixing bowl. Alternatively, add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.
4. Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, baking powder and salt).
5. Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).
6. Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
7. Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.
8. Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.
9. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.
10. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
11. Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!
A few notes about the recipe:
*Butter – The butter needs to be soft, or room temperature. I leave mine out the night before I do my baking. If you forget, you can grate the butter on the largest hole of your box grater, so that the sugar and butter will mix together better.
*Baking powder – I hardly use any baking powder in my recipe because the dough will spread and rise more during baking, thereby making the shape of the cookie less crisp. The only time I use it now, is if I’m just making round shortbread cookies and I don’t care about the cookies spreading.
*Chill your dough if it gets too soft work with. It’s a softer, sometimes sticky dough (depending on your environment as well), but in my humble opinion, makes up for it in taste.
*Read these tips here on stopping dough from spreading.
Click here for a Printer-Friendly Version of the Sugar Cookie Recipe
I’ll do an in-depth tutorial with pictures on making the sugar cookie dough in a future post.
Hope you enjoy this recipe!
xo,
Marian
Hi,
What will be the difference if I use salted butter? Just taste or the appearance or both?
thanks!
Hi @ Sara: If you use salted butter, just take the salt out of the recipe. Happy baking!
Hi! Is this sugar cookie recipe the cookie you use in your piping straight lines tutorial? I am looking for the cookie that is white in color such as yours in a few of your videos but cannot tell if this is the recipe. Thanks! Michaela
Hi @ Michaela freehling: Yes, this is the one. (Some of the photos above are a gingerbread recipe I was playing around with at the time. I did mention it in the blog post, but thought I’d let you know here too, just in case).
Thanks so much. I am new to all this blogging but I have going thru your site her almost all day. Just LOVE it. Keep it up!
Awww, thanks @ Michaela freehling!
Hi Marian! First of all, I love your site, it’s so inspiring and helpful! And then I saw you mention Golda’s and I realized your from Canada also-I’m from Caledon and adore Golda’s
anyways, I did try and look for my question in the other comments but couldn’t find the answer…. Just wondering what you do for the dough sticking to the cookie cutters? I’m making little dog cookies and they keep losing their tiny tails and feet! Would it be ok to dip them in icing sugar or flour? Thanks so much 
HI @ Hannah from Caledon!
Yes, I dip mine in flour but icing sugar works too.
Have fun!!
Hi there.. I tried this recipe a couple of times, but my cookies always break easily after i pack them. And the sizes do change.. they expanded alot .. HELP!
Hi Mariam,
I have to tell you that I am totally in love with your blog. My new found love is decorating Sugar Cookies – totally inspired by your blog. Your tips and videos have been extremely helpful. I’ve made some both my daughter’s birthday parties and for a Baby Shower for my cousin. Planning to make some this week as well. Could you tell me how many cookies I can expect to make with this recipe? I know it does vary by the size of the cookies. But a rough idea would be very helpful.
Thanks.
HI @ Mariam: If you bake them longer, they’ll be crisper/stronger. Here is a post for you on preventing spreading; http://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Thanks, @ Shilpi, that’s so nice to hear that you love decorating too! The recipe makes about 30ish cookies.
Have fun!! xo
Should this be 2 1/2 sticks of butter? I made these and used the 2 1/2 cups of butter and they are soft and way too buttery tasting. I left out the baking powder as directed but I think this is too much butter.
This may have been asked and answered, however, can I make the dough and freeze it? I want to make them for a party in a week, but I don’t want the cookies to go stale before then. I was thinking I would make the dough, freeze it, thaw it, and bake them. Or would it be better to make the cookies, bake them, and then freeze the cookies?
Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi @ Melinda: 2 cups of butter yes… I have done it with both… 2 and a half cups or just two cups, and I like the taste of both, even the more buttery one (personal preference I guess). When you use 2 and half cups butter it is definitely more challenging to work with in that it’s stickier, but, when I roll it between 2 sheets of parchment paper and then chill it before I cut the cookie shapes out , it’s fine.
@ Michelle: Yes, you can make the dough and freeze it, absolutely! I like freezing extra dough, or if I know I’m going to be really busy when I need cookies, I make the dough ahead and freeze it. You can even freeze cookie shapes! Generally I have it in there up to 3 months, but have had dough in there for 6 months and it was fine! Hope that helps!
Hi @ Cynthia H: I missed that comment, sorry! I don’t mix the dough too long because I find more air gets incorporated into the dough, thereby contributing to more spreading of the cookies when baked.
Yes, @ Josephine, that’s right, 454 grams. Sorry this answer took so long, I had missed it when you posted it!
Hi Marian – Love your site! Do you ever bake your cookies on convection oven and do you notice a difference in the way that they turn out? Thanks!
When said you are talented i think i am diminishing you. Things you do with cookies made me loved them so much that i want to open bakery of my own in future (near future, i hope). Wishing you all the best and keep working what you were born for- making devine sweets and helping ous less fortunate
Lots of hugs and kisses from far away Serbia
Hi @ Caitlin: I like the convection setting on my oven at home, and have baked cookies in a convection oven at work, and do like the results. I have a KitchenAid oven at home right now, and found the results without the convection setting good too though! For me, it’s all about chilling the cookies, not using baking powder etc., to prevent cookies from spreading. We’ll be getting a new KitchenAid ‘True Convection’ Heat oven soon, so it should be interesting to see if that makes a difference.
Aw, thanks, @ Zoka: Lots and hugs and kisses your way too!!
Hi @ Hugz: Baking can be frustrating sometimes, as it’s almost like a science and there are many factors to consider… down to the quality of butter/amount of fat in the butter, or whether an oven is calibrated. For example, generally the more expensive butters have more fat content, and less water content, so work out better for this type of recipe. If the butter has more water content, when heated, spreads more (water/liquid)… I’ve got a whole post on more points here, if you haven’t seen it;
http://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Hugs!
Do you know how much the butter weighs?
Hi! I just tried making your sugar cookie’s recipe last night, I put it in the fridge for over an hour just to make sure it’s in good consistency and I’ll be able to cut it out better. But then it’s a bit softer still and I can’t do the cutting at all
. Frustrated? Yes! 
What should I do with it? Hmmmmm… I realized that I did not let the butter melt at room temperature. I had to use the microwave oven cos am in a hurry finishing it since I’ll be needing the cookies on Wednesday afternoon (May 1, 2013)! Oh geez! Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot!
Sincerely,
Ela
hello Marian,
. I have never done baking of any sort before, reading your blog every day has developed my interest in baking. I am planning to make my first sugar cookies and have few questions before I can start.
. so what should I do?
I’ve been reading your blog from past one month and I love your work. Its amazing!
-with the above ingredients how many cookies will I make?
-I live in U.A.E and its really hot over here. I guess I wont be able to keep the butter whole night as you do because it might melt completely or expire before date
-can you tell me how much butter, flour and sugar in grams coz the cup size may differ for everyone?
-by 3 tspn vanilla , do you mean vanilla essence?
Hi Marian!
I love this recipe so much that my friend asked me to make them for her for her birthday! I was just wondering if I were to cut the recipe in half would I still get the same result? I know some recipes don’t work out the same if you cut down the ingredients. Thank you for your help!
Absolutely amazing! I’ve never been able to make cut sugar cookies until now. I couldn’t be more excited!
Hi, i love your site…i sooo want to try this recipe. Just one question…what kind of frosting? & what are the directions for the frosting? Please & thank you (:
Hi Marian,
I am loving all these fantastic designs you have
so gorgeous 
I’m looking at using this recipe for the favours for a friend’s up and coming wedding shower. How many large cookies would you say you would roughly get out of one batch of dough?
Any help you can give is greatly appreciated
Many thanks,
About how many cookies does your sugar cookie recipe make? And when you say butter, you mean butter, not margarine? Will margarine work? I love your tutorials.
Thanks for the great tips. I do have one question, the recipe above how many cookies does it make? Sorry if I missed it.