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’sand the NFSC (No Fail Sugar Cookie) recipe (from cakecentral.com), to come up with my own combination. The latter two are still favourites for me, but now I’ve got a third choice. This is what I’ve come up with (please also see notes at the bottom of the recipe):
Sugar Cookie Recipe
Sugar Cut Out Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla extract *or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder *take this out if you don't want your cookies to spread
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- 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.
- Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.
- Add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly. Alternatively, cut open your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Add to mixing bowl and stir.
- Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, baking powder and salt).
- 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 30 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.
- Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
- Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!
Notes
A few notes about the recipe (also listed in recipe):
These have already been included in the recipe above, but just in case you didn’t see them, they are important to read, so I’ve included them again.
*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.
*Amount of Butter – I’ve noticed some people who’ve tried the recipe who live in a warmer climate have trouble with 2.5 cups butter, and although the extra 1/2 cup butter taste is nice, to make the dough easier to work with in any climate, I edited the recipe to say only 2 cups of butter. The printable version is uneditable, so still says 2.5 cups of butter.
*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.
*Added May 19th, 2019 – Clarification – the sugar used for the cookies is granulated sugar not icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar.
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
Anita says
Thank you for the recipe but i need help ,I searched everywhere on the blog but i cannot find how thick do you roll the sugar cookie dough.
Anna says
Marion, do you roll out your dough 1/4″ or 3/8″?
Penny R says
Has anyone tried this recipe with a gluten free flour mix? If so, what adaptations have you made? I’ve recently been diagnosed with wheat sensitivity and unfortunately I love this recipe!
Naya_crazyme says
Thank you so much for your recipes! I already tried the chocolate one and they were awesome, it was really hard not eating them all.
Today i tried your sugar cookie recipe and they are really delicious! They spread out a little though, perhaps because i halved the proportions. Can’t wait to decorate them!!
Pina says
Can u tell me if 2 cups of butter is 450 on grams please,?
MaryLouise says
Hi Pina,
2 cups of butter = 1 pound or 16 ounces
1 cup of butter = 225gr or 8 ounces
1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons or 4 ounces.
Hope this helps.
Marian,
Sounds like a great recipe, thanks for sharing.
Anabelle says
Dear Marian,
I can not be thankful enough for your help!
You totally saved me with this recipe, even my soon-to-be mother in law loved the cookies (which is a huge compliment since she is practicly a kitchen godess).
So thankyouthankyouthankyou for sharing the recipe and giving tips!
Bella
Elysha Brooks says
I wanted to know if there was a recipe for a smaller batch of sugar cookies. I dont want to waste all of the dough
Tiffany says
Have you ever or could you substitute cream cheese for butter? I currently make cream cheese cookies with I love the taste/texture of BUT they do not hold their shape. (By the way…love your tutorials and information! Thank you!)
michelle says
Hi, I am in the uk. What sugar is used in this recipe caster or icing (confectioners/) sugar? Thank you
Lizzy says
I made unicorn cookies using your recipe for my granddaughter’s birthday party. I was a little hesitant because the cookies were very thick, but they had a wonderful texture. Not hard at all. Even the super-picky mom at the party praised them as the best cookie she ever had – and she never compliments from what I was told. Thank you so much!
GreenLanternMD says
In other cookies I’ve seen a huge difference in the texture or “chew” and “spread” with different brands of butter. The difference between them is really obvious when I brown the butter for chocolate chip cookies. I would suggest that this accounts for much of the wide variability of outcomes, far more than humidity, temperature, phases of the moon, and other reasons I’ve seen.
Lyndsey Z says
By far the best recipe! I just started making cookies and have tried other recipes, with no luck! My cookies always turn out perfectly with this one!!
Taylor says
Hey Marian,
I was just wondering about how long it takes for the royal icing to harden/dry on the cookie.
Thanks,
Taylor.
Peggy Hill says
There is a a discrepancy between the recipe posted on this page and with the printer-friendly version hosted on Scribd. Is the amount of butter required 2 cups as is listed on this page or 2.5 cups as is listed in the print/Scribd version?
Thank you very very much for your tutorials, they’ve been helpful!
marian says
Hi Peggy,
I have used both but people seem to prefer 2 cups.
Happy baking!
Titi says
Hi
I have a question for this topic: I do not know if the oven has a important place here, to hold the shape, because my oven is a gas oven so the heat is not equal.. The maximum is in the bottom, for that reason, I do not know my cookies lost a little bit the shape.
Howewer, for this problem, can I use parchment paper in the top of the cookies?
Thanks
Anna says
Hello! I made this recipe as a trial for my nephew birthday and it was a huge fail! 🙁 They came out too hard and dry. Did I did it the wrong way or is it supposed to be like that? Please help! Thank you.
linda says
How do you make the icing for the cookies?could not find a recipe. thanks
marian says
Hi Linda,
There’s a recipe section at the top of the site, and here is the specific link:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/01/royal-icing-recipe-free-illustrated-recipe/
Linda says
Best sugar cookie recipe I’ve ever worked with. The recipe made 36 large 1/4 inch thick cookies. Baking time, was off a bit. They did need to bake 15-18 minutes. I’ve never frosted with the flood method. That’s my next step. Wish me luck!
Bening says
Hi marian. I bake this cookie yesterday, but the cookie spread a lot and didn’t hold it shapes. I change 1/2 butter with shortening. I just wondering is the failure because of this?
marian says
Hi Bening,
Yes, that may be a reason as well as these:
https://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Baking is somewhat of science, it’s so particular. I hope they still taste yummy. My family never minds eating my experimentational baking. 🙂
Andrea says
I tried this recipe with GLUTEN FREE FLOUR (I use Krusteaz) and they are amazing. Third recipe I tried and my first success! My sister is even switching to this recipe for her cookies! The cookie kept their shape and size (did not use baking powder) my 5 year old niece could use a metal cookie cutter and put the cookie on the tray without help and they came out perfect. We will only use this recipe from now on!
Kristen Bolton says
This has been my favorite sugar cookie recipe for a couple years now! Thanks for sharing! I was wondering if you’ve ever done the dry ingredients in a jar as a cookie kit gift? I know it would affect the order of adding ingredients since you wouldn’t be mixing the butter and sugar as the first step…curious if you’d ever tried adding all the dry ingredients at the same time?? Would love to gift it for Christmas with some Christmas cookie cutters!
Christina Hadry says
How long does the cookie dough stay fresh in the refrigerator. What is the shelf life for refrigerated dough. I love this recipe.
Meaghan says
Do you think they would still keep their shape if I subbed flax or enter-g powder for the eggs? My son has an egg allergy 🙁
Lea Ann says
I have not tried these cookies yet, but I do have a suggestion. When rolling out the dough, use powdered sugar. This also will help when using cookie cutters. Hope this will be os some help. The powdered sugar dough not make the dough get tough either.
Laura says
Hello, can I cut the recipe in half?
Megan says
I love these cookies and have made them numerous times; even the royal icing – love it too!! I’ve even gotten pretty good with all my designs.
The last three times I have made the dough it has come out more like….sand and not dough. This last time, I just threw it all away and walked away. I tripled checked the measurements as I put them in, the butter was shredded and left to get room temp, the flour was sifted and then measured, my eggs were directly from the fridge, I tried to not beat the dough too long. Everything looked perfect until I added the dry ingredient mixture and then FAIL. Might you have any ideas on how I am messing this up?
marian says
Hi Megan,
Interesting that you’ve made them numerous times (as well as the icing), and had no issues but the last few times you did. It’s hard for me to tell as I’m not sure if anything was done differently compared the times which were successful. Do you know if any ingredients are different? (Brand-wise; especially the butter). How about the size of eggs used? If your dough wasn’t coming together it seems like there wasn’t enough liquid to bind everything. Also, did you shred your butter the times the recipe was successful? I only shred the butter, as mentioned in the notes, if I’ve forgotten to leave my butter overnight so it can soften to room temperature. I don’t really think that would be the issue, but thought I’d mention it. More importantly, how about amounts… Are you using a whole block (1 pound) of butter? (1 pound butter is 454 grams and 2 cups). Are you measuring your flour differently? Sometimes students in my class measure flour by packing it into the dry cup measurer until I correct them and show them that one fluffs up the flour to loosen it (our flour is in a bin on wheels and gets moved around and compacts), then one scoops it out and levels out the top. No need to push it down. Doing that means one is using more flour than required.
Hopefully those questions help.
Megan says
Oh, I’m so embarrassed. Sigh. I don’t even want to admit what I was doing wrong, but you nailed. Lol. One word made me realize, “block” of butter. Sigh.
THANK YOU. I will be remaking these today!!
Thank you so much for your recipes!!
Elida says
I just finished making this dough and it did not work out very well. The dough is very wet and I had to add 1 1/2 cups of flour to this recipe. I followed the recipe very closely and used measuring spoons. What went wrong?
marian says
Hi Elida,
Did you have 2.5 cups of butter? Depending on the butter used, the humidity in your environment, it may be too much. Although I love the taste of the extra butter, I have suggested in the notes above that one uses only 2 cups for those in warmer climates (or warmer home I guess 😉
You didn’t do anything wrong by adding more flour to make it less wet. How did the cookies turn out?
Tia Young says
Merry Christmas 🙂
I get an amazing batch every time! Love the recipe! I have learned so much from your website and appreciate the tutorials! My cookies have become a family tradition to decorate! Not to mention So Yummy! I love to share your site for the best sugar cookie Ever!
Mahsa says
Hi.merry Christmas.
Love the recepie too much.
I am fond of these cookies specially because of the decoration.
Just one question, I will be appreciate if you reply faster.
Can we omit half of the sugar?
Because it gets tooooo much sweet when we add royal icing on them and I love to make some low sugar cookies for my grandma.
Eager for your response.
Thx so much
marian says
Hi Mahsa,
I wouldn’t recommend changing the sugar amount… Baking is like a science and needs to be precise. If you do try it though, please let me know what the results were for you. Maybe try adding some lemon juice to the royal icing to cut the sweetness a bit. Hope that helps!
lily says
I made this recipe last Christmas (with the 2.5 cups of butter) and it came out beautifully. This year I made it and it was a sticky mess, I had to add over a cup of flour to get it manageable. I saw your note about using less butter, so I just tried that and kept everything else the same. It is still a sticky mess and I had to add a great deal of flour to get it the correct consistency. I followed the recipe exactly (while reducing butter). I just don’t understand how I had the best luck with it last year, and horrible luck this year (twice!) =( This was my go to cut out cookie recipe.
Liz says
Unfortunately I am with Elida and Lily on this. Made the recipe to the exact specifications with high end butter and all purpose flour from Trader Joe’s. The dough was a sticky mess and I added a little flour to make it manageable to be rolled between sheets of parchment. Chilled, cut and baked per the instructions and they spread some kind of horrible. 🙁 No Bueno. When I was ready to bake the next batch, I took the remaining ball of dough and added flour, kneading by hand, until it was just no longer sticky. Baked those and voila, cookies didn’t spread, baked much more evenly, and look much better than the first set. We will see how they hold up to the royal icing decorating tomorrow before the football game. It seems as if your ratio of flour to oil (butter) may be a little off. I would recommend to others to add sifted flour little by little until the dough is lifting from the sides of the mixer bowl when on low. Then it should be workable, cut well, and retain shape when baking.
marian says
I have made this recipe many times and it does work.
I’m sorry you had issues with the dough… Baking can be finicky… as everything needs to be precise.
Some things I can try and troubleshoot for you:
– meticulously follow these steps to prevent cookies from spreading (which affect dough texture as well) https://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
I use the best quality ingredients (less water content in butter etc.), so the cookies work out well for me and others who have made it.
If you check the comment section you’ll see that there are others who have also had issues with the dough being too soft for them. There are a few factors which would probably cause this. The first being inaccurate measuring but if there are others with the issue I would discount that being the reason. Although *the way flour is measured could be factor* (not enough in cup for example):
* The environment they live in. Is it humid? Warm? The dough would be harder to work with
* Room temperature butter – is their room temperature too warm (warmer climate again), making the butter overly soft.
* The quality of the ingredients. Lower quality butter has more water content than higher quality butters and will make the dough more moist
* There are more factors (some more related to spreading when baked), again, discussed in this post here; https://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Baking is a science… There are many factors which can affect the outcome. Baking in warmer environments, high altitudes, how things are measured, ingredients etc. all affect the results. Although the taste in this recipe is affected, I decided to make the recipe easier to work with and took out 1/2 cup of butter. It can be made either way, but one needs to carefully follow all suggestions and know about the factors which affect baking.
I hope that helps!
Tonya says
Hi,
So I have seen the concerns with the dough and I have seen the solutions. I am wanting to avoid the error with the butter.
My only question is which brand of butter do you use? That way I will be sure to follow it precisely they way it is meant to be. Thank you so much for your time, energy, and quick response. I really do appreciate that.
marian says
Hi Tonya,
I added a comment above yours to help with troubleshooting issues. The brand I use is Lactancia. ( Happy baking! xo
Amy says
Hi Marian, Is your all purpose flour bleached or unbleached? Thanks.
marian says
Bleached. 🙂
KFant says
Hi! I am trying to make this recipe and it is super crumbly. I followed the exact instructions above (although I do not have a stand mixer, using my hand mixer). I am afraid to over mix it but not sure if I need to mix it more to get a dough. Thanks in advance!
Jen says
Thank you Marian for the wonderful recipe and the great tips on avoiding spreading during baking. I have used this recipe for years (using the 2 1/2 cups of butter) and it turns out fantastic every time!
Tristin says
Love this recipe! It’s my go-to for any cut out sugar cookies I make! And it turns out great every time! One question though.. Do you ever freeze the dough? Just wondering in case I wanted to make a big batch of dough and freeze it then take it out at a later time to make what I needed.
Thanks!
Megan says
I’d love to know this too! I made the recipe tonight and baked half of them. They turned out perfect. But now I have wuite a bit of dough left. Can I freeze it?
marian says
Absolutely, yes. 🙂
Patricia says
What is the dough is too dry, crumbly??2 batches have come out the same way. Followed the steps, I had beautiful cookies in December- now not so much. Any advice?
Thanks
bonny says
Hi mine looked like that but after I wrapped it up and left to cgill for an hour it became nice and soft , hope that helps.
Cynthia says
Greetings! I thought I’d leave a comment about my success story with this recipe in order not to discourage others from trying it, given some of the troubles previous people have had. This recipe is great – I followed your instructions to the letter because as you say, it IS a science! I halved the recipe since I am still in the experimental phase with cookie recipes I will use for my little one’s birthday party in April, and still no problem. Left the butter out over night, which is a great idea and didn’t use much baking powder, just a tiny pinch since the recipe was already cut down to half of your original quantities. I really like the technique of rolling the dough between sheets of parchment paper — very easy to roll out dough later on and no mess on my countertop! I had always left the dough to chill in flat disks, which I would roll out later before cutting the cookies – of course the dough would then warm up again which defeated the purpose of chilling in the first place! Cookies baked through with a little brown on the edges in 9 minutes, so could even cut down to 8 min on my oven. All in all, a great recipe with expert tips. Thanks so much! Now on to the icing….
SAMANTHA says
What is the shelf life of a baked and iced cookie?
marian says
Hi Samantha,
Here is a post I wrote about the shelf life of cookies:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/02/how-long-do-decorated-cookies-stay-fresh-what-is-the-shelf-life-of-decorated-cookies/
Luly says
Hello,
Mariam, thank you so much for this recipe. I can’t wait to try it, I will make some shark cookies for my son 4th bday!! I’m planning on making the dought tomorrow, so I’m taking the butter out tonight. Any advice you can give me for my shark cookies.
Thank you for your time
Luly
Tamyara says
This is my go to cookie recipe, I have family members that are always asking me to make them. Can I make the dough and go ahead and cut the cookies and leave them in the refrigerator till I’m ready to bake them? I’m wanting to make some and give away next Thursday but I have to make them this weekend and I’m afraid if I bake them this early they won’t be fresh Thursday.
Danielle says
2 cups of butter..500gms
Sheila inverno says
Hello! I’m looking forward to trying this recipe for my daughters second birthday party this Saturday. Is it possible to make the recipe in advance and keep it in the fridge until ready to bake this Friday? Thanks in advance!