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 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
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.
*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
This post is supported by Reader’s Digest. Try out their recipe for sugar cookies and other yummy treats!
Finally made your cookies,
Awesome! Love the taste had no problem what so ever with spreading:)
I did take the extra time to chill the dough and cutout cookies.
I love all your tutorials and ideas!
Thanks for being a true inspiration to all
Carrie
@ Jen Graham: Yay!! Thanks and happy holidays to you and your munchkins!
I’m making this recipe for my son’s first birthday! I can’t wait to try them out. Question: you said that you hardly use baking powder… do you even add the 1 tsp, or do you leave it out almost completely?
Thank you!!
HI @ Caitlin: I leave it out completely. It’s a yummy dough, but because of the amount of butter (hence the yummy taste I think) etc., it’s a sticky dough and these tips will help you too:
http://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Have fun! I’d love to see your cookies when you’re done if you’d like to share them on my facebook page.
Have fun!
thank you soo muchh your recipe is like a miracle…i usually make the store bought but your cookies like wayyy better..thanks !!
Beautiful cookies. I am wondering how far in advance you can make some frosted sugar cookies like this???
@ Vanessa: Thanks!
@ Kelli: Freshest is best of course, but I keep mine up to two weeks. Many stores carrying custom cookies carry them on their shelves for about one month and some people swear by longer, but again, I like to make them up to 2 weeks in advance max.
Do u have a video on how to use projector?
So far, @ Sue, just me using one. I will have to do a video I think.
Hello! I’ve tried your sugar cookie recipe and loved it. I was wondering if you have a chocolate sugar cookie recipe?
Hi @ Lisa R.: Sorry, I’m still experimenting with finding a recipe I love, but will definitely post it when I do!
I was wondering if I should double this recipe for 20 horseshoe shaped cookies?The cutter is 4.5-5 iches tall, about 4.5 inches wide. Thanks.
Hi I’ve tried your sugar cookie recipe and I love it, but I was wondering I notice the cookies were a bit on the softer side would you have any suggestions to make the cookie a liittle harder? Maybe less butter? Thanks
I love this recipe! Thank you. I love your website!
Can you make the cookies ahead of time and store them? That way you can decorated with RI it another day. If so how would you suggest storing it because in your other videos it says to not store cookies that have RI in a air-tight container, would that go the same for uniced cookies?
HI @ Katelyn: Undecorated cookies do well in air-tight containers between sheets of parchment paper.
You can even freeze them like that for up to 3 months.
All the best! =)
Roughly how many cookies does this recipe yield? I need to make 60 r
4″ cookies, and I’m just wondering if I should double this recipe.
@ Vanessa: It makes roughly 30-35 medium sized cookies (3 inch round). I would double it and if you have leftover, you can freeze the dough.
All the best!
What icing recipe do you use?
Hi @ Jennifer: This one:
http://sweetopia.net/2012/01/royal-icing-recipe-free-illustrated-recipe/
Hi Marion, I am new to the sugar cookie thing, as I live in New Zealand I don’t know what the typical sugar cookie is like. I have made a couple of diff recipes up and they seem very soft? Is this normal? I expected them to be firmer. Loving your site, have been very please with the decortating results I have had just no so much the cookies. Thanks Heaps Lou
Hi Marian,
I was wondering if you could tell me what thickness you use to roll out your cookies? (such as 1/4 inch). I was just curious what thickness of cookie you prefer and what works best for you. Thanks!!
Michaela
Nevermind, I see an older post that you say 3/4 cm thick…sorry for the bother!
I’m sort of cheating. I have made these cookies before, so I know they are fantastic.. But I am reviewing them on my blog “The Testing Mama” because I am not a professional baker and I’m going to go step by step and report my results.
Like I said, I have already made these and I already know they are great, so I am just letting you know that within the next few days, I will have a link to your cookies up, with my post
Thanks @ Mama Dobble!
Hi Marian
)?
I would like to make a large amount of your sugar cookies for valentines. So I was thinking that I can make the dough and do the cut outs and freeze ahead to have them ready to bake. Could you please guide me on three things: (1) how do I properly wrap/store cookies in freezer? (2) How long can I freeze them for? (3)Can I go straight from freezer to oven? – If yes would that help with the keeping the shape’s crispness (as you call it
Thanks a million for all you help and guidance
Hi Marian, me again! I just read where you said the baked cookies could be stored frozen…… so two more questions, which do you recommend freezing dough or cookies? What is the process for defrosting? Is the resulting texture the same as fresh baked?
Thanks again
Hi @ Pamela:
1) between layers of parchment in an airtight container
2) approx 3 months
3) yes and yes
Have you seen this post? http://sweetopia.net/2011/03/freezing-decorated-cookies/ I think it will help you. xo
@ Pamela: p.s. The comment section in the freezing section will help…
Hi! Thank you for all your videos and tips! They have helped me so much! I was wondering what your opinion is about sugar cookies made with shortening instead of butter? And is there a recipe with it that works well?
@ marian:
Thanks bunches………. will start freezing:)
@ Pamela:
I know this sounds crazy but if you freeze in a shoebox it works better than airtight containers. I would would wrap in saran wrap. For even more protection, put foil on top of that. The cardboard protects from freezer burn and keeps out weird flavors. I use to sell a food product from a home based business that did sampling parties. They said it would last 6 months in a shoebox, but I took food out a year later and it tasted as fresh as the day it was made.
That is the most interesting thing I’ve heard today! @ Deena Prater: Thanks SO much for sharing! xo
I made these cookies and I may have done something incorrectly, but I tried to follow the recipe to the letter. Also I chilled the dough before and after the cutting. But they were very soft and very greasy. They wouldnt ‘set’ and they actually fell apart when I picked them up. I was careful not to mix too long. I’m wondering if maybe this much butter causes this to happen?
Thank you!
Hi @ Stephanie: It’s the recipe I use so there must be something we can do to help you. When were they falling apart when you picked them up?
I refrigerated them for an hour and then baked them at 350, NO baking powder added. After cooling, I picked one up and it fell apart. It tastes great, but it spread like crazy. Should this be unsalted butter? And it is 2 1/2 CUPS of butter, right? They were greasy and didnt look like the cutters I used at all, or your cookies either.
Help:/
Stephanie
Hi Marian!
I just wanted to tell you that I’ve been testing sugar cookie recipes lately. I had tried your recipe above about a year ago and it didn’t work for me. But I tried it again (along with many other recipes) and this time it was by far THE best recipe. Great taste, nice texture, perfect! So Toute Sweet in CH will be using your recipe for decorated cookies from now on!
Thanks again for all of your help and tips!
Nikki
Hi @ Stephanie: There must be something we can do to help you – this is the recipe I use and they don’t fall apart and aren’t greasy.
Tips for helping prevent spreading: http://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Yes, unsalted butter, and the quality of butter you use makes a difference (I talk about it in the above post).
I hope that helps! xo
I’m glad the recipe worked out for you this time. Baking IS like a science and certain conditions need to be right for it to work – I’m glad you found it! I find the taste worth it as well! xo
Hi @ Nikki from CH: You know I have certain soft spot for Switzerland, don’t you?! We’ve chatted before.
Hi, I’m new to this whole baking thing so I have a dumb question…lol. I notice the recipe says to use the paddle attachment on the mixer. I only have a hand mixer so which attachment would that be? I have a whisk attachment, one that just looks like a spiral and the typical hand mixer attachment. Thanks in advance!
Hi Marian, I have never made sugar cookies from scratch before, but want to start baking them since I have become inspired by your designs and those of other cookie bakers. I researched NFSC and Peggy Porschen’s recipes, but anxious to try yours. Peggy Porschen uses caster sugar. Do you use caster sugar(extra fine sugar), or regular granulated sugar for your recipe?
Hi @ Stephanie: As far as I know, there isn’t a paddle attachment for the hand mixer – you’ll just have to use the whisk attachments which come with it. It’ll still work though. (You might incorporate a little bit more air, which might translate into a little bit of spreading with the cookies).
Hi @ Annette: I use regular, granulates sugar. Have fun baking!
I just baked some cookies using your recipe. DELICIOUS! At first “bite” I thought they were not sweet, but by the second “bite” I could taste the sweetness which was just right. Once iced they will be PERFECT. Now I need to practice my icing techniques. Off to watch more of your videos. Thank you for sharing your ideas and reciptes. >@ Marian (Sweetopia):
Hi Marian -
I love (LOVE LOVE) your website. Your cookies are pure genius. Thank you for sharing all of your tricks of the trade. I had a question regarding the recipe. Can it be doubled? I’ve been bitten in the past trying to double a recipe and the flour doesn’t mix well or some other tragedy occurs. It could just be what I call the “me” effect and not an issue with the recipes I use. But I thought I’d ask anyway.
Thanks for your help!
About how many cookies does this recipe yeild?
And after baking, how long should the cookies cool before decorating with royal icing?
Thanks again!
Yay! So glad @ Annette!
@ Jennifer: Baking can be finicky, yes, doubling doesn’t always work. I have tried it with this recipe, yes, it does work. If your butter isn’t the best quality, take about the 1/2 cup butter for each batch (so in total one cup).
@ Katelyn: It depends on the size and thickness of the cookie of course, but approx. 30 medium sized cookies.
Hi Marian, I am really enjoying reading all the questions and comments. Im learning alot by them. I do have a question tho. I would like to put my cookies on sticks but not sure of the proper positioning of the sticks so the cookie doesnt fall off, and could this sugar cookie recipe work for this or should i use the shortbread recipe? thanks @ marian:
Is the butter you use salted or unsalted?
Hi @ Lorraine: The shortbread recipe is fragile (I mention it’s melt-in-your mouth in the post….also means it’s delicate). Use sugar cookies.
@ Wylene: UN.
p.s. @ Lorraine: I have a cookie pop video on my youtube channel which may be helpful for you.
Thank you so much for this recipe and the useful tips. I will give them a try very soon. I am sure I will not be disappointed…