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
Johanna says
I love your cookies, and have used your recipe once and fell in love. It was so easy!
I just have a question…when you leave your cookies out to dry, should you have them dry in a container or just on the counter? I know you have said that the icing acts as a seal, but what if you are leaving them to dry with only an outline around the cookie?
Thanks,
Johanna
Joanne says
My daughter and I made bridal dresses using your sugar cookie and royal icing recipes and tutorials, and they came out really great for a first attempt! The sugar cookies tasted almost like butter cookies. I’ll be doing a lot more of these! Thanks for all the tips and tricks! 🙂
paige churchill says
Marion,
I was wondering……it seems 2 1/2 cups of butter ( 5 sticks) per 5 cups of flour seems like alot of butter, recipe did not work at all the cookies spread and did not hold their shape. Am i missing somthing? They were very hard to roll dough did not hold its shape either????? I did not over mix the butter/sugar either. Any thoughts?
marian says
Paige; it is lots of butter =) (for flavour and texture). It IS a sticky, soft dough but rolling it between two sheets of parchment and then working with it (cutting shapes), when it is cold, will work. I’ll do a video this summer if that helps to see as well.
-I’m thinking you’ve seen the post on cookies spreading but just in case here it is:
https://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Joanne says
I got such a good response to these that I am now getting orders! I was wondering if these cookies can be made ahead and stored (frozen or refrigerated) to be decorated later.
Also, still working on getting a cleaner, sharper edge with less spreading. I found baking at 375 in my oven helps a bit for me. A hot oven is key and I was surprised how much heat is lost from opening the door to check!
Thanks Marion 🙂
marian says
@ Joanne: I’m so glad you’ve gotten a good response to the cookie recipe!
I do freeze mine to a maximum of 2 months, yes. It’s a great way to save time!
I’m a little apprehensive about freezing decorated ones, but lots of people seem to have success with it. If you haven’t already seen them, check the post and comment section on freezing decorated cookies here:
https://sweetopia.net/2011/03/freezing-decorated-cookies/
Thanks so much for your tips; I’d like to try baking mine at 375 degrees – good idea. And you’re right, even peeking will make a difference; thanks for the reminder on behalf of all of us!
Christna says
Gorgeous(:
How many cookies does this yield?
LUPITA CARDENAS says
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SALUDOS
marian says
@ Christna: Thanks so much!
It will depend on the size of the cookies of course, but approximately 24-30 average sized cookies.
Sophia says
Hi Marian,
I just tried out this sugar cookie recipe and it seems super sticky… I rolled it out between two sheets of parchment paper and have left it in the fridge for at least 3hrs. The dough seems good when I first got it out from the fridge but after around 5mins, it becomes very sticky and get stuck to the parchment paper (it’s around 95°F here).
When I cut the rolled out dough with a cutter and try to pick it up, it’s just impossible to lift up without ruining the shape 🙁
Is there anyway I can get the dough to stop sticking to the parchment paper?
I’ve put the dough back in the fridge for the time being~
Any tips would be great! thank you~
marian says
Hi Sophia,
Ah yes, 95 degrees F is hot!
So, the dough is a wetter one to begin with because I find it makes the cookies a nice tasty texture, so if you’re working in really warm temperatures, for your next batch, add more flour until it doesn’t feel as sticky when you mix it (but you don’t want it dry and crumbly), but the batch you have in the fridge, working with small areas of dough at a time, (maybe about the size of two hands spread out), roll it out on flour (and put flour on your rolling pin – you can even try flouring the parchment and still rolling it between them), and basically work as quickly as you can.
It’s a little extra work, but I guess I find it worth it because I like the taste of the cookies. I hope it works out for you too!
I’ll be doing a video this summer (our temperatures are around 89 degrees F when it’s hot), so I’ll demo how I do mine, but hopefully those instructions help you for now.
Sophia says
Thank you!!!! Yeah, I got it working~~~ with more flour and small batches. They are definitely tasty!!!@ marian:
marian says
Yay! @ Sophia: So glad for you!
Angie Smith says
I just baked a batch of these, and they are delicious! Soft on the inside, slightly crisp on the outside. YUM. I haven’t put icing on them yet, but the cookie itself is delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
canan says
You are fabulous! I love your website. Thank you so much for sharing all your creativity and talent with us. I’m now trying this recipe and my dough is in the fridge. I think I followed everything correctly and I measured and took pics of every step so if I have any problems I can ask more specific questions. Making the dough wasn’t hard. I’m grateful for all the important tips you give like not overmixing the dough etc. I would have no idea otherwise! My oven is not the best so I hope the baking part goes ok. Once again thank you for all the incredible ideas! You are great 🙂
canan says
Oh, I forgot to ask something. You say “chill at least 1 hour” (right after the dough is rolled), is there also like a maximum time for chilling, i.e. “don’t chill is overnight” kind of a suggestion? It’s a little late here and I realize I might need to chill the dough overnight. I hope it won’t spoil. Thanks a lot!
marian says
Hi canan,
No problem overnight at all! It won’t spoil. If you’re working in a humid environment, I suggest working with small pieces of the dough at a time, chilling in between if you need to. Thank you for your sweet comments and have fun baking!
Christna says
Hello!
What does it mean by sift the flour, baking powder,salt
marian says
@ Christna:
Here are some pictures of flour etc. being sifted:
http://www.google.ca/search?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1R2SKPB_enCA368&biw=1345&bih=528&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=to+sift+flour&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=
Christina says
Sorry to bother you again, but can i cut the recipe in half or will it affect the recipe?
marian says
No worries Christina; yes you can!
Cassidy says
Cute(=
Can these be made with margarine instead of butter?
marian says
Sorry Cassidy, I’d have to say no. =(
Cassidy says
@ marian:
Lets say that the cookies are about 3 inchs from length and width, how much would u have to bake them for?
marian says
@ Cassidy: Every oven is different, even if you have it set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so look for the edges to be a little golden and the center of the cookie not to look wet. If I were to estimate a time though, for that size cookie, and for about 3/4 of a cm in thickness, I would say 10-12 minutes.
By the way, when you’re look for ‘doneness’, use your oven light and look through the glass, if you open the oven door to peek, the oven loses heat.
Sorry I can’t give you an exact time, there really are so many factors to consider when baking, but once you make a batch or two, you will get to know what your oven etc. is like, and have an idea how long you need to make them.
I would suggest baking one sheet at a time, on the middle rack of your oven; that way you can experiment a bit as well.
It may sound complicated, but it’s not bad once you get the feel of your oven.
Happy baking!
canan says
@ marian:
Hi Marian, some feedback on the cookies. The dough was very soft even after chilling a couple of hours and I could only get 2 -yes only 2- cookies properly cut. The ones after that just stuck to the cutter and I couldn’t get them off. During baking they unfortunately spread too much. They were extremely delicious, though. I added some more flour to the remaining dough (115g more) and chilled longer and placed them on a hot tray when baking. I found out that they spread more when placed on a cold tray. This way they kept their shape much better. Now I realize that the humidity in the air, the brand of the butter etc matter very much in baking. I guess I’ll need to play a little more with this recipe and create an optimum for the ingredients I use here. I have another question. When I added more flour, I was happier with the shapes but the buttery taste is not as much as the original recipe. Is there a trick to make them taste more buttery even though I use more flour? Thanks a lot!
marian says
@ canan:
Working with small batches of dough at a time will help (use pieces about the size of a stretched out hand); that way the dough stays chilled and not soft.
Also, dip your cookie cutter into flour before you cut each cookie out.
Adding flour to the dough will help too, but yes, the flavour and texture of the cookie will change. Keeping as much of the butter flavour isn’t possible if you add more flour. The only thing I can think of is adding butter-flavored extract, however, I’m not a fan of butter extract… too artificial in my (humble) opinion!
Hope that helps!
spookercat says
thanks so much for sharing this recipe, I followed it to the letter (except that I used my Mom’s 50 year old Sunbeam mixmaster, which has NEVER heard of such a thing as a paddle attachment), and its absolutely perfect.
Of course, perfection must be tinkered with, so for the second batch I used 4 cups of flour and 1 1/3 cup cocoa powder, as I’m making cookie favors for my husband’s 50th birthday party (hey, that’s a coincidence, they are the same age….) and he’s eaten a lot of sugar cookies while I’ve been cookie decorating. Anyhow, the chocolate version of these cookies are so so yummy. I think they will look very good decorated for a guy!
so many many thanks and kudos for your generosity.
spookercat says
OK, maybe I should have left the sugar cookie recipe alone! I decorated the chocolate version yesterday, and when packaging them today, I see that it looks like butter is ‘seeping into’ the royal icing. I haven’t decorated a lot of cookies, but I haven’t seen this happen before. I used a darkish blue color for the decorations (which looks good with the chocolate cookie), could that have any influence on this phenomenon? Can anyone else comment or advise? thanks.
marian says
@ spookercat: It’s not a 100% answer (I plan on doing a post on it and getting everyone’s feedback), but it seems to be humidity… the fat (butter), seems to seep up into the royal icing in warmer conditions. Perhaps working in a room with an air conditioner/de-humidifier would help. That seemed to do the trick for me. (happened for the first time about a month ago when it was crazy humid here).
Barb says
Just to clarify. Is that 2 1/2 cups butter as in 5 sticks? Or is it two one half cups as in 2 sticks? Thanks. I love your site you are so talented!!
marian says
@ Barb: Each stick is equal to half a cup, so yes, 5 sticks in total.
Happy baking!
Barb says
@ marian:
So just how sticky is this dough supposed to be? Do you know the average amount of time you mix it after you’ve added the dry ingredients?
marian says
@ Barb: Soft and slightly sticky, but not goo to your fingers kind of sticky. It’s hard to explain. I will do a video in the next few months!
In the meantime, it’s important to know that humidity can add to the moisture, so if your dough is so sticky that it gums/really sticks to your fingers (test by picking some up), then you need to add more flour; I’d say 1/4 cup at a time.
Mixing time- 15-30 seconds
Hope that helps!
Laurie says
Just made this dough and it’s in the fridge to cool, I’m very excited about trying some royal icing for these. I’ll report back!
marian says
Yay!
Work with small pieces at a time in this warm summer weather (assuming you’re not in Aus/NZ), keeping the unused dough in the fridge. Dip your cutter in flour to prevent sticking, and chill if it gets too soft.
It’s more work, but worth it!
Laurie says
I am SO happy with how this dough turned out!!!
After mixing it up I rolled small pieces between sheets of wax paper to the thickness I wanted to work with, then I stacked all the dough (sandwiched between their own sheets of wax paper) in the fridge for about 3 hours.
I took your advice and only worked with one small piece of dough at a time and also floured the cookie cutter. Once I had enough cut-outs for 1 sheet pan of cookies I put everything back in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking.
I chose an intricate scalloped cutter and could not be more pleased with how they came out!!! Very little spread and each scallop is perfectly delineated 🙂
Your webpage has been a wealth of inspiration and knowledge, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!! I can’t wait to decorate them for my daughter’s first birthday!
Also, I wanted to add to anyone that wants to try this recipe… it’s quite hot and humid here (Central NY) right now and these cookies turned out beautifully. Take your time with the chilling of the dough, you won’t be disappointed!!
spookercat says
I have fat seepage again into a second batch of cookies (despite keeping them in air conditioning), these are ones that a client ordered, and I don’t have time to remake them (pickup is tomorrow). They are Canada flag and the seepage appears only to be in the red icing (at the moment!) but it is quite unsightly. I just don’t know what to do; there are some that are ‘perfect’ (at least so far), but not enough to fill the order, and I made 30% extra cookies, just so I’d have enough to cover any oopsies….
marian says
@ spookercat Is it humid where you are? Humidity wreaks havoc on baked goods. =(
Right now I have both the air conditioner and de-humidifier going in the room where I decorate because it’s so humid here (near Toronto, Canada), that even though our air-conditioner has somewhat of a de-humidifier built into it, I needed even more!
Send me a pic sweetopia at inbox dot com
Maybe I can help you with some ideas to help salvage. One idea – red lustre spray or dust on the red part.
jessica says
Hi Marian!
So glad to see the last couple of posts on your site…I was starting to miss them! : )
I received a brand new Kitchen Aid mixer that I am super excited to begin using for baking and other goodies! I had been using my hand mixer to make your sugar cookie recipe {and my cookies were spreading a bit} so I am interested to see if there will be a difference now that I am movin’ on over to the big guy! Question… {because I am such a newbie!}…your instructions say to use a paddle attachment. Would that be what’s also called a flat beater? Here is a picture of what came with mine: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=10793858
Thank you for your help!
jessica says
Hi again Marian : )
I made the sugar cookie recipe in my mixer and the batter seemed really light and soft and somewhat sticky {which gave me be some concern as I know it’s important NOT to incorporate too much air into the dough and I was VERY careful not too} – do you think maybe it’s because my butter was REALLY soft? I left it out, per your instructions {and then I added more flour, per your “tips” post, if the dough was too sticky}. How is the dough supposed to feel after its been made? Light and soft or somewhat stiff, or? I was careful to follow your instructions to a T! The dough is in the frig now on baking sheets with parchment paper. My fingers are crossed!! My first attempt at making your recipe was the one that gave me the best results…imagine that! Every attempt after that wasn’t as quite as great. Odd. Do you have an idea when you plan to get your video tutorial up? I know many of us would love to see how YOU make your sugar cookie dough : )
marian says
@ jessica:
That’s the right attachment =)
I’ll be doing the video this summer for sure (I’m on holidays), so in the next 5 weeks.
For now, when you pick up a little piece of the dough, it should feel soft, and when you pull your fingers apart should ‘let go’ and not stick to your fingers. I’ll have to show that!
Adding more flour will help, but this humidity (is it where you are?) will affect the dough too.
Definitely leave it in the fridge until it’s hard, and then work with only small pieces at a time; leaving the rest in the fridge to firm up in between. Even when you’re re-rolling the scraps, if they get too soft, put them back to chill.
Hope that helps!
andrea says
Do you have to have a paddle attachment to mix with? I have not upgraded to a fancy mixer yet 🙁
marian says
Hi Andrea; no you don’t need to make these with a kitchen aid mixer and paddle attachment. It just takes longer without one and your cookies may spread a wee bit more becaue you may have to put more ‘mixing action’ into the dough… thereby adding more air to it. It will still work, though!
andrea says
Thanks! Im going to attempt these tonight!
andrea says
Just made these a few hours ago and they turned out great! I had to omit the baking powder and 1/2 cup of butter so they wouldn’t spread and they turned out wonderful. I did have to keep putting the dough in the fridge though because it was very HOT today and the dough was getting sticky. Thanks for the great recipe, Im gonna attempt my first try at icing them tomorrow!
marian says
Yay Andrea!! Have fun!!