Best Sugar Cookies

Updated Aug. 29, 2023

Best Sugar Cookies
Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
5(3,305)
Comments
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This easy sugar cookie dough is perfect for rolling and cutting and bakes into cookies ideal for frosting. It holds its shape well during baking, tastes great, and the flavor can be changed according to whim: Swap out the vanilla and try adding orange zest, lemon zest, finely chopped rosemary or almond extract. You can also give these cookies a radical makeover by decorating them with icing. A few drops of gel food coloring turn them into Color-Field Cookies; red stripes transform them into Peppermint Stripe Cookies; or a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds and pistachios create Abstract Art Cookies. Rubber spacers on your rolling pin are especially helpful here: They’ll help you roll the dough to an even thickness, resulting in beautiful, uniform cookies.

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Ingredients

Yield:2 dozen cookies
  • cups/320 grams all-purpose flour
  • ½teaspoon baking powder
  • ½teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1cup/225 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
  • ¾cup/150 grams granulated sugar
  • 1large egg, at room temperature
  • 1teaspoon vanilla extract
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)

144 calories; 8 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 51 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to combine. Set aside.

  2. Step 2

    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed.

  3. Step 3

    Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. Scrape the bowl and fold a few times to make sure everything is well combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

  4. Step 4

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough ¼-inch thick. Use 3-inch floured cutters to cut out cookies, and transfer to two parchment- or silicone mat-lined baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 1½ inches apart. Reroll scraps as needed, chilling as needed until firm before rolling and cutting again. Freeze until very firm, about 10 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Bake until golden brown at the edges, 12 to 14 minutes.

  6. Step 6

    Let cool a few minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, or frozen up to 3 months.

Ratings

5 out of 5
3,305 user ratings
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Comments

Are these cookies crisp or soft. I prefer the traditional crisp ones.

How many days ahead can you make the dough to store in the fridge?

The amount of salt in sugar cookies affects their taste. I have read that the measure of kosher salt depends on the brand used because of the difference in density. For example, Diamond Chrystal Kosher is 3/4 as dense as Morton Kosher. So, if this recipe is referring to Morton’s density, but you have Diamond, you’d up the measure to 2/3 tsp., or a rounded 1/2 tsp. Does anyone think this matters?

Great recipe. Instead of making a flat disc and chilling it, I rolled it into a log and kind of hit each side to make it more or less a long square and put it in the freezer for about an hour. Got everything else ready then cut the log into small discs about a quarter of an inch thick and baked as directed. For me this was easier and less time-consuming than rolling it out and using a cookie cutter and certainly just as delicious.

Best sugar cookie ever! Made these for the first time a couple weeks ago and they were a hit. Fabulous flavor and consistency. Definitely worth the extra time for such a rewarding result..

The only way I have ever made sugar cookies is by cutting circles off of the end of a tube of cookie dough that I bought at the grocery store. I didn’t realize I would have to roll out these cookies by hand. But now that I have made this recipe (which calls for way too much flour), resurrected a bowl full of crumbles with not one but two egg whites, smeared dough all over my rolling pin and gave up on that method and got my daughter to press out the dough with her fingers, covered my kitchen in flour, and tasted the bland result of this recipe…I’m going back to the grocery store for a cookie dough tube next time I want to make sugar cookies, which will probably be never.

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