Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER
This is the BEST sugar cookie recipe– no chilling the dough, cookies keep their shape when baked, soft and flavorful, perfect for decorating.
Every year millions of people print this Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER from In Katrina’s Kitchen. I have been using this recipe for over 25 years, and it has never failed me.
The texture is medium-soft, but you can bake them longer if you prefer a crisp cookie. This cookie is my absolute favorite, and I have spent many years perfecting it for friends and family.
Why is This the BEST Sugar Cookie Recipe?
The dough comes together quickly with simple pantry ingredients.
It does NOT need to be chilled.
The recipe can be doubled easily.
Cookies hold their shape with very little expanding when baked.
Baked cookies freeze well.
The recipe I am giving you makes a large batch of dough because I like to bake many cookies. Also, I like to roll and cut my cookies fairly thick…to hold a lot of frosting.
Incorporating the last cup of flour may look dry and look crumbly. Turn out the dough onto your countertop and work with wet hands and/or more flour until the dough is smooth and ready to roll.
Most asked Q and A about this Recipe
The dough is sticky and/or crumbly. What can I do?
- The final dough really comes together and has a texture close to Play-Doh. Wet your hands if you need to. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Don’t be afraid to use more flour and incorporate it in while you are “kneading” it into a smooth ball.
- Forget everything you know about sugar cookie dough. Don’t be afraid of sprinkling more flour as you roll it out. Use the scraps! Mix them back into the unused dough and keep going.
Can I chill the dough? I want to chill the dough. Actually, I need to make these 3 days in advance, is that okay?
- If you need to make the dough in advance, you can chill it. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.
- Bring the dough to room temperature before rolling and cutting. You may need to use more flour on the countertop.
The cookies look under-baked. Can I bake them longer?
- I almost always suggest pulling out these cookies and the 8-9 minute mark for large cookie cutters, and 6-8 minutes for small cookie cutters. They will continue baking on the cookie sheet for a few minutes while they cool and set.
- After cooling for about 5 minutes, I use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack.
Can I omit the almond extract?
- You can omit the almond extract.
- If not using almond extract, replace it with an equal amount of pure vanilla extract.
- You can use any of your favorite flavorings in this cookie. I have used peppermint, maple, and lemon with great success.
How Do I Make these Cookies Gluten-Free?
- To make these the best gluten-free Sugar Cookie, swap out the flour for your favorite gluten-free 1:1 flour.
- I use King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure Flour
What is your favorite Christmas Cookie Frosting Recipe?
- I’m happy you asked! I like a soft, sweet frosting. Here is my favorite Christmas Cookie Frosting.
- Click here for my Small Batch Royal Icing recipe (it dries smooth and hard and is perfect for holding together gingerbread houses, too!).
I hope you love this Best Sugar Cookie recipe as much as our family does! Merry Christmas!
Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup unsalted butter, 226 grams
- 1 Cup granulated white sugar, 200 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour, 360 grams
Instructions
- PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
- In the bowl of your mixer, CREAM butter and sugar until smooth, at least 3 minutes
- BEAT in extracts and egg.
- In a separate bowl, COMBINE baking powder and salt with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: If the dough looks crumbly keep mixing for 30 seconds to 1 minute longer. The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the mixer.
- If the dough still looks too dry or stiff for your mixer, turn out the dough onto a countertop surface, flour surface as needed. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
- DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches (2-3 chunks), roll out onto a floured surface, and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
- Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Troubleshooting Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
Scooping and dumping your flour may be the problem! Even with level scooping measurements can vary. Try getting a digital kitchen scale and adding your ingredients by weight.
If your cookies seem to consistently need a longer or shorter baking time consider calibrating your oven with an oven thermometer.
Bake with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Invest in a small metal cookie spatula to transfer cookies.
If left on the counter top for about an hour your butter should be the right consistency- a finger pressed onto the butter will make a slight indent but not sink down into it. (Read more about room temperature butter in this post about XL Bakery Style Cookies.)
Whenever a recipe calls for room temperature butter you should use room temperature eggs. To take the chill off of eggs I place them in a shallow bowl of warm (not hot) water for 2-3 minutes. You can then crack them for use in your recipe.
Looking for more Christmas Cookies?
Try my Christmas Cookie archive for some of the most adorable and delicious Christmas cookies.
Some of my favorites are Grinch Cookies and Ugly Christmas Sweater Sugar Cookie Bars.
For something different, try Christmas Tree Meringue Cookies.
1,281 Comments on “Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER”
Can I make them into chocolate sugar Cookies and if so would 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder be the correct measurement for the ratio of this recipe?
Love love this recipe ! It has been my go to recipe for some time.
Thank you!
I have heard people have varying results doing that. I would recommend using my no chill, no spread chocolate cut out cookie recipe. It tastes like a brownie! https://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/best-chocolate-cut-out-cookie/
Excellent cookies – finally a cookie that’s not overly sweet but still delicious. Added one cup of pecans the second time I made them and they were really good.
Can one just place the dough on a baking sheet to make a round cookie…like making chocolate chips cookies
Hi these look lovely. How long will they keep for? And can the base recipe be tweaked for lemon cookies or chocolate? Thanks.
You can replace the extract with some lemon and/or use lemon zest. For chocolate I suggest trying my no chill, no spread chocolate cut out cookies https://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/best-chocolate-cut-out-cookie/
Amazing… delicious… what else can I say?
I made these for the first time this past Christmas and they were wonderful. We had so many to decorate as well. I put egg wash on about half and topped with sprinkles before banking. The other half we iced. Thanks so much for sharing. This recipe is a keeper.
Sugar Cookie is great! I just finished it last night and the result was unexpected, my wife and daughter both liked it, which made me happy. Thanks for your recipe!
Best Suger cookies ever. I have tried many before I found this . I have made these cookies for the last few years now. It’s our family favourite.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
Cookies tasted okay- a tad dry for my liking…which could be a result of possibly using to much flour when cutting the cookie shapes. Overall though, taste was good. One thing I was disappointed with was that the cookies did not hold their shape as well as I’d hoped. Next time, I will most likely put in the fridge to chill a bit. That being said, they could have been better but also could have been worse! Regardless, I am sure the guests at my nephews birthday will enjoy them 🙂
I made tour cookies for Christmas and the ARE the best cookies ever! I made then again today and they seemed a little gritty and the dough was very sticky. Any idea of what I may have done wrong? Oven was at 350, medium size cookies for 8 minutes.
Thank you!
Hmm. Possibly too warm butter? Thanks for letting us know!
The dough always stuck to my rolling pin. So I just scooped the dough onto the pans and pressed them down with a wet spoon.
I want to colour 1/3 of my dough with gel food dye. When would you suggest I add the dye and what would be the best method to do so?
Yes you can dye the dough. See my Patchwork Winter Mittens for an example https://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/patchwork-winter-mitten-cookies/
One of the best sugar cookie recipes that I’ve found. I made these for Christmas and I didn’t have almond extract so I used cake emulsion instead. Turned out AMAZING!!! Baking these again for Valentine’s Day.
Question: How long can baked, unfrosted cookies keep in the freezer??
I do agree this is the best sugar cookie recipe EVER. My first time using it I made a double batch, start to finish it took one hour. Every bit perfect!
I slightly undercooked some thick cutouts for my “soft cookie” eaters. They met with rave reviews.
Then I made thinner, crisper ones for my “english biscuit” folks. I decided to change it up a bit and made this batch with a bit of extra vanilla butter emulsion (omitted the almond extract). These too were loved by all.
I made a total of 6 batches for Christmas and they turned out perfect every time.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. It is my new “go to” for many occasions.
This recipe is quick, easy, and yummy! I love how well the dough works with cookie cutters! Thank you for this!
Worst recipe ever. Couldn’t roll a single cookie 😠
I’ve used this cookie recipe for years now. It is by far the best cut out cookie recipe out there. Super easy, tasty, and results in the perfect shape every time. Thank you so much! Every year I have friends asking me for the recipe and I gladly direct them to your site. We were gifted many goodies this year, but in the end I liked our cookies the best, haha. Thank you!
These are the best sugar cut out cookies-shamefully addicting. I found it makes a big difference if you weigh your flour versus measuring by cupful in terms of “crumbliness” of the dough, though a little kneading corrects any issues like magic. My daughter & I found ourselves making this recipe for the first time, half-way across the country on Christmas Eve, we both loved it.
An absolutely beautiful dough to work with – came together easily w/out adjustments! I used salted butter, omitted the 1/2 tsp in recipe as well as used only 1 1/4 tsp Almond extract as well as in icing. Perfect results! This is a winner, the only Sugar Cookie Recipe I will use from now on. It will be placed in my recipe box to be passed onto my kids. 🙂
I made this recipe and rolled my dough balls in vanilla sugar. They are yummy. Made 4+ dozen cookies.
I used Butter Crisco(all I had) added two tablespoons of water as directed on Crisco Butter bars.
Used only vanilla extract( all I had) and they are delicious.
Can you make this with a hand mixer?
I borrowed my moms stand mixer and made these a few weeks ago and they were amazing! But I’ve since given it back and need to make another batch…
Anyone tried?
Oops, forgot to give you 5 stars!
I have been using this recipe for three years now! It comes out PERFECT every time!!! Everyone loves these, and I make them all year long. My 5 year old granddaughter is the biggest fan of these LOL. Thank You Katrina, you are amazing😁
These cookies have a great flavor and were perfect for decorating. I now have a favorite sugar cookie recipe!