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
Butter questions
- It is most important to note that the butter does not have to be at room temperature. We do not recommend rock-hard butter but allow the butter to sit on the countertop for 10-15 minutes while you assemble your ingredients.
- If you can press your finger into the butter and you can easily make a deep indent then the butter is too soft.
- You should be able to press the butter and make a small fingerprint.
- A tip for mixing butter is to cut it into cubes (or just small pats) before creaming with the sugar.
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 it 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!).
- You could also try our Three Ingredient Chocolate Glaze
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. (PLEASE NOTE there is 1 egg in this recipe.)
- 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.
2,506 Comments on “Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER”
If making sugar cookies can i use almond flour instead of all purpose flour. If so how much?
Tips for larger cookies, please. Mine keep breaking, even after completely cooled. They bend too easily. Do I need to cook longer or do I need a different recipe? Thanks!
These are amazing!
I’m so glad I found your recipe!
I’m making these with stamped fondant for my sisters 21st and they will be perfect. Thank you!
Just used your recipe and I will only use this one from now on. Best cookies and best techniques.
Hi Katrina i made this today i made with 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 shortening and also
i added 1/2 cup sugar more 2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp almond made them into 1/4 thick baked for 9 minutes they came out great. I have also made them regular recipe and its great i just like a little more sweeter which it might not be good for me I give this recipe 5 stars thank you
Can i use washed sugar for this recipe? I have lots of them at home and dont want to waste them. Thanks
hi, I have a couple questions…I am thinking of using this recipe for a cream tart cake. I’ve used this recipe for years for cookies but I am not sure if they will stand up in this type of cake. Your thoughts? Can you adapt this recipe to a chocolate sugar cookie? Many thanks.
Hello Katrina, These are the best sugar cookies I’ve ever tasted and they really do melt in your mouth! I decided to scale the recipe down to 24 servings and it still made 4 dozen, so I would suggest not making them at full recipe. To make the colored sugar just put a half a cup sugar and a drop or two of food coloring in a ziplock bag and mix it around. It works great. These cookies will get great results no matter where they are served! Thank you for sharing the wonderful recipe.
LOVE!!!! This recipe is excellent! Thank you for the tips too!
I really like that I can roll the dough right out of the mixing bowl without refrigeration time! Cookies keep their shape beautifully & taste deeeeeee licious!
Thanks Katrina
I got 4 awesome cookies from this recipe and the rest of the dough is dry and crumbly. I’ve tried wetting my hands, adding more flour, etc and they just crumble when I try and roll them out. Any suggestions?
By far the easiest and most delicious sugar cookie ever. Roll out thicker if frosting. Thinner if painting. I usually need to cook 8-9 minutes. The only recipe I’ll ever use again! Thank you!
Great recipe. Thank you!
These are delicious! I am so excited to have found a great cut out sugar cookie recipe. I didn’t have to chill the dough, and it was perfect to roll out. These will be made very often if my two children have a say! Thank you!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this Recipe, I’ve paid for sugar cookie recipes thinking they would work better and this one has alway worked for me. My search is officially over! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Am I able to make this recipe gluten free?
I am unable to see the sugar cookie recipe any more HELP I love this recipe!!
The recipe disappeared off the post!
There are some elements missing from the list. At the bottom, right after “Items used in this recipe”. They showed up before but not anymore. Help!
Hi, I cannot seem to find the recipe on this page?
Hi! Where is the actual recipe? I’ve made your sugar cookie recipe several times before and I LOVE it! It is seriously the BEST! I want to make cookies for my daughter’s birthday party this weekend but I don’t see now… 🙁 Help please!
I just wanted you to know this is the best sugar cookie recipe I’ve ever made. Everytime my nephews are on the city, we made a ton of your cookies (today we doubled the recipe!). Thank your for so many hours of family fun.
Mine don’t look like yours pictured? They baked very cakey. Worried too much flour? Has anyone else experienced this?
These are so easy to make with kids. I used to avoid making cutouts with the little ones, but I don’t dread it anymore. This is totally my go-to recipe! I’ve got it bookmarked to make it easy to find for the next round of baking with my kids! Thank you so much.
Thanks for the great sugar cookie recipe…… Made it in the shape of shamrocks! It is a very easy and quick dough to use. Will use it for many more holidays and “goodies”I deliver to friends in the nursing home.
Lin
Thank you so much for this recipe! I don’t have time to chill the dough and then return to the fridge after shaping! I just made heart shaped cookies in a flash and they held their shape perfectly and were delicious.
These turned out perfectly! Larger shapes needed closer to 10min to bake through the middle. Hard to make a gift out of them when I keep eating them all 😋
Hi, is the stick of butter used cold? Or room temperature? Or does it not matter?
Thank you!
I will be making these today!! As well as the icing!!!
Can I exclude the almond extract and still get the same results? I am making heart shaped cookies for my son’s preschool class and there is a nut allergy in the class. And it’s snowing where I live so running to the store to get anything I don’t have is not possible at the moment. I have vanilla extract, that’s it. Thank you!!
BEST SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE EVER!! thank you so much. We all have made a bazillion tecpies – this was everything you said it would be. So easy to roll and cut and DID hold shape!!! Thank you! It is DEFINITELY my go to sugar cookie from now on!!! Wanted to send pic of vintage Cupid cutter with very clear lines but it won’t let me here!!!
these cookies are really really bland and too floury — super disappointing://
What does it mean to cream the butter and sugar does it mean to blend together?
New to cut out cookies. About how many will this recipe yield?
Perfection! They taste great and keep shape without puffing up. Ends of dough seem dry and cracky when rolling out but deals well when rolled up with scraps and rerolled.
This dough was super easy to work with and the cookies came out perfect.
I would like or know if I make big heart shaped cookies, if they would break easy?
The dough from this recipe is an absolute DREAM to work with. Like many others here, I resolved the fact that making cut-out sugar cookies is a nightmare and others who do it are pure angels with the patience of a saint. That is…until I found this recipe. I didn’t have any almond extract on hand so i used about a quarter teaspoon more vanilla and it’s delicious. I can’t wait to try it with a hint of almond! The description is spot on in that it has a play-doh consistency, which is so nice to roll out. I flour my granite countertop and roll directly on it – no blips at all. Last weekend, I hosted my family for a cookie-decorating party and we all rolled out a fifth of the dough ball to work simultaneously with no issues. We each made about 7 or 8 cookies before we ran out of dough. It was pure baking bliss that I could collect the cutout scraps and re-roll immediately without needing to wait the 20 or 30 minutes to chill the batter because I’m rather impatient and want to get all the cookies done quickly. I will use this recipe forever – thank you!!!
I just made these cookies because my son had cookie icing in a bottle he likes to put on pastries etc. He asked if we could make cookies and ice them, and these were perfect! They are light, easy to handle, if they crumble when handling, you can just press them back into the dough, re-roll, and cut those cookies! They were a nice compliment to the sweet icing from the store, but I may try your icing recipe next time I make a batch. Thank you!
I completely botched this recipe. I mixed dry ingredients then mixed in butter, then added egg. Cookies still turned out fabulous. You really can’t mess this up.
Is the butter supposed to be cold or do you bring it to room temperature first?
This the recipe I got with my bag of cookie cutters from michaels. I also add almond extract. I have been using it for 10 years. It does work great.
Made these today. I’m awful at cookies. They’re amazing! Can’t wait to decorate with my daughtEr for Santa!
I feel like every time I bake sugar cookies, they aren’t great and they explode and totally mishape what we cut out. Then I read about chilling the dough and was skeptical about yours not being chilled! These are perfect!! I don’t even like sugar cookies and I like these. Thank you!
This is the absolute best sugar cookie recipe I’ve ever made. It is delicious and easy to roll out and cut into shapes. It’s not too hard or sticky like some recipes. The cookies barely spread. I am just amazed at the ease in making these cookies. I added a heaping 1/4 tsp. of nutmeg to a double recipe. Definitely use the vanilla and almond extracts, and salted butter works great without leaving out the salt called for in the recipe.
I used a buttercream frosting and added in a bit of almond extract with the vanilla as well as some salt. Best tasting Christmas cookies I’ve ever made!
I just served these amazing cookies and they were the biggest hit in my family! They were great because the recipes made so many cookies, instead of 38 it made 62!!! One thing I struggled with was my dough was extremely crumbly and would not form together so, to fix that I added a splash of milk and it worked wonders!! I also recommend using royal icing to ice these cookies because the royal icing lifts the cookie to be better then it already is. I definitely recommend and I would give the recipe a 9/10.
I’ve just used this recipe for the first time in New Zealand and it’s great!! I have young kids and was going to make one batch of these and one of gingerbread cookies. I halved the dough to start rolling and cutting and saw how many cookies I was getting so decided to take a shortcut. In the second half of the dough I added a couple of teaspoons of gingerbread spice mix (which I had made previously in preparation for doing the gingerbread) and kneaded it throughthe dough, adding a little bit of moisture through wet hands to get the consistency right. Works a treat, and makes a more mild flavoured cookie than a straight gingerbread recipe would (and you can adjust to suit!!). Winner!!!!
Hi!! Does the butter need to be softened or straight from the fridge? Looking forward to baking them!!! Merry Christmas!
Hello Katrina,
This might sound like a dumb question but do you melt the butter or do you use it hard or is it softened ?
Thank you ! x
This was a great simple recipe but made closer to 2 dozen [22 were made with basic cookie cutters] at 1/4″ maybe even thinner. What did I do differently that I didn’t get 36 cookies? Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Katrina,
I tried the sugar cookie recipe delicious, I loved them! I made another batch the same night! My husband loves them too! I’m having the kids to decorate them for Christmas Eve…they’ll have fun!
Merry Christmas,
Donna
Is there anything I can use besides all purpose flour?