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”
I am a professional baker with a small local business and this recipe is THE BOMB!!! Delicious, easy-to-cut cookies that keep. their. shapes!! It also was SUPER easy to adapt into a vegan verison!
So good! Tasty, easy & keeps shape well. Was really fun to do with my 3 yr old.
I did 1tbls vanilla & the zest of one lemon instead of almond extract
These cookies are incredible! My kids cant stop eating them , thanks so much for sharing the recipe with us.
So very easy and fast to make!
These definitely were the best sugar cookies ever! Not having to chill dough is a huge time saver and the cookies held their shape and came out beautiful. I made llama and cactus cookies for my granddaughters birthday and she loved them. The cookies were soft and moist!
The taste of these cookies is great however I find they didn’t hold their shape well at all compared to other recipes I’ve tried. May b omit the baking powder next time and see. Thank you for sharing your recipe
Hello Katrina. I’ve been using your recipe after it was recommended by a friend. I’m finding that the dough is quite soft after it is mixed and it can sometimes be difficult to move the cookies to the sheet without them warping a bit. Sometimes they come out with crisp edges, and sometimes they seem to spread a bit, with the shape not totally crisp. If you stack the cookies, sometimes you can see that the sizes vary a bit. Is there something I’m doing wrong? Would it be a good idea to chill them in fridge or freezer before baking?
I’m sure they’re great but i had so much trouble, the dough is way too soft for me to cut without severely mis-shaping on transfer. Maybe I didn’t use enough flour? I’m Australian so your measurements are clearly different.
After chilling then cutting, i baked a couple and they overall are a good cookie!
Hi Katrina! I tried this recipe and it turned out absolutely amazing!! Thank you for sharing this with the world! I had a question for you, I know it says baked cookies freeze well, but would it be possible to freeze some of the dough? Thanks!
This is the best recipe I have tried and cookies turn out perfect every time.
Made them for Easter with my 4yo granddaughter. They were easy and wonderful to eat!
It seems to be a real easy recipe
Simple and easy to read. After reading this article, I know how to make cute and yummy cookies.
THESE ARE THE BEST! Use this recipe every time! I add extra almond and vanilla.
P.S. Thank you so much for providing the measurements in grams also. I’m from Finland and we use the metric system here and I’m never sure whether a foreign recipe maker’s cup is 1,5 dl or 2,5 dl. Gram measurements are impossible to misunderstand.
I wanted to make cute cookies for easter. Thank you for the recipe. My decorating skills could be better but the dough performed perfectly.
Dough did not hold together at all. Not even sort of considering using this recipe again.
The cookies did trade good though. Thanks for the recipe to try! Maybe it was something I did on my end.
Super disappointed. This definitely needed to be chilled before rolling out and cutting. Cookies lost all shape, some to the point of becoming indistinguishable blobs. Very sad 4 year old on board because her cookies don’t look like bunnies anymore.
I weighed my ingredients and used room temp butter and eggs, oven preheated to the correct temp too.
Oh my gosh I’ve been looking all these years for the best roll out sugar cookie and I found it. I’ve tried many many recipes and this one is the absolute best. Throw out all your other ones this is a keeper. Loved being able to roll out as soon as it was made. Thank you for such a great recipe you certainly perfected it!
My new go-to sugar cookie recipe. I have three and four year-old daughters who love to make and decorate cookies for all of the holidays, so I’ve tried several. This was by far the easiest dough to work with. It was nice that it didn’t need to chill so we could go straight from mixing to rolling – impatient little ones want to get right to cookies. And they taste good too! The almond extract is a great addition.
Hi! I really want to make these but can I use a vegetable shortening instead of butter as a vegan substitute? Also I wondered should I keep the measurements the same if I use the shortening? Thank you
Try Earth Balance Butter. It’s vegan and comes in sticks for cooking/baking. You can’t taste the difference.
Hi! Sorry if this is to late but, Yes you can I would recommend using 3/4 cup of the vegetable shortening to start, If your dough is too dry melt 1-2 tbsp of the shortening in the microwave and incorporate it into your dough. I hope this helps!
Made with my kids, they were easy to make but I found they were a little too soft/crumbly after cooking and a few broke when the kids were icing them. They taste a lot like shortbread which is lovely though they aren’t as crispy as I’m used to.
I did find they puffed up a bit more than I am used to, but they did hold their shape it just isn’t as sharp. Kids liked them so all in all a success.
Thanks for the recipe to try!
I’m trying to make these cookies but the dough just keeps crumbling and i can’t get that play dough texture. I’ve worked it lots with wet hands and flour and when i try to roll it out it keeps crumbling. any tips?
If it’s crumbly just wet your hands and work the dough, still crumbly, wet again and work again. It will stick together. Don’t add flour when you do this or you’re just defeating the purpose of adding moisture.
Hi, in love with this sugar cookie recipe!! I’ve never had sugar cookies taste this good before! I was wondering, how long will these keep once baked and iced?
I love the recipe but mine came out hard. How can I have soft cookies.
Possibly baked too long? Or left to cool on the hot baking sheet for more than 5 minutes?
Hi! Is it ok to freeze cooked cookies until they’re needed to decorate? I’d like to try to make them in advance of a party so the day before isn’t a hot mess! Thanks 🙂
Michelle, I am wanting to know the same thing. In her description she says freezing is OK but it doesn’t talk about freezing undecorated cookies. How long can they stay in the freezer and does the cookie have the same taste and consistency once it thaws Katrina, please address freezing undecorated cookies. This is a fabulous recipe. Thanjs
Undecorated cookies if frozen properly in an air-tight container can last up to 3 months. Thanks for writing!
Just made these with my 12 year old niece. We loved this recipe. Best sugar cookies ever and so easy to make.
Really Great recipe! Easy to roll out, bake well, taste great. Will use as my go to from now on.
Thanks!
I made this twice and both times the letters puffed up and lost their shape and yet the other shapes were fine. I made them a bit thinner and cooked for a bit longer as I wanted then crispier with a bit of colour. Makes no sense tho why the letters didn’t keep their shape 🤷♀️
Mine puffed up too! My whole batch is now useless and I don’t know what I did wrong since every other comment loves them?!
Tried this recipe for a gender reveal order and the dough was easy to work with, baked evenly and probably my best looking sugar cookies yet. Will use again!
The sugar cookie recipe is my GO TO sugar recipe. The best ever! I have been using this recipe for years!! Works out everytime. Be sure to weigh your butter, sugar and flour. This weekend, I will be making Pi symbol cookies using this recipe.
This is a delicious cookie. The best sugar cookie ever. I was wondering if you have a chocolate version?
Yes we do! It tastes just like a brownie. I hope you love it! https://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/best-chocolate-cut-out-cookie/
For 28 years on this planet, I have messed up EVERY cut-out sugar cookie recipe I have tried… UNTIL TODAY!! I made shamrocks and these cookies are just SO tasty! I’m so happy to have found a sugar cookie recipe that’s idiot-proof!
Hi Katrina! I cannot wait to try these out in shamrock shapes for St. Patrick’s Day. There’s nothing I love more than a good sugar cookie. I’m so glad that I found your recipe, and thank you for sharing it!
This is the best sugar cookie recipe EVER! I’ve been using Katrina’s recipe for years. The dough is very forgiving. One time my cookies spread and she helped me figure out what’s wrong. My butter was way too soft. She told me it should be just soft enough to make a small indent with my finger anger then I know it’s ready. Turned out perfectly! Thank you Katrina!
My husband loves sugar cookies and this recipe was his favorite! I really enjoyed the no need for chilling. Thank you very much for sharing this. You gave us all a taste of delicious happiness!
This was the best sugar cookie recipe I’ve ever made. I used all vanilla, no almond extract.
Cookies came out perfect made thicker. About 1/4 inch. Baked between 8-9 min.
I had to bake like 10 minutes to get them firm enough. But they really were easy to make and tasted great! I love the flavor of the almond and I like using artificial flavoring so that my daughter with nut allergies can enjoy them as well.
So easy and perfect! Love that you don’t have to chill the dough! Thank you!
I just want to say that I have used this recipe for years now and it never fails. You really don’t have to chill it and the shapes always hold, no matter what cutters I use. Yesterday I made these into Valentine cookies and they worked great. Makes the whole process so much quicker when you don’t have to add in chill time. Love it; thank you!
How long will these keep at room temperature once decorated? I used ready made cookie icing to keep it easy. Thank you for the excellent recipe!
Spot in recipe, happy to find it.
Must say, you shouldn’t be allowed to post stuff soooo tasty. Just saying 🙂
Wanted some quick chocolate sugar cookies, so I found this one, less the “chocolate” bit (and of course, after doing the prep nd measuring everything, seen it in a review that you do have an actual chocolate version, nevermind). Know since years ago (my mum) that you can simply drop 1 Tbsp of flour and instead, add same quantity of cocoa powder = chocolate version. Also, didn’t had baking powder, so replaced with baking soda (1/4 tsp to 1 tsp of baking powder when replaced).
Followed all your steps otherwise, and came out perfect.
Many thanks for your recipe!!
Tasted great but swelled up massively and did not keep any shape very sad about that but taste was great
Can we made this without eggs? Any replacement?
I’ve heard of people using cream cheese instead… But not sure on the amount
This recipe is SO good!!!
I don’t know if this recipe is The Best, but compared to the many recipes I have used, I would say it is. The dough was like play dough, very easy to work with. If dough becomes too mushy just chill a couple minutes.
I weighed my ingredients out & beat the butter & sugar 3 minutes and maybe that helped. If people have dry dough, there is probably too much flour. Easiest sugar cookie dough ever. Easy to throw together, & very tasty.
First time I enjoyed making sugar cookies 🙂 Thank you for sharing!!
I have used your recipe for the past two Christmases and just made some Valentine cookies today. I love the subtle sweetness and salty flavor. These are easy for my young kids to help roll and cut. I appreciate the tip about cutting letters thicker and letting them cool on rack longer (too bad I read that after I made them and my “E” for LOVE fell off, but I’ll remember for next time).
Awesome recipe! Best sugar cookies I have ever tried. They kept their shape beautifully and tasted great! Can’t wait to make more!
This one is ALWAYS my go to! I love that I do not have to cook the dough and I end up just sprinkling sanding sugar on them. Even the pickiest of cookie snobs LOVES this recipe. 😉
Thank you
I had a terrible time with this dough. As I beat in the flour it initially looked crumbly, then it looked downright powdery! What on earth is the problem? Hope you can help me😔
same happened to mine and i added a tablespoon of melted butter and used my hands to work it into the crumbles.
I have been using your recipe literally for YEARS. I absolutely love the texture and the taste of these cookies!! We’re making Valentine’s cutouts and again I was searching for Katrina’s Kitchen!! Thank you for sharing this!!
The best sugar cookie recipe I have found!!! And this may have been asked prior, but can I make this dough a head of time?