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.
2,347 Comments on “Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER”
These were so yummy!! We made them 2 nights ago and they turned out perfect!!
This is my 3rd recipe this Christmas. I tried Julia Usher’s but the flavor was lacking, next was my go to Betty Crocker cookbook sugar cookies but they just weren’t doing it for me. Honestly, although you stated that these have “no spread” I was leary due to not having to refrigerate. WOW! these are HANDS DOWN thee absolute BEST sugar cookie recipe! Thank you for sharing this. You saved my sanity and the cookies are amazing! They held their shape with ZERO spread! I also made your chocolate espresso cookies and they are a huge git! So much so that I’m currently baking 4 more dozen as my husband couldn’t stop eating them.
I have used this recipe the last 2 years and they are ABSOLUTELY perfect and delicious. Just wanted to say thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe!!
Really is a perfect recipe! I had to roll the dough several times and it didn’t dry the cookies out. Five stars from me!
Great to make and decorate.
This is by far the absolute best sugar cookie recipe. I like replacing the almond extract with orange extract! Absolutely delicious!
I’ve been making this recipe 43 years. I add 2-3 tablespoons of whole milk or heavy cream at
2 and 1/2 cups of flour eliminates crumbly when kneading dough. Frosting add 1/2 teaspoon orange extract. The combination of almond extract in cookie and orange exact in frosting is
super delicious! I sometimes make double batch and chill overnight for next day cookie baking.
We use this recipe for every cookie baking occasion! This year I’m gluten free, so attempting with 1:1 flour, I’m sure they’ll be just as tasty. Thank you for a wonderful recipe! Merry Christmas!
This worked great for me. The additional instructions about creaming for 3 minutes and watching the dough pull away from the sides while adding the flour were very helpful.
I used salted sticks of butter and decreased the added salt. Still tasted great. Will try unsalted sticks of butter next time.
I just made these! Best recipe ever! I’ve made others that were too sticky or had to be really hard and cold before you could even try to use cookie cutters…not only are these delicious, but totally user friendly! I am so happy I tried it.
These are my new go-to cut out cookie! They’re delicious and so easy to make! I used to avoid cut outs, but these are excellent. And everybody complements them! A win -win!
I made several batches of these this year!! Truly best recipe ever! I made the dough and had them in the oven in less than 30 minutes. They were perfect every time.
This is the only sugar cookie recipe I’ll ever use! It never fails. We have used it now for years. I make them with my 5 children and we make batch after batch after batch for multiple Christmas cookie decorating parties. I’ve passed the recipe on to friends and am so thankful katrina shared it here!
Leaving another positive comment to cancel out the “this sucked” comment (RUDE! That could have been worded a bit differently!) I use this recipe every Christmas and bake multiple batches. The dough is super easy to work with, and the baked cookies do NOT spread out! I always think “hmmm, am I sure these are done?” but I take them out anyway. And they’re always done, and delicious! Thank you for this recipe 🙂 This year I remembered to get meringue powder so I’m finally going to try your small batch Royal Icing recipe too. Can’t wait to eat about 75 of these! LOL
best recipe! after trying a couple of recipes and being frustrated, this one is definitely the best and really does keep its shape, chewy and great flavor. My mom and I will be using this every year for Christmas. 🙂
Yummy! I only had salted butter so I left out the salt. Turned out great!
Can you make this using a hand mixer?
I actually use a handmixer every time because my arms and wrists get too tired otherwise.
This is a great recipe. Thanks for adding grams. I made this with coconut oil instead of butter for dietary reasons. It took a little adjustment but they came out really nicely. Because butter is about 16% water, I substituted with 190g coconut oil – I think I could have used even less. Next time I’ll start with 160g. The dough was not nearly as firm as Katrina’s pictures so I added 3-4 tbsp extra flour.
With the coconut oil they do spread a little in the oven. I experimented with chilling first, but found the best thing to do was just roll them a little thinner than specified and this minimised the spreading. I even managed to save the first batch that had spread by re-cutting them with the cookie cutter while they were still warm.
They look great and taste fantastic – the coconut goes really well with the vanilla and almond. Looking forward to icing them now.
Love your cookies and frosting recipe! Both of them turned out amazing and I like how flavorful they are, thanks to vanilla and almond extract. My cookie cutters are a little big and so one batch yielded around 25 cookies, instead of 36. I baked for 10min and they came out absolutely wonderful. Thank you for sharing the recipes! Happy holidays!
Hi I want to male these with my kids what temp would I cook them at as I’ve a fan oven
my go to sugar cookie recipe! I’ve used it for all my sugar cookies the last 3 years and went directly to it for Christmas this year. I love this recipe because everything is weighed out – much easier to get what you described and to get consistency every year!
Can I use regular butter? Or does it need to be unsalted?
I used regular and it was delicious.
This really was the best recipe! I usually don’t like sugar cookies because the dough is bland. The Almond extract really gives the extra flavor needed to make these yummy with or without icing. This will be my go to recipie from now on! Thank you!!!
Love this recipe!!! We use it every year for Christmas cookies and they always turn out perfect!!
Hi Katrina. Thanks for the awesome recipe. My daughter (4) and I made them today. Just wondering how long they can be stored in an air tight container for and how long you could freeze them?? Thanks.
These cookies did NOT keep their shape. Very disappointed and wasted ingredients.
My dough was super crumbly and would not hold together. I ended up spritzing it with olive oil and was able to roll out. I’m glad people are loving this one, but I’ll stick to my old one. 😊
Can I ask you a question? Some people who have reported dry dough only used 1 stick of butter which is actually only half a cup. Also did you use a large egg? I’m just trying to figure it out. Thanks
Oh my gosh. These are a GAME CHANGER!! Legitimately the best! You don’t have to be scared of the sugar cookie 😂 The texture when you’re rolling is perfect, they hold their shape, you can rework and re-roll over and over without the dough crumbling. Thank you SO much!
What’s the proper way to CREAM butter?
This recipe never dissapoints! Delicious cookies! Hold their shape beautifully! I’ve used this recipe for several years.
I’ve made Christmas cut out sugar cookies for years. Always had to chill the dough. Found this recipe on Pinterest. I made a batch of these and they turned out great. I’m waiting on Great grandchildren to visit to make more.
Your recipe for sugar cookies was linked with another page that said I could make the dough a day ahead of baking and keep it in the fridge. Your recipe says not to chill. Will it be okay if I do chill it? Trying to save time, plus I already made the dough before reading to not chill. Should I chill them or bake them now? Cookies will be for a party in 2 days. Thanks
Yes you can! Instructions in the post. Thanks for trying them!
Not sure what went wrong for us looking at the other comments but the cookies spread out and completely lost their details. Refrigerated the second batch after the first ones spread and they did the same 🤷🏼♀️ They are tasty though.
This was so simple to make. I baked these with my three- year- old and we were able to keep rolling out the scraps without it getting too dry. We had no issues with the consistency at all, even with a junior baker “helping” to measure. We used lemon extract instead of almond for a brighter flavor. Much easier and better than my mom’s refrigerator dough!
I just made a double batch of these last night – it’s a wonderful dough, great for last minute-ers like me.
Has anyone added any other flavorings to the dough? I have some chopped candied ginger. Is this a huge mistake?
It’s true! This is the best sugar cookie recipe ever! I’ve been making different sugar cookie recipes at Christmas for years trying to find the best one and this is it! I’ve never had an easier dough to roll and the cookies didn’t stick when I cut them and lifted them to place on a cookie sheet. Weigh your ingredients, it’s a game changer. Use room temp butter and egg. Try this recipe, you won’t regret it.
How many cookies does it make?
Replying to Kimberly: it makes about 4 full trays of cookies!
Loved the taste without the icing! Great sugar cookie recipe! I’m definitely doing it again!
Followed instructions exactly, dough was still too crumbly to kneed. Mended the problem added a splash of water and small amount of sour cream. Was finally able to get the consistency I needed after those additions. The cookies turned out amazing! Just wish the dough was not so crumbly and difficult to work with. Merry Christmas! Happy baking.
Super tasty! Made these this year with my five year old. Perfect recipe.
Delicious recipe, and super easy to do. Thank you!
This recipient did end up working pretty well! We baked sugar cookies for the first time, and they turned out great! However, the dough was a bit dry and crumbly even after we kneaded it, so we ended up having to eyeball a bit of extra water. Also, this definitely did NOT make 36 cookies and we followed the amounts to a tee. We made 2 batches and ended up with roughly 40 cookies, so plan ti make a little extra if needed. Still baked fine and tasted great though!
I know it’s the baker and not the recipe – this was a complete fail for me. The dough was super crumbly and just wouldn’t work for me. What could I have done wrong?
There are a lot of factors. Did you use the full cup (2 sticks) of butter? Not margarine? Was your egg room temp? Did you cream the sugar and butter together until light in appearance (3-5 minutes)? How did you measure your flour?
I’m not being snarky! I truly LOVE this recipe and I wish everyone could have success with it because it’s so great. I hope you give it another try.
Awesome use this recipe every year! Kids love it. I love how easy it is. Thank you
I make these every year and they’re amazing. This year they are not the right consistency. Is it possible to leave the butter out too long? How can I repair?
Possibly. It does not really need to be left out long. I cut mine into chunks and just leave it out for about 10-15 minutes. Then I just make sure it is creamed with the sugar very well.
I have been using this recipe for YEARS!!! I absolutely love the taste and they turn out so perfectly every time. I used to just remember the image but now I know you by name!!! Here’s to another batch!
The best sugar cookie recipe I have ever used. I’ve actually used this recipe countless times. The almond extract really gives off a delicious taste. I just made 160 Christmas themed sugar cookies for a function and everyone was raving about how yummy the sugar cookies were. Love this recipe!
this recipe sucks. wayy to dry and crumbly. the trouble shooting suggestions were no help. had to throw away the whole batch. do not recommend
Merry Christmas!
Love it. Whacked each batch in the fridge whilst waiting for the former to cook. About 6 1/2 minutes each for soft back. No spread. Great for cookie cutting. Thank you
I made these this morning and they are so tasty! Such an easy recipe and they really don’t spread out! These will definitely be a staple in my holiday baking.
I have been making these cookies for several years. They NEVER disappoint! I use salted butter and skip adding salt. And, I would drive to the store in a snowstorm to get Almond Extract if I ran out. It makes these cookies soooo good.