The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
I FINALLY found a sugar cookie recipe I can depend on!!! The only sugar cookie recipe you will ever need. These are easy, delicious, and come with all the tips to make them right every time. This sugar cookie recipe is a game-changer for me!! I have ALWAYS wanted to find a recipe for rolled cutouts that I could trust, and this is it.
Servings: 24 cookies
Chef Alli
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Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 Tbs. milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract, I love VAIN Original Baker's Blend vanilla extract. made in Kansas
- Powdered sugar, for rolling out the dough
Royal Icing
- 3 ounces pasteurized egg whites, approx. 3 egg whites when separated from the yolks
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
Instructions
Make the Sugar Cookies
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl of a electric stand mixer, beating until the mixture is light in color. Add the egg, vanilla and milk, continuing to beat until combined.
- Turn the mixer to low speed, gradually adding the flour; beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the dough from the bowl, dividing it in half, creating a flat disc with each half; wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle the work surface with powdered sugar where you will be rolling out the dough. Removing one wrapped dough disc from the refrigerator at a time, sprinkle your rolling pin with powdered sugar, then roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness.
- As you roll out the dough, make sure there is plenty of powdered sugar beneath it so that the dough doesn't stick to the counter surface; this can make lifting the cookies from the counter to the baking sheet a lot more difficult. If the dough that you've rolled out has warmed and seems rather difficult to work with at this point, place a cold cookie sheet on top of the dough for 10 minutes to chill it.
- Using cookie cutters cut the rolled dough into the desired shapes, placing them 1-inch apart onto a greased parchment-lined baking sheet; bake for 7 to 9 minutes, just until the cookies are beginning to brown around the edges, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven, then move the cookies to a cooling rack. Cookies may be served as is, or iced with Royal Icing (recipe below), as desired. Store the cookies in airtight container for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Dough will freeze well also.
Make the Royal Icing
- In a large bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine the egg whites and vanilla, beating until frothy. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, mixing on low speed until the sugar is incorporated and frosting is shiny. Turn the mixer speed up to high, beating the frosting until stiff, glossy peaks form; this should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired.
- For immediate use, transfer the icing to a pastry bag, piping the icing onto the cooled and baked cookies as desired. Store the icing in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
- When rolling out the dough in this recipe, make sure the dough will easily move around on your surface when you test it. This tells you that the dough isn’t adhered to your work surface and your cookies can easily be lifted to a baking sheet.
- After removing the dough from refrigeration, use your rolling pin to test dough; if it easily rolls out, continue. If dough resists, this means it’s too cold and simply needs to rest a bit at room temperature. Wait a few minutes, then try rolling the dough out again.
- Use powdered sugar for rolling out the dough instead of flour; this ensures the cookies will have a more tender texture. (BRILLIANT!!)
- If dough gets too warm and won’t cooperate as you’re rolling it out and trying to lift the cutouts to a baking sheet, cool the dough by placing a chilled cookie sheet on top for a few minutes. This will harden the butter up a bit in the dough, making it easier to work with again.
- To make the most of your dough, roll it out to ¼” thickness then place all your cookie cutters on top. Working them in as close as possible to each other, optimize the number of cookies you can get from the dough, then press them down, all at once to gain your cutouts.
- I like to use parchment paper when baking cookies since this makes for really easy clean up. Parchment paper can be reused, too. And, if you happen to bake your cookies a bit too long, you can grab the edge of the parchment and pull the entire sheet of cookies off at one time, pulling them right over to the cooling rack. (This stops the baking process.)
- Because this dough holds its shape really well when baking, the cookies won’t spread out much on the baking sheet, so they can be placed fairly close together on the baking sheet as you cut them out.
- Have several baking sheets available as you bake these sugar cookies, rotating them so that you are placing your dough cutouts onto cool baking sheets each time.
Nutritional Disclaimer
Chef Alli is not a dietitian or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate.
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