The Sugar Cookie Recipe you need for the Holidays

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It is my hope that this post will save you time scrolling Pinterest to find a manageable rolled sugar cookie recipe to decorate cookies for the holidays. A cookie that 1. doesn’t lose its shape 2.doesn’t call for bizarre ingredients 3. doesn’t have 6,000 steps to make 4. only takes a bit of time instead of all afternoon 5. you’ll love the taste and the ease to make it.

Well, here is it. The perfect sugar cookie to decorate (and eat).cookiebaked

Easy No-Chill Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3 cups all purpose flour

Other things you’ll need: parchment paper (not wax paper), baking sheets, rolling pin, cookie cutters, mixer, turner spatula, rubber spatula, measuring cups, measuring spoons

Notes: You don’t see baking powder or baking soda for a reason. I don’t use any! These ingredients can cause cookies to spread and the recipe works without it. Also, you can easily double the recipe and freeze the baked, undecorated cookies.

Before you start anything, set your 2 sticks of butter and 1 egg out on the counter a few hours before you start. You’ll want your butter to be room temperature, which means soft to the touch but not melting. This is actually really important to get a good, soft dough. Additionally, you’ll want to use a high quality butter like Kerry Gold or a European butter. Cheaper butter has a higher water content and can cause cookies to spread more. 

Then, collect all of your ingredients and measure them out separately before you start. This will prevent you from measuring one ingredient and then taking a child to the bathroom, removing a Barbie doll from the new doll spa (aka sink), answering the pediatrician’s phone call and forgetting if you’ve already scooped one or two teaspoons into the dough mix. At least if this cookieflourhappens, you haven’t poured it in the batter yet! Also of note, my favorite all purpose flours are King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Once your butter is soft at room temperature, cream butter and sugar just until smooth in a mixing bowl. I use my stand mixer on a low/medium speed. Do not over whip this at it will put more air into the dough. Now, go ahead and beat in your vanilla and egg until combined scraping down the bowl a few times. Then you’ll add the flour a little at a time to get it all mixed in. Scrape down the bowl as needed to evenly mix the ingredients. The dough will come together and be a little stiff.

Here’s the amazing part, no chill time! Go ahead and take the dough into a workcookiedoughable section and shape it into a disk with your hands. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin between two pieces of parchment paper. This eliminates some of the messy flour dusting and prevents dough from sticking to your rolling pin. If you do need a little flour, you won’t need much. You can also turn the dough easily to keep the rolling even. My favorite rolling pin is the Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin Plus and can be found at Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma. You’ll get even dough every time without the stress. Roll the dough out to 1/4 or 3/8 inch. I like thicker cookies so I go with the 3/8 inch. Cut out your dough with a cookie cutter and a firm hand and transfer them to the parchment lined cookie sheet. Arrange cookies about 1 1/2 in apart and only bake one baking sheet full of cookies at a time. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. The cookies should still be a pale color but with firm, dry looking edges. The cookie bottom will just starting to become a golden color. Pull them out and let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before pulling the parchment paper and cookies off the sheet. Let them completely cool before attempting to decorate or frost them. You can also freeze these undecorated cookies for months! Think about making a very big batch and freezing some for an upcoming birthday party, next holiday or playdate.  

If you need a royal icing recipe, I suggest checking out Sweetopia or Sweet Sugar Belle for good recipes and tutorials.

I was not compensated in any way to promote the products included in this blog post. I personally own and love every item and the opinions are all my own.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Hi, can i use a bowl amd a whisk instead of the standing mixer. I want to create this with my 3 yr old. It would be so muxh fun.

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