A Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the trick to sugar cookies? ›

Easy Add-In: After creating the dough according to the sugar cookie mix instructions, Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream to create a tangier, cakier and all-around more flavorful cookie. Flavor Twist: For a punchier twist, swap the water in the sugar cookie mix instructions for rum, bourbon or coffee liqueur.

Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you're making cut-outs. Even if you're tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it's only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.

With so little ingredients, it's important that you follow the recipe closely. Creamed butter and sugar provide the base of the cookie dough. Egg is the cookie's structure and vanilla extract adds flavor. I almost always add a touch of almond extract for additional flavor and highly recommend that you try it too!

If you roll them out too thin then they are more likely to over-bake and harden as they cool. No one likes a hard, dry sugar cookies! Don't over-bake them. If you wait to see golden brown along the edges like you would with other types of cookies, they will be overcooked!

You may not have used enough water, margarine or egg. Be sure to measure ingredients carefully.

Add powdered milk.

Sprinkling about 2 to 3 tablespoons of powdered milk per cup of cookie mix may seem kind of unconventional, but it is the best hack! The milk powder adds a rich, creamy taste to the dough and transforms cookies into velvety little delights that your whole family will love!

Overmixed doughs and batters may have an unappealing look or feel, which remain just as unappealing when they're baked. Generally speaking, the critical moment is when you combine dry ingredients with wet ones, especially if you're bringing together components of differing temperatures and textures.

If the dough is chilled before baking then the cookies will be slightly more rounded, so if you want slightly flatter cookies then bake them as soon as you have mixed up the dough. But we would not recommend flattening the cookies completely as this will affect the texture.

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How do you level up sugar cookies? ›

Let the dough harden for around 30 minutes, then take the dough out. There's no need to let it come to room temperature before working with it. You can go from the fridge to your counter and immediately start cutting out shapes.

That's right. The composition of your cookies will come out differently after refrigeration because of the butter in the dough. "When your cookie dough is not refrigerated, the butter is at room temperature. Therefore the heat from the oven reacts with the butter quickly, making it spread thinner," says Epperson.

After 72 hours, the dough will begin to dry out and you risk it going bad, especially if chilling pre-portioned balls of dough instead of the entire mass of dough. If you want to store longer than 72 hours, see the freezing tips below.

Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment, roll, then freeze; it makes cut-out cookies a breeze! If you plan to store it for only a few hours or days, there's no need to overwrap the baking sheet; for longer storage, wrap the entire baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap before freezing.

Decorate After Baking

In order to add colored sugar to baked cookies, the sugar needs something to adhere to. Icing is the perfect choice. Bake and cool the cookies as directed by the recipe. Ice the very cool cookies with your favorite icing and top with your choice of colored sugar.

Always mix your dough until these blobs of butter are no longer visible. But not a moment longer, unless you like tough cookies. Sticky dough. If your dough is too sticky, you may notice that your sugar cookies aren't turning out as flat as you'd like them too.