Easy Sugar Cookies Recipe

Sugar cookies sound so simple. And honestly? They should be. But I cannot tell you how many batches I ruined before I finally figured out why mine kept spreading into flat, sad little puddles on the baking sheet. It was maddening. Genuinely maddening.

Everyone keeps asking me for this easy sugar cookies recipe ever since I brought a tin of these to my neighbor’s holiday gathering last December, so here goes nothing. I’ve made these at least forty times now. Maybe more. My daughter stopped counting.

What Makes These Sugar Cookies Actually Work

Look, I’ve tried a ton of recipes online. Some of them told me to skip chilling the dough. Those people were wrong. And I followed their advice. Twice. Both times I ended up with sugar cookie pancakes. Not cute.

The thing that changed everything for me was chilling the dough for at least two hours. I think I read it somewhere, or maybe my mom mentioned it years ago — honestly can’t remember anymore — but the first time I actually did it properly, I nearly cried. They held their shape. Soft in the middle. Slightly crisp on the edges. Perfect.

Oh, and butter temperature matters way more than I thought. Room temperature butter. Not melted, not cold straight from the fridge. Room temperature. I’ve ruined enough batches to know it completely changes the texture of your homemade sugar cookies.

Ingredients for a Classic Sugar Cookie Recipe From Scratch

Nothing fancy here. This is a simple sugar cookie recipe that uses stuff you probably already have sitting in your pantry.

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature — non-negotiable
• 1½ cups white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (real stuff, not imitation, please)
• ½ teaspoon almond extract — optional, but honestly kind of magical

That’s it. That’s your whole sugar cookie recipe from scratch. No weird specialty store ingredients.

Wait, I almost forgot — if you’re making frosted sugar cookies or decorated sugar cookies, you’ll also need powdered sugar, milk, and food coloring for the icing. More on that in a minute.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Easy Sugar Cookies

Step 1: Preheat your oven

350°F (175°C). Do this first. The key is — oh wait, I should mention — make sure your rack is in the middle position. Sounds obvious, but I’ve baked on the bottom rack before. Not ideal.

Step 2: Cream the butter and sugar

Beat your room temperature butter with the sugar for about 3–4 minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Don’t rush this step. Under-creamed butter makes dense cookies. Learned that the hard way back when I was always in a hurry. Set a timer if you have to.

Step 3: Add egg and extracts

Mix in your egg, vanilla, and almond extract if you’re using it. Beat until smooth. It looks really nice and glossy at this point, which is encouraging.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then add it gradually to your butter mixture. Don’t dump it all at once unless you want a flour cloud in your kitchen. (Been there. My kitchen looked like it snowed indoors.)

The dough will be soft but not sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour at a time. Don’t overdo it though.

Step 5: CHILL THE DOUGH

I cannot stress this enough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Overnight is even better. This is the entire difference between no spread sugar cookies and flat disaster cookies. Do NOT skip this step.

Step 6: Roll and cut

Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼ inch thickness. This is your roll out sugar cookie dough moment. Use whatever cookie cutters make you happy — stars, hearts, gingerbread shapes, whatever. My daughter owns approximately 47 cutters. We use all of them.

Step 7: Bake

8–10 minutes. Pull them out when they look slightly underdone in the center. That’s correct. That’s right. They firm up as they cool and stay beautifully soft and chewy inside. If you wait until they look fully set in the oven, they’ll be hard little rocks by the time they cool. Nobody wants that.

Step 8: Cool completely before icing

Transfer to a wire rack. Walk away. This is the hardest part because they smell incredible and you will want to eat six immediately. Resist. Frosted sugar cookies fall apart if you try to ice them while warm.

Easy Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

For a simple easy sugar cookie icing recipe that dries firm (perfect for decorated sugar cookies), stir together:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3–4 tablespoons milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Food coloring, if desired

Add more milk to thin it out, more powdered sugar to thicken it. For detailed holiday sugar cookie decorating, keep it on the thicker side so it doesn’t bleed.

Tips for Bakery Style Sugar Cookies at Home

Am I the only one who thinks those grocery store sugar cookies in the plastic tray are just… okay? They’re fine but not actually good. Here’s what makes yours genuinely better:

• Use real butter. I don’t care what anyone says. It matters.
• Don’t skip the almond extract. That subtle flavor is what makes people go “wait, what is IN these?” in the best way possible.
• Roll the dough as evenly as possible — uneven thickness means some cookies burn while others are still raw. Not fun.
• Sprinkle a tiny bit of flaky sea salt on top before baking if you’re skipping the frosting. Complete game changer.
• Store in an airtight container with a slice of white bread tucked in. The bread keeps them soft for days. My grandma taught me that and I thought she was joking. She absolutely was not.

Christmas Sugar Cookies & Holiday Variations

This is also my go-to holiday sugar cookie recipe every single year. For Christmas sugar cookies, we cut out trees, snowflakes, stars, candy canes — whatever my daughter demands that season. Then we decorate them together with the icing and about a hundred sprinkles. Last Christmas we made almost 200 cookies total. My arms were sore for two days. Worth it.

For classic vanilla sugar cookies without the cutouts, just roll the dough into balls, flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass, and bake. Simpler, still incredible.

People keep asking me for this recipe, so I guess that means I’m doing something right. If you try it, drop a comment below and let me know how they turned out — I genuinely love seeing your versions, especially the decorated ones. And if your first batch doesn’t go perfectly? Don’t give up. I messed up plenty of times before this clicked.

Happy baking! 🍪 May your cookies stay perfectly round and your icing dry before anyone sneaks a bite.