Everybody has their idea of what Perfect Sugar Cookies are. Mine are soft, light, buttery, and not too sweet. Soft being the important quality for me. I don’t want a crispy sugar cookie – I want it to melt in my mouth.
My preference came to be when I was a girl at home baking cookies. I don’t know where we got the recipe, or where it disappeared to, but I’ve been wanting that cookie again.
So, with that in mind, and having some serious sugar cookie cravings lately, I’ve made 3 batches in the last week, each time tweeking recipes trying to find the perfect balance for me and recreate that cookie from my youth.
Tonight, I’m happy to report that I think I’ve nailed the recipe!
Here’s what I will call “Perfect Sugar Cookies”.
I know, I’m soooo original, huh? Don’t answer that.
Anyway, I also had some buttercream laying around from my last cake that I piped onto a few of the cookies. That’s something I did not do as a child, but it was delish!! I’ll try to add that recipe in the next day or two! The vanilla buttercream recipe is HERE!
So, how do you like your sugar cookies? Soft or crispy? Iced or plain? Buttery? Super sweet?
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Perfect Soft Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 5 dozen (2.5 inch cookies) 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Perfect soft sugar cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 cup real butter (2 sticks), softened
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 cups self-rising flour*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Next beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add in the flour a little at a time and stir until a very soft dough forms. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch in thickness. This dough will still be a little sticky and is very soft, so be sure to be generous with the flour on your rolling pin and surface. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.
- Place cookies at least 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (9 minutes is perfect for me – no brown crispy edges or bottoms!). Allow the cookies to cool on baking sheet for a couple of minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve plain (delicious!) or frost with your favorite frosting.
- *If you do not have self-rising flour, for each up of flour, substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. of salt and 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder.
- Category: desserts
Keywords: cookie, recipe, sugar cookies, soft, cut out, frosting
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Oooooh… These sound delish!
Silly question maybe but I’ve never used self-rising flour. Do you dust your rolling pin and surface with that kind as well or just use all-purpose flour for that part?
No silly questions! I usually use whatever I already have out but either will work just fine 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Do you have a recipe for a short bread cookie? Sugar cookies are not a fan of me.
I don’t sorry!
Ok : (
Thanks for reply. I’m to your website and baking and I really enjoy your ideas and tips.
Rose,
I made wedding cake cookies using your sugar cookie and royal icing recipes. The cookies were delicious, and baked perfectly. The dough was so easy to work with. Keeping with my grandmother’s tradition, I rolled the dough using powdered sugar instead of flour. (She did the same with pie crusts.)
Thanks for sharing,
You have an * after the flour in the recipe yet there is no following note in regards to it anywhere.
Sorry about that – my recipes were recently re-formatted and some of fields were deleted. I corrected it – thank you 🙂
Does this recipe work with cookie cutters? I make cookies with my grand-delights. They love using cookie cutters and then decorating after they’re baked. Didn’t know if it was sticky, if id’d work. Want them to taste great too.
The puff up a lot and won’t really hold their shape, so I’m not sure it would do well with cookie cutters.
These are the best cookies, I hate rolling out dough, i just spooned into flour well and patted out. Turned out great.. Added colored sugar and ate!! 🙂 everyone loved them
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
these were perfect ! so soft,not to sweet my family loved them. thank you so much 🙂
★★★★★
I don’t usually comment on reicpes but good god, are these delightful. I haven’t had a lot of luck in the past with sugar cookie reicpes before and we usually ALWAYS have self-rising flour. They are really nice on their own and just enough sweetness for my fiance. I, on the other hand love sugar so we rolled sugar cinnamon on the cookies before we baked them the first few times and they still turn out great and have a slight crunch!
★★★★★
Thanks SO much Mason!! xx
Is there a way to cut this recipe in half?
★★★★
Yes, it works well cut in half!
Really great recipe. I’m only 12 and needed to something to do so this recipe was easy for me to make in my own.
★★★★★
Thanks Macey!
I just made this and it is a stiff dough, not soft. Was I not supposed to add all of the flour????
Do the 5c Flour (SR) go into the dough mix? I made your recipe today. I put the full 5c into my mixture. It seemed extremely flour-y and tasted more like a shortbread than a sugar cookie.
2nd part of my question is… did you mean for some of that 5c to be used on your rolling surface?
Please help.
★★★★