Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Oct 20, 2025 
The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe – Hands down, this is the best recipe we’ve ever tested (and tasted!) Learn How to Make Sugar Cookies that everyone will love. These little guys are light, pillowy, and packed with flavor.
The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe Ever
Learn How To Make The BEST Sugar Cookies With This Fun & Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe!
This Sugar Cookie Recipe is ultra-light, ever so crispy around the edges, glistening with sugar crystals, and packed with a sweet vanilla-wheat flavor.
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
There’s something spectacular about a simple, yet perfect, soft sugar cookie.
Today, I’m going to show you how to make sugar cookies that will make your head spin. I bake “The Best Sugar Cookies” for holidays and parties regularly, and have used this recipe as a base for all sorts of sugar cookie variations.
I’ve been asked for this Sugar Cookie Recipe more times than I can count, always with a statement like, “These are just sugar cookies, right? OMGeeeeee. I’ve got to have the recipe.”
I found the base recipe, at least two decades ago, in an old version of Cook’s Illustrated’s Best Recipe Cookbook. Over the years, I’ve tweaked it just a tad, so that now I have the absolute best soft sugar cookie recipe around.
These cookies put all other sugar cookies to shame. Friends, this is the end-all of sugar cookie recipes. Better than your mom’s. Better than your grandma’s, may she rest in peace. Better than that fancy bakery down the street. And sure as heck, better than any grocery store sugar cookies you’ve ever tasted.
Ingredients You Need
- All-Purpose Flour – measured and then sifted into a bowl
- Baking Powder – the main raising ingredient
- Fine Sea Salt – kosher salt or table salt
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar – for both the cookie dough and extra for rolling the dough balls in
- Large Eggs
- Pure Vanilla Extract – for depth of flavor (or half vanilla and half almond extract)
How To Make Sugar Cookies
Find the full Sugar Cookies recipe with ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, and video tutorial in the printable recipe form at the bottom of the post.
Cookie Tips and Tricks
- Perfect sugar cookies should always have equal parts butter and sugar. The butter and sugar should be creamed together (beaten on high) until the butter is lighter in color and ultra-soft and fluffy. You should be able to tell that the sugar crystals have broken down into the butter because the mixture will no longer look granular. This usually takes several minutes to achieve.
- For extra light and delicate sugar cookies, sift your dry ingredients. Measure first, then sift.
- You need to use a generous amount of good-quality sea salt and pure vanilla extract to bring out the best flavor in the sugar cookie dough.
- Do not over-beat the cookie dough. Stay by your stand mixer and think gentle thoughts.
- Roll the dough into balls, coat the cookie dough balls in extra sugar, and press the tops flat with the bottom of a drinking glass. This creates a crispy, glistening exterior and a uniform shape.
- Do not over-bake. The moment the edges start to look remotely golden, take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool.
Easy Sugar Cookie Icing
Baker’s Note: Our Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe is not a roll-out recipe for cookie cutters. It’s just too darn delicate for that.
If you’re looking for a roll-and-cut cookie recipe, use our Cut Out Cookies with Sugar Cookie Icing recipe. The extra egg yolk and flour make the cookies slightly sturdier, allowing them to withstand the abuse of cutting and decorating. However, these chewy sugar cookies are marvelous with glaze and sprinkles. You can add gel food coloring to bake in fun colors.
BOURBON ICING: Once the cookies are cool, whisk 1 tablespoon of heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 teaspoon bourbon together. Then whisk in 1 cup powdered sugar until smooth. Dip the face of each cookie into the glaze. Allow the excess to drip off, then place them back on the parchment paper to dry.
Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, measured then sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar + extra for rolling
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Place the softened butter and sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer. Cream the butter and sugar together on high until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. (Don't skimp on the time here.) Then turn the mixer on low and add the eggs and vanilla extract. Scrape the bowl.
- With the mixer running on low, slowly add the flour mixture. Scrape the bowl and beat again for 30 seconds.
- Pour some extra sugar into a bowl to coat the cookies. Scoop the dough out and roll into 1-inch balls. The dough should be soft and delicate – don't over-handle. Shake each ball in the sugar bowl to coat, then place on the cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to press down on each ball, until it's 1/3- to 1/2-inch thick.
- Bake each sheet of sugar cookies for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are slightly golden and the centers are just barely set. Cool completely on the cookie sheets.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
There are five things that can cause flat cookies…
Your oven thermostat is faulty. This is a very common baking issue. To fix it, purchase a hanging oven thermometer to hang off the center oven rack. Then you can adjust your oven temperature accordingly.
You did not use parchment paper. Parchment paper is a magical baking tool that helps cookies avoid burning on the bottom, prevents them from spreading too thin, and ensures a consistent bake. Don’t skip the parchment!
You used melted butter instead of softened butter. Yes, it does matter. When butter is melted, as opposed to softened, it has a different chemical reaction in the oven. Softened butter that is creamed well with sugar will cause cookies to rise before spreading. While melted butter creates a denser, chewier cookie.
You mismeasured your flour. In the United States, most bakers don’t weigh their ingredients. Therefore, it’s easy to mismeasure things like flour, which can be sifted or packed into cups. To ensure the best results, when measuring flour, stir the flour in the bag to lift and lighten it. Then scoop the flour and use the flat edge of a knife to level the top.
Your leavening agents are old. Baking powder and baking soda can lose their lifting power over time. I suggest buying new ones at the beginning of the baking season, even if the old ones aren’t past their expiration date.
This goes back to mis-measuring flour. Most likely, your flour was packed too tightly into the measuring cups, so there is too much flour in the recipe.
Yes! We’ve made this recipe with several brands of 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour, with great success.
The texture is slightly different. Yet the cookies are still light, soft in the middle, and crispy around the edges.
As mentioned above, this recipe produces cookies that are too delicate to roll and cut. You need a sturdier cookie recipe for that. Try this cut-out cookie recipe or this one instead!
Yes, there are a few options… Try using vegan or plant-based butter, vegetable shortening, or margarine instead of unsalted (dairy) butter.
Yes! You can keep the unbaked dough or baked cookies without any frosting in the freezer for up to 3 months, as long as it is contained in an airtight container.
If you want to freeze baked cookies, separate them with layers of parchment paper so they don’t stick together. Then, you can thaw them in the fridge or at room temperature.
You can use any sugar substitute, as long as it is measured in a 1-to-1 ratio with granulated sugar.
Looking for more of the BEST cookie recipes?
More Best Homemade Cookie Recipes
- Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
- Frosting Peppermint Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillow Cookies
- Low-Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft Chewy Molasses Cookies
- Orange Cookies (Sugar Cookies with Orange)
- Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
- Caramel Shortbread Recipe
- Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies
- Absolute BEST Peanut Butter Cookies
- Family Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies (No-Chill Cookies!)
- Soft Buttery Oatmeal Cookies
- Brownie Mix Chocolate Cookies
- Italian Wedding Cookies
- Lemon Drop Thumbprint Cookies
- Nana’s Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Scottish Shortbread Cookies
- Coconut Macaroons
Best sugar cookies ever! Not for cookie cutters but great with homemade frosting & sprinkles!
This is the first time I ever made sugar cookies and they came out great! Followed the directions exactly and have made two batches. I found for each it was easier for me to put the dough in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before handling. They stuck to the glass bottom far less this way. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe it’s definitely a keeper for me!!! Ps my boyfriend loved the bourbon glaze!
The cookies came out good!!
The perfect sugar cookie. Buttery, delicately tender, crisp exterior.
A couple of tips: don’t overhandle the dough when forming balls. If they aren’t perfectly round, they will be after you press them with the water glass. Rub the bottom of the glass with a little butter, and dip in sugar. It prevents the cookies from sticking to the glass. Dip in sugar every 3-4 cookies.
Admittedly I am not the best baker. I needed to make sugar cookies for my husband’s Christmas party for work and came across this recipe. The cookies turned out well. I put red sugar sprinkles in the bowl with the plain in an effort to be festive. They’re not too sweet so I think they would work well with a glaze if that’s your end goal. No weird aftertaste like some so I’m calling this a win.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I was searching for one that didn’t require refrigeration. Half way through I thought I did something wrong but quickly realized I didn’t. They were AMAZING. I quickly threw some green decorator sugar on them after baking. My family inhaled them!
Guess I over beat on the dough BC they turned gooey & not firm or delicate at all!? Dont know where I actually went wrong?!
Hi Gabrielle,
Gooey? Oh no! Hmmm… Any chance you mismeasured the flour?
I have made these twice. I have had to add 1/2 cup more flour and put them in the fridge for an hour before I could roll them. I reached out to the baker but never received an answer. And, no I did not measure wrong.
Beautiful recipe. I followed the instructions and was greatly rewarded. I have some baked ones in the freezer and some balls ready for baking. Definitely saving this recipe!
Great recipe. Perfect flavour and texture.
They turned out good left out rolling them in sugar. Found the dough way to sticky, maybe to much butter or not enough flour.
The dough was so soft it couldn’t be scooped. I followed the recipe but had to chill the dough before it could be handled.
Hi Jan,
Oh no! Any chance you mismeasured the flour? The dough should be tacky and soft (which creates an amazing texture when baked), but you should still be able to work with it.
Just amazing