The Best (Ever) Sugar Cookies
Over the years, one of the most common questions I’m asked is if I have a good sugar cookie recipe to share. For a bit of context, I used to run a small sugar cookie business where I would bake and decorate custom cookies for order. It was an absolute blast while I was running it, but eventually the little side business outgrew the capacity that I had to run it as an individual who also wanted her own life. I had other passions I wanted to pursue that I felt like I was being held back from so I made the tough decision and closed up shop.
I don’t bake cookies professionally anymore, but I still have hundreds of cookie cutters stored away in my basement to show for it, as well as many fond memories, the occasional burst of inspiration to make a batch, and the odd question about what my favourite recipe is. In the spirit of that, I decided to share my recipe on here so you can make some too.
I have always used one recipe to make my cookies. I have made thousands of these cookies over the years and so I can truly say that this is one of the best sugar cookie recipes around (and spoiler alert: one of the keys to this claim is that they are NOT made with royal icing). You do not have to be artistically inclined to make beautiful sugar cookies, I swear. I’m confident that with a little know-how and a little practice, you can be well on your way to making delicious and beautiful sugar cookies too.
You can download a printable version of the recipe here.
You will need –
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Additional: butter, milk, icing sugar, gel food colouring for the icing
To make the cookies –
Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the vanilla and beat again. Scrape down the side of the bowl as needed to ensure everything is well incorporated. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat on medium speed until the dough is well combined. Turn out the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, wrap it up, and place it in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, choose a cookie cutter to use. Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a slightly floured surface and a rolling pin, roll the dough out evenly to 1/4″ thickness. Cut out your shapes and place on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. You can re-roll the excess dough up to three times. Bake each tray for 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Allow to fully cool before decorating.
Prepare the icing by combining 1 tablespoon of softened butter with a bit of icing sugar and milk. Continue to mix them together until there are no lumps of butter remaining. Everything should be smooth and well incorporated. Add more icing sugar and milk as needed to reach a piping consistency, but remember that it is always easier to add more than to take it away, so only add little bits at a time. Add the gel colouring to achieve your desired colour(s) and continue to mix well. Scoop 1/4 of the icing into a prepared piping bag and reserve the rest for flooding. Pipe the outline of your cookies.
Create the flooding icing by adding a very small dribble of milk to the remaining icing that you set aside before piping. Mix well. The flooding icing should be the consistency of molasses – it should settle back to a smooth surface when you run your spatula through it in 8-10 seconds. If it is too runny, it will not harden or settle. Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread the flooding icing within the borders of your piping icing.
It is pretty difficult to go into the details of decorating techniques through a written recipe, so if you are interested in the process, you can watch the video I created by clicking here. On that note – I launched my Youtube channel! I’m excited to start sharing lots of content on there and would love if you would care to follow along. Subscribe over on my channel for more content.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or on the video. I’m passionate about teaching people how to make their own sugar cookies because I know that anybody can do it – it just takes some practice and tweaking as you go.
