BEST Easy Sugar Cookies
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Best Easy Sugar Cookies are so easy, kid friendly, and will impress even the fanciest cookie connoisseur. Fluffy, soft, and super flavorful, bake up a batch this weekend, and let your kids help — this is a cookie for the whole family!
For more super simple, delicious cookie recipes, check out my other popular posts: Sugar Cookie Bars, Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Gingerbread Sugar Cookies, Sprinkle Cookies and Super Soft Peanut Butter Cookies.
The kids love to help — they’re always asking to help with whatever I’m cooking or baking. And while I do love it when they help, because it’s so much fun to get to spend that quality time with them. They’re little hands pouring and measuring and stirring. And licking their fingers and dumping stuff on themselves and the floor…that’s adorable too…usually.
But I confess, sometimes I wait till they’re napping or watching a show in another room to sneak in some cooking and photography. If I’m lucky I can get the whole kit and caboodle done before they even notice.
But these soft sugar cookies, well they actually cannot be made without the kids. There’s something about making these delicious cookies, rolling the dough out just so and punching out the little shapes that just begs for kids to be a part of. I swear they don’t taste as good if they aren’t around to add their little bit of magic to them. They even helped create the cookie recipe and added some insight into the sugar cookie frosting.
This time around, we made heart-shaped cookies because it was right around Valentine’s Day and so we had to make all the pink frosting and use up all the pretty sprinkles. When they were all done, we made a bunch of plates for family members and friends and delivered them all around. It truly was a special day and brought so many smiles all around.
Here’s How You Make It
For these sugar cookies, you don’t even need to chill for 3-4 hours or overnight, just 15 minutes in the fridge after rolling and then right into the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the salt, vanilla, and egg yolks until well blended. Next, add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing after each 1-cup pour. Once all 4 ½ cups are combined to the batter, divide the dough in half and shape each half into a ball.
2. Working with one half at a time, place the ball of dough on a sheet of parchment paper or nonstick baking mat and roll out to about ¼ inch thickness. If you like them thicker or thinner, that’s fine too, just remember the thicker the cookie, the less cookies you’ll yield.
3. Pop the rolled dough into the fridge for 15 minutes to chill, then remove and cut into shapes with your favorite cookie cutters. Place them about an inch apart on your baking sheet.
4. Bake the cookies in the oven for 8-9 minutes (depending on how thick or thin they are), take them out of the oven, and let them cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Frequently Asked Questions
This frosting is so yummy too, and the cream cheese adds just the right amount of tang to complement the sweetness of the cookie.
While the cookies are cooling on the baking rack, you can easily whip up the icing. In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until nice and smooth. Add the vanilla or almond extract and salt and mix up some more.
Add to the mixture 1 cup of powdered sugar, then 1 tablespoon of milk, and mix. Repeat this process (1 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon milk) until all of the powdered sugar is incorporated.
Turn the beater up to high speed until it’s nice and fluffy. Add another tablespoon of milk as you feel is necessary to get a light and airy texture. If you want to color the frosting, add in the food coloring while you mix it. Spread the icing on the cooled cookies and sprinkle while the icing is still wet so that the sprinkles stick.
How to Store Sugar Cookies
You can store these sugar cookies at room temperature or chilled in an airtight container for up to one week.
If you want to freeze these cookies, you can either freeze the dough before rolling out and cooking, or you can freeze the already cut-out and baked sugar cookies before frosting.
More Tasty Cookie Recipes
- Chunky Monkey Cookies
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- White Chocolate Lemon Cookies
- Cherry Garcia Cookies
- Super Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies
Did you make these amazing Sugar Cookies? YAY! Please rate the recipe below!
BEST Easy Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups butter, at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or 1 teaspoon vanilla + 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 4 large egg yolks
- 4 ½ cups all purpose flour
Frosting/Icing
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon almond extract, or vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup milk, or as needed
- food coloring, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar.
- Mix in salt, vanilla (and/or almond extract) and egg yolks until blended.
- Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing after each, until just combined.
- Divide dough in half and shape each half into a ball.
- Place on top of a sheet of parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness (slightly thinner for more cookies, slightly thicker for bakery-style cookies though this will yield fewer cookies).
- Chill rolled dough for 15 minutes.
- Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and place at least 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes (for 1/4 inch thick cookies. for thicker cookies they'll need an extra minute or so, for thinner cookies take them out by 8 minutes.) and allow to cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Prepare the Frosting/Icing
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare the icing. In a large bowl cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
- Add extract and salt and mix til smooth.
- Add 1 cup powdered sugar, followed by 1 tablespoon milk, mix until incorporated, and repeat (1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tablespoon milk) until all of the powdered sugar is incorporated. Mix on high speed until light and fluffy, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time as needed to get a light and airy frosting. Add a couple drops of food coloring if desired.
- Spread on cooled cookies and add sprinkles if desired. Store at room temperature or chilled in airtight container up to 1 week.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Crumbly dough after following recipe exactly- twice!
I want to decorate some sugar cookies and I have been looking at many sugar cookie recipes! Yours does look so beautiful …I am wondering why there is no baking powder in the ingredients as there is in many of the other recipes I have looked at. I saw one review that mentioned she thought it is more like a shortbread cookie…Shortbread cookies have a fabulous buttery sweet taste so I’m good with that!
This recipe doesn’t call for it because it’s not needed with the other ingredients 🙂 I hope you try them out and enjoy them!
These are the best cookies not real sweet but just right!!!! we made 1 batch and small 3 inch
cookie cutters. we have about 60 cookies and will use this recipe from now on!!!
Easy to make and delicious! I just made these for my daughter’s birthday. I’ll definitely be saving this recipe to make again. Thank you for sharing!
That’s great! Glad they turned out well. Hope your daughter enjoyed her birthday! 🙂
Do I make adjustments for high altitude?
No need to as I am in high altitude as well and the recipe is great as written 🙂
These cookies were very tasty, but this is really more of a shortbread recipe than a sugar cookie recipe. That’s totally fine, but the title is a bit misleading. Anyway, thank you for the recipe.
good my family loved them
These cookies are amazing! I highly recommend!!