The Best Sugar Cookies

These are the best sugar cookies, ever! You may not believe me. A sugar cookie is a sugar cookie. I disagree. I have had many beautifully decorated sugar cookies that taste quite bland with a dry texture. This amazing simple recipe is full of flavor with a nice soft texture.

My family absolutely loves these cookies. I usually make them for holidays and special occasions. I have zero decorating skills. My cookies are very homemade looking. But, they taste so good. 

A lot of the fun of homemade sugar cookies are the decorations. My boys always helped when they were little. Each cookie was a tiny canvas for them to express themselves with icing and sprinkles. If you have kids they will love creating their own edible masterpieces.

I have used buttercream frosting, and a corn syrup based frosting. The best decorating icing is royal icing. It sets up perfectly for stacking and the decorating possibilities are endless. My cookies in the picture have corn syrup icing. It sets up similar to royal icing, but it’s much runnier. It’s not the easiest icing to work with, but I didn’t have the ingredients for royal icing so I had to make do. 

You can find the recipe for royal icing here: Gingerbread Cookies

Enjoy this easy, no refrigeration required, sugar cookie recipe.

Happy Eating!

Sugar Cookies 

Ingredients

1 cup butter 

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 cups flour

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375° 

• In a small bowl add salt, baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Whisk together.

• Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Add vanilla, almond extract, and eggs. Mix on medium high speed until combined. It will look lumpy from the eggs. That’s OK.

• Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix on medium high speed until combined. 

• Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Use your favorite cookie cutters and transfer to a baking sheet, and place them about 1 inch apart.

• Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. The sugar cookies should be light in color. If the edges are brown they are over-cooked. 

• Leave the cookies on the trays for about a minute before removing them to a cooling rack. 

• Cool completely and decorate.

Notes:

• If the dough is a bit sticky, just place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

• Oven temps vary so keep an eye on the first batch or two of cookies until you see how your oven cooks.

• Place your oven rack in the middle so the cookies bake evenly.

• Line your baking sheets with parchment for easy clean up. You can also just bake the cookies directly on your ungreased cookie sheets. 

• I always use salted butter for all my baking. 

Sugar Cookie Icing

Ingredients

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

¼ teaspoon almond extract

Directions

• In a medium bowl blend sugar and milk until smooth.

• Add corn syrup and almond extract. Beat until smooth and shiny.

• Use food coloring to make whatever colors you prefer.

Notes:

• This is very runny icing. The texture reminds me of white school glue.

• Use a small amount on each cookie. If you put too much of the icing it will run over the edge of the cookies.

• It will set up overnight.

• If the icing is too thick add more milk and corn syrup in about the same ratios.

• I usually just play around with the texture until I get the consistency I want.