My Secret Sugar Cookie Recipe

This super buttery sugar cookie recipe is perfect for the holidays! Just add your favorite royal icing or frosting.

Silly me. My rule to never tell which recipe I use for sugar cookies was doomed from the beginning. One reason I kept it hush-hush, is because I had a small Etsy-based sugar cookie business. I have recently come to the realization, that people are not paying me for the cookie portion, but for the decoration. I recently shared this recipe with a reader, and it made me very happy to do so.

The recipe itself is not a secret. Some of you may be using it already. If so, then you already know how this dough bakes up to be so very buttery and delicious. There are other recipes that are considered better for professional decorating, (ie. flatter surface) but the taste is unsurpassed. I don’t mind working around a minor imperfection for such delicious results.

My Favorite Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe

Heather Baird
This was once my “secret recipe” for Sugar Cookies. I’m not very good at secrets, and it’s much more fun to share anyway. Yields about 7 dozen 3-inch cookies, so there's plenty for cookie swaps and gifting!
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 9 minutes
1 hour chill time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 24 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 7 dozen

Equipment

  • baking sheets 2-4

Ingredients
  

  • 3 sticks of unsalted butter softened
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt

Instructions
 

Dough:

  • In a mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
  • On low speed, gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Wrap or cover dough and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Baking:

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, knead dough a few times. This will help cut-outs keep their shape while baking. Roll out dough to ¼” to ½” thickness while it is still cold. Use cookie cutters for desired shapes.
  • Bake for 7-9 minutes, depending on size and thickness of dough. Cool completely. Frost as desired.

Notes

This dough should be kneaded a little after chilling. Incorporating just a bit more flour into the dough helps the cookies hold their cut shape. You still want your snowflake to look like a snowflake, and not bake into a blob. This will help.
Cut the dough in two after chilling. Work with one portion and leave the other portion in the refrigerator to stay cold. This will also help with the shape issue.
The softened butter should still be just a little cool to the touch, and not completely room temperature. Warm, or room temperature butter will make your dough extremely sticky. It’s a bit harder to work with.
Bake on parchment paper. It makes life so much easier in the long-run. No sticking, easier clean up… it’s something that I can’t live without.
Keyword large batch sugar cookie dough, sugar cookie recipe, unsalted butter
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Christmas is just around the corner, and if you’d like to treat Santa to something extra special, then you may want to give this very simple, but very delicious recipe a try. (This recipe yields about 6 to 7 dozen if using 3″ or 4″ cookie cutters.

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April
April
14 years ago

Thanks for sharing!! Your cookies are beautifully decorated!!

cookies and cups
cookies and cups
14 years ago

Wow! Your cookies are gorgeous! Also, that hot chocolate on a stick is sooo awesome! I am totally making that for my kiddos class!!!

Mara Campbell
Mara Campbell
14 years ago

Thanks for the recipe!!! I love decorated sugar cookies, one of my favorites to eat year round. I found your blog through Munchkin' Munchies, and it's wonderful!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
14 years ago

how many cookies will this make about? can't wait to try it!

Sue
Sue
14 years ago

I love your cookies; they're adorable! Love the sparkle of the stars! 🙂

Anamika:The Sugarcrafter
Anamika:The Sugarcrafter
14 years ago

Hi Heather
Loved your cookies and your wonderful skill in giving such good visual appeal to them

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
14 years ago

Thank you everyone for such sweet comments!
To the person asking about the quantity – this recipe yields about 4 to 5 dozen if using 3" or 4" cookie cutters.

Christina
Christina
14 years ago

Those star sugar cookies are so beautiful, thank you for sharing your recipe. I have the same trouble, mostly it comes from my mother, who believes everything is a "secret family recipe". I'm not necessarily from the same school of thought as her, I think recipes are meant to be shared, ideas exchanged. So, thanks again! I'll have to try these out!

AnickH
AnickH
14 years ago

i will definitly try this. i dont have a very good sugar cookie recipe so i was google searching for one and came across your site. and i didnt want one with sour cream or milk (makes them too puffy and light) and yours doesnt have either of those ingredients so i think i'll really like this

Anonymous
Anonymous
13 years ago

How do you make your icing. and btw your cookies are way beautiful.

Anonymous
Anonymous
13 years ago

What do you use as the decorations?

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Viagra Online
13 years ago

I love sugar, I think this cookies will be so wonderful to have it at home because it contains sugar that is an ingredient that it could leave behind in our recipes, it makes it a special and powerful recipe.

Painted
Painted
13 years ago

This comment has been removed by the author.

Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

Thank you for this recipe! I stumbled across your blog earlier and have fallen in love with it. I recently finished making sugar cookies for a birthday that turned out subpar…my biggest difficulty was with the frosting. Can you point me in the direction of a good recipe? Thank you for your awesome blog!

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Viagra 100 MG
12 years ago

Delicious thanks a lot, I cook cookies like this always in special days like christmas and nights with fireworks and stuff like that, but just those days because I have to work, thanks for the post.

Kw
Kw
11 years ago

Thanks for sharing! How long will these keep?

GoodJuJu
GoodJuJu
11 years ago

Thank you, I am so excited to try these out with some Halloween decor. I found that the dough became very sticky when I started to roll it. Do you think that means I should use a little more flour to roll it with?

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

A coworker made these cookies for a fundraising event at work and after one bite I was hooked and asked for the recipe. These are by far the best sugar cookies I've ever tasted! Thanks for sharing!

Julie

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

I'm looking everywhere to find the quantity of butter to use. Maybe it's late and that's why I can't find it?

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
11 years ago

It's a the top of the recipe card: 3 sticks of unsalted butter, softened.

Sometimes the recipe card isn't viewable on certain devices. I really need to remove the card sand place the text in the post. Thank you!

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Thank you so much, I thought I'd seen it because that's how much I'd set out. Looking forward to the raves from another one of your fabulous recipes. I think I'm doing the berry tart as well, it will be a Sprinkle Bakes kind of day–Happy Thanksgiving!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Results are in…BEST EVER SUGAR COOKIE! Thank you for sharing!!

Anonymous
Anonymous
10 years ago

My dough did nor turn out as stiff as expected, any ideas?? Thanks! Love your blog!

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
10 years ago

It's hard to say what happened. You could add flour a little at a time until a firmer consistency is acheived, about 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup. Refrigerating the dough will help too. Thanks for trying the recipe!

xo
h

Anonymous
Anonymous
10 years ago

Heather, I've made these lots of times and they are fantastic! I'd like to make them chocolate this time–what substitutions would you make? Thanks! Melissa

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
10 years ago

Hi mel! Some of the flour can be substituted for cocoa powder. This recipe makes quite a big batch, so I think up to 1 3/4 cup of cocoa powder could be used in place of flour. That's almost a whole container (or in some cases, more than a whole container) of cocoa powder, so you might want to pick up an extra package or two next time you're shopping. 🙂

Anonymous
Anonymous
8 years ago

Hey! These look delicious and I can't wait to ty them, but I just wanted to know what type of icing you use for the sugar cookies? I want to make some, Easter themed! 🙂

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
8 years ago

Hi Anonymous!

I use the following recipe (link), but thinned with water so it's flood consistency.

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2012/04/like-porcelain-royal-icing-nests.html

Mrs. Pifer
Mrs. Pifer
8 years ago

Hello! I'm having trouble seeing the recipe, though I've been able to see and use it before. Any ideas? Thank you!!!

Heather Baird
Heather Baird
8 years ago
Reply to  Mrs. Pifer

Hi Mrs. Pifer!

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I've added the printable recipe to the blog post.

I once used a service called "Key Ingredient" to display printable recipe cards. It seems they've changed their services and my old recipes are not viewable. I'll be working on restoring those. 🙂

Anonymous
Anonymous
7 years ago

The star sugar cookies are gorgeous!!! Thanks a lot for sharing

Jaime
Jaime
2 years ago

Seriously still my go to recipe for Christmas cutouts 10+ years and counting!!!