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

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 9 minutes mins

1 hour chill time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 24 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 7 dozen

Equipment

• baking sheets 2-4

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 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.