I’ll keep this short because I know everyone hates long blurbs before a recipe and honestly, I do too. I started making sugar cookies in high school every year around Christmas time. Since then I’ve tried so many recipes and after a lot of trial and error, made the necessary tweaks to perfect my ideal sugar cookie recipe! No fridge time is needed and these turn out soft and chewy (provided you don’t over bake haha). The hint of almond extract also gives them a yummy, subtle, unique flavor.
These cookies will be soft and chewy and can be decorated with either royal icing or buttercream. If you want to get fancy with your designs, you’ll want to use royal icing. Decorating with royal icing requires a lot of patience and practice but it’s a lot of fun and your cookies will look ADORABLE!
Here are some links to other Sugar Cookie posts that will help you:
- Check out this post for my royal icing recipe and some basic info about royal icing
- Check out this post for my favorite baking tools
Soft & Chewy Sugar Cookie
Equipment
- 1 or more Cookie sheet(s)
- 1 Silicon baking mat or parchment paper
- 1 Mixer (I have used both a handheld mixer and stand mixer, either is fine)
- 1 Large Mixing Bowl
- Measuring cups/spoons
- Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temperature (see note below)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare cookie sheets by lining them with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar.
- Add in the eggs and extracts and continue mixing until combined.
- Add in baking powder, salt and flour. Beat until combined (the dough will be quite thick)
- Take a chunk of dough and roll it out on a floured counter, silicone mat or parchment paper. I roll out to 1/4 inch (see my post linked above for the rolling pin I use that measures this)
- Use your cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes.
- Place cookie cut outs onto the prepared cookie sheets and place in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes.
- Once baked, remove cookie sheet from oven and let cookies sit on tray for a couple of minutes to let cool slightly. Using a spatula, lift the cookies onto a cooling rack to fully cool.
- Once fully cooled, cookies should be store in an air tight container or ziploc.
Notes
- Makes approximately 24 3” cookies but will largely depend on the cutters you’re using.
- The consistency of your butter is VERY important. The best results come from using butter that you left out at room temperature (for how long depends on the time of year & your climate). You want it to be soft enough if you press into it, a dent will be made. If you choose to microwave your butter to soften it a bit from the fridge, do it in very small increments. You don’t want it melted at all.
- You don’t want your unbaked cookies sitting on a hot cookie sheet for very long. If you’re not ready to put the next batch in right away, consider leaving the cookies off the tray until you’re ready so they don’t begin to spread.
- Follow me on instagram @makingstuffwithsam for decorating videos and more tips! Tag me if you try the recipe out 🙂
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