Introductory easy sugar cookie recipe

Of all the sugar cookie recipes, this is the favorite, basic recipe. Try it, its not diffcult. And if it does go wrong its easy to try again

This recipe is for American style cooks and for small quantities. It makes about 18 to 24 cookies – depends upon how you thin you roll it out and the size of your cookie cutter. If you want to make more, just double all the quantities.

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Good sugar cookies should be lightly browned by the cooking process, sweet from the sugar in them and used for decoration, and crisp to the bite but not dry. They are just right when they break into two pieces with a gentle snap and a small shower of crumbs if stressed along their middle.

Have you read our introduction to baking sugar cookies from the previous page? If you are a newcomer to baking go there first then follow the link back here.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter (softened out of the fridge for two or more hours) - 1 stick

Caster sugar - 4 oz

Salt ¼ teaspoon

1 egg (large)

Plain flour - 2 cups plus a bit (see method) plus extra for rolling) - 10 oz

Baking powder - ½ teaspoon

Vanilla or almond flavouring - 2 teaspoons

Tools

Electric mixer

Spatula

Two non-stick heavyweight baking sheets

Rolling pin

Cookie cutter to suit (3 inch diameter)

The Method

1. Put on the oven to warm up to a temperature of 400 degrees F, Gas Mk 4 (hot oven) .
2. Lay out at least two baking trays.

3. Put the softened butter and sugar in an electric mixer. Beat on a fast setting until light and fluffy. (about four to five minutes).
4. Keep the mixer running and add the salt.
5. Keep the mixer running and add the flavouring.
6. Keep the mixer running, but now at a medium to slow speed, and add the egg. The mixture goes quite sloppy.

7. Now add half the flour using a dessertspoon to add it a spoonful at a time. About four dessertspoons will do.
8. Add the baking powder.
9. Continue adding the remaining flour in the same way. As we noted, when you started adding the flour the mixture was quite wet and sloppy. As the flour is mixed in, it absorbs the liquid and the mixture becomes drier. Stop adding flour when the mixture, now a dough, gets heavy and can just lift off the mixing bowl without sticking. This may well take more than the measured amount if the eggs are large.
10. For some of the lighter weight mixing machines you may need to finish off by hand if the motor in the mixer starts to struggle as the dough thickens.
11. You should now be able to pull the dough together into a ball and lift it out without it sticking to you or the bowl. Makes the washing up easy!
12. Put it into the refrigerator for an hour. This chills the dough making it easier to roll out and helps the cookies to hold their shape when cooking. If you have not got time, you can skip this step.
13. Spread a thin layer of flour on a surface and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness. Keep the amount of flour you spread to a minimum. Enough to prevent the dough sticking to the surface, but no more as it can leave a white residue on your cookies spoiling their golden brown colour.
14. If you do get flour on the top surface of the cookies, gently rub it in with your fingers so the colour disappears.
15. Use your cookie cutter to cut out the individual cookies. If you do not have enough flour underneath, then they will not lift off the rolling surface.
16. Place them on your baking sheets with at least ½ inch separation.
17. Using your fingers, pick up some caster sugar and drizzle it over the individual cookies giving them a light coating. One good pinch should do two cookies. This will give the finished cookies a distinctive crunch and instant sweetness.
18. Pop them into the oven and remove when they go a delicate golden brown round the edges. This takes about 10 to 12 minutes. It helps if you can turn the trays round midway through the cooking to keep them colouring evenly.
19. Do not get them out too early or they will remain soft and not have that crisp “cookie crunch” round the edge.
20. Leave them to cool on the baking trays for about 10 minutes. This ensures that they begin to crisp and are strong enough to stand being lifted.
21. After the 10 minutes, remove them from the baking tray by sliding a flat knife underneath and place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Go to the top of this page with the "Sugar Cookie recipes for American style measures".