This Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe is perfect for decorating! It holds its shape beautifully with crisp edges and it tastes delicious! Perfect for any occasion!
You will love these sugar cookies both for eating and for decorating! They bake up with very straight edges so you can be assured that your cookies will look great, even without royal icing!
If you roll these cookies to about ¼ inch, they will be soft and tall in the center. Roll them thinner if you like a slightly crisp cookie. Either way, just use your choice of cookie cutter for perfect cutout sugar cookies!
Tips for Success with this Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe
- Roll out your sugar cookie dough BEFORE chilling it! By rolling the dough immediately after mixing it but before chilling and cutting, you will cut the chilling time required. You will also give the dough a chance to relax after mixing it. If the dough is chilled prior to being rolled, it may become overworked because of the temptation to re-roll numerous times.
- Chill the dough well once it has been rolled and then chill again before baking. The chilled dough bakes up with more defined edges!
- Roll the dough directly on the parchment paper or silicon mat that you will bake it on. Moving the dough after cutting can warp the shapes, even if it has been chilled.
- Bake just until the edges begin to brown. If the tops are brown, the cookies are overdone!
- If you are baking pieces that need to fit together (like the Heart Cookie Puzzle in the video below), cut the chilled dough with the shapes touching and bake them that way. As soon as they come out of the oven (and I mean immediately!) recut the pieces with either the cutters you used if they are metal or with a knife. (If your cutters are made of plastic, they will melt if you use them to recut the shapes while the dough and pan are still hot!)
Decorating these Easy Sugar Cookies
Decorating with Royal Icing doesn't have to be hard! Don't be intimidated by piping and icing consistencies.
I have a detailed video on Royal Icing Consistency that can be found HERE.
And I have another detailed video on several Royal Icing techniques, including wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, and royal icing transfers. That video can be found HERE.
You can find my Royal Icing Recipe HERE.
Making Decorating Cookies EASY
There are several things that you can do to make decorating cookies easier for yourself.
One trick is to use a common color scheme for all of your cookies. Even if you do numerous different designs, using 3 to 5 colors will make it easier on you and will also make your cookies look cohesive!
Another trick to save your sanity is to plan out designs that will use only one consistency, or maybe two, of royal icing.
The videos below use only THREE colors - white, pink, and pale red - plus an edible marker. Most of the designs only use the wet-on-wet technique and are then finished with the edible pen. The hear puzzle does have some detail added with the same three colors but in a slightly stiffer consistency.
Check out the videos and see how easy decorating with royal icing can be!
Here is the video for my Heart Cookie Puzzle! I made the cutter on my 3D printer and I had a slight problem with the print. It still worked great for cutting but I am attempting to fix the problem.
Easy Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup corn starch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Sift the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl using a hand mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until smooth and combined.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract until incorporated. Add the flour mixture with the mixer at low speed. Mix just until the dough comes together.
- Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and divide it into two pieces. Roll each piece of dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to a thickness of ¼ inch. Cut into desired shapes and freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 30 minutes. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes – time will vary with the size of the cookie. Bake until the edges just begin to brown. Cool on the baking sheet for two minutes and then remove to a rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.
sallybr says
You have so many cookies that I fell in love with, and now this one is SCREAMING to be at the top of the list - I love everything about it, and everyone I show it to says the same: WOW, these are great!
(thanks for the link love)
Tanya Ott says
Thanks again! Cookies are so fun and I love the free rein when it comes to decorating. I find that if I go into it wanting something perfect and specific, I'm disappointed. But if I just go with the flow, I end up with something I love!