Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp almond extract
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

Steps

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. 2

   Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer. Cream them together until smooth, at least 3 minutes.

3. 3

   Beat the vanilla extract, almond extract, and egg into the creamed butter and sugar mixture. The recipe uses 1 egg.

4. 4

   In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and salt with the flour.

5. 5

   Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients a little at a time, mixing as you go.

6. 6

   If the dough looks crumbly, continue mixing for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute. The dough should pull away from the sides of the mixer.

7. 7

   If the dough still looks too dry or stiff for the mixer, turn it out onto a countertop. Flour the surface as needed, wet your hands, and finish kneading the dough by hand until it is workable.

8. 8

   Do not chill the dough. Divide it into 2–3 workable chunks, then roll each batch out on a floured surface. Roll the dough fairly thick—closer to 1/4 inch than 1/8 inch—and cut out the cookies.

9. 9

   Bake the cookies at 350°F for 6–8 minutes.

10. 10

    Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes

The cookies have a medium-soft texture; baking them longer produces a crisper cookie. The final cup of flour may make the dough look dry and crumbly; work it with wet hands and/or more flour until smooth and ready to roll. The source mentions that the cookies are suitable for decorating.

Nutrition per serving

• dessert
• cookies
• baked
• cut-out cookies
• no-chill
• holiday
• vegetarian