The Perfect Sugar Cookie Recipe
The best no-chill sugar cookie recipe. My absolute favorite.
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 cup Butter
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp Almond extract
- 1 Egg
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Sea salt
- 3 cup AP flour
For the Royal Icing
- 2 lbs Powdered sugar
- 5 tbsp Meringue powder
- 1½ - 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 ½ - 2 tsp Almond extract
- ½ - ¾ cup Warm water
Instructions
To make the cookies
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Grab a cookie sheet and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream your butter and sugar together until smooth.
- Add in your egg and extracts and continue to mix on low.
- In a separate bowl, whisk your baking powder, AP flour and salt together until combined.
- With your mixer set to low, add your dry ingredients very slowly to your wet ingredients.
- The dough may look a bit dry and crumbly, continue to let your mixer do the work for 1 minute or so. The dough should start to form.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll 1/3 of the dough out until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes using any cookie cutters you like. Set your cut outs on to your prepared baking sheet. Provide a little space between each cookie so they can bake evenly.
- Baking for 6-8 minutes or until the bottoms start to turn a light brown color.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack for the remaining cooling time.
- Repeat the rolling out, cutting of the dough and baking process until you have used all the dough.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.
To make the royal icing
- Add 1/4 cup warm water to a small bowl. Add in your extracts and stir.
- In your mixer bowl add your powdered sugar and meringue powder. On the lowest setting, mix the two until combined.
- Once the powders are combine, start slowly adding in your water and flavoring mixture. It will likely become thick and clumpy.
- Add in additional water, just a little at a time until you get a thick honey like consistency.
- Turn your mixer up to a medium speed and whip for about 3-4 minutes or until a bit fluffy.
- Separate into smaller bowls to color your royal icing with gel food coloring. Be careful not to over mix when adding your colors. Add the color and mix just enough to get incorporated.
- Move to piping bags or use knives to spread the icing onto your cooled cookies. Add any sprinkles you like for a festive look.
- Let the royal icing dry for a couple hours before storing. Royal icing will dry hard enough to stack cookies, but it really depends on how thick the cookies are flooded with icing. So dry times drastically vary.
- Store in an airtight contain at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
Notes:
Adjust your royal icing consistencies for more precise decorating. Thicker for outlining and thinner for flooding. Do this by removing some of the icing at the thicker stage and then thinning up the rest by adding a little more water.
For quicker dry times, use a clean fan to blow air on your cookies while they dry.