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Classic Sugar Cookies are everyone’s favorite. Decorated with simple sugar, fancy glaze or sprinkles, these cookies are sure to be the hit of every party. Substantial enough to hold their shape for decorative purposes, but soft enough to satisfy a real cookie craving! Makes about 3 dozen cookies, depending on cookie cutter size.
WATCH THE VIDEO!!
How to Make Decorated Sugar Cookies
Ingredients for Sugar Cookies:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Icing/Glaze for One Dozen Sugar Cookies:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon half n’ half (plus a few drops if needed for consistency)
few drops vanilla (or other flavoring, optional)
few drops coloring (if desired)
Other Decorations/Equipment:
sprinkles (if desired)
melted chocolate
shredded coconut
cookie cutters (for circles, a glass or cup works too)
rolling pin (a clean, smooth bottle works too)
NOTES:
Makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on cookie cutter size.
Keep baked and decorated cookies fresh in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to one week.
Cookie dough can be refrigerated for two weeks or frozen up to a month.
Prepare the cookie dough:
In an electric mixer cream butter and add sugar and salt. Add vanilla and egg. Add flour and mix. Dough will be sticky-ish. Like a stiff, yet sticky play-dough. Gather dough and pat smooth. Cover and allow dough to chill for 1/2 hour in the freezer or 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Make the cookies:
Lightly flour board and rolling pin. The less flour you use the more delicate your cookies will be. Place dough on board. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes. Place cookies on baking sheet. NOTE: If using colored sugars, sprinkle with sugars before baking. Bake in a preheated 325(f) oven for 13 minutes. Cookies will be pale on top and slightly golden on the bottom. Allow to cool before icing.
Decorate the cookies:
In a mixing bowl, run whisk through powdered sugar to remove lumps. Add half n’ half to powdered sugar. Whisk vigorously (no lumps!). Add coloring of choice, vanilla (if desired) and whisk again. Use the back of a spoon and carefully ice cookies. Add sprinkles for some extra bling.
SAY IT WITH COOKIES!
I love using letter-shaped cookie cutters to spell out messages in cookies! Great for a baby shower or your favorite radio station!
MAKE A SUGAR COOKIE ORNAMENT!
Get instructions here.
Just wanted to let you know that I have been making these cookies for a couple of years now and I lOVE them! soo easy, ALWAYS turn out great and the dough is so easy to work with- these are my kids favorites- thanks!
Thank you, Sandy! Music to my ears I tell ya!!
hy betty, i wanna know if the icing will turn out like royal icing ?
will it get hard if i leave it for few hours ?
so sorry, my english is so bad.
Hi ryana, Yes. The icing will get hard. The less liquid you use in the powdered sugar, the faster it will dry. Hope this helps!
so i dont need meringue powder to make the icing right betty ?
i live in indonesia, and i can’t find half n’ half here.
can i change it with anything ?
it’s my mom birthday next week, so i want to try it as fast as possible hehe :)
Hi ryana, Nope, no meringue powder. You can use milk (or even water) for the half-n-half. Happy Birthday to your Mom – she’s going to love the cookies!!
ok.
and one more question (hehe sorry i have so many question)
for the vanilla extract, can i use vanilla essence instead ?
thank you betty, she would definitely love the cookies hehe.
Sure — a little extra investment in pure vanilla extract will make your cookies even better though — next time! Let me know how the cookies turn out for Mom!
thank you so much betty. sure, i’ll let you know ! :)
hi Betty!
I am 12 and love making your recipes as they turn out very good and are appreciated by all.
I tried the cookies.
They were a little thick but too good.
Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Rijul, Way to go!! I was a cookie baking machine at age 12 — you are on your way to being a fantastic chef!!
If the cookies are too thick, roll them out thinner next time. Glad you liked the flavor! ;)
Thanks for the suggestion Betty.;)
Hi Betty
I tried this recipe this afternoon. I followed the recipe exactly but they did not turn out like yours at all! :(
The problem was when I started to bake them, they looked like they were leaking or melting from the sides.
The shapes expanded a lot. The cookies were VERY crumbly. They didn’t hold together well at all!
They were fine to roll out and cut, but just after baking them is when I ran into these problems.
Please help! I would like to give it another go tomorrow night.
Thanks, Mary.
Hi Mary,
If you followed the recipe exactly, I don’t see how you could have those results.
And if you followed the recipe exactly, please tell me how I can offer a solution to your problem?
I’d say you used too much flour… or not enough flour… I’m not sure. Maybe you didn’t let the dough chill before rolling them out?
This recipe is my go-to, never-fail sugar cookie recipe. If you haven’t, I might suggesting watching the How-To video I made for these cookies:
http://www.averagebetty.com/videos/how-to-make-sugar-cookies-video/
Hope this helps!
Happy Baking!
hello average betty..! whats the meaning of this :
1 tablespoon half n’ half (plus a few drops if needed for consistency)?
REPLY ASAP…
Half n’ half is a dairy product of half milk and half cream. You can use milk instead.
(plus a few drops if needed for consistency) means that you need to determine how stiff or loose you want your cookie glaze. If you have used one tablespoon already, you may need to add a few drops more (of whatever dairy product you are using).
Hope this helps!
What would you do if the dough get too wet, sticky and cannot be cut out, even after I freeze it for about 2 hours? It happens a lot to me when ever I was making cut out and sugar cookies. Thanks, Betty!
Sounds like your wet to dry ingredient ratio is way off. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you- the dough should be like “clay” not wet and sticky. Try the recipe again!
Hi Betty! I love your videos! You make baking look soo easy! I would just like to ask regarding the icing/glaze..i noticed you did not use piping bag for outlining ang decorating with icing, didn’t the icing spill on the sides while decorating? Because when i tried decorating with icing before without outlining them first, the icing went everywhere! Thanks Betty!
Hi Yoola,
Thank you! I am so happy you love the videos!! I guess I make a “stiffer” glaze so this technique with the back of a spoon works well for me. But go with the method that works best for you! :) I hope you’ll give the cookies and glaze a try and let me know how it goes.
i think i can try to make these cookies…
Hi jaquayla,
They are easy – I hope you give them a try :)
I prepared your sugar cookie recipe today and did my cutouts and the cutouts were super easy with your recipe. I’ve tried others and the dough is never quite right for cutouts. I have frozen my cutouts because i want my cookies to be fresh when i bake them and serve them three days from now. My question is are the baking instructions the same for frozen cutouts as they are for chilled cutouts. If not how would i go about baking them? Thank You!
Hi Amy, I’d preheat your oven and bake as you normally would! They should bake up just the same — let me know how it goes and Happy Holidays!
oo cute!! love the idea of the pink and blue and PLUS not only would you make these for a baby shower but you could do green and red for cimhstras, pink purple, yellow, green and blue for easter, red white and blue for 4th of july! Orange and chocolate for halloween! ooo the ideas…
Does the frosting dry? Looks like you can stack these? Or do they have to be stored in single layer? Thank you!
It does and you can stack them, just make sure the icing is dry. Hope this helps!
This is such a late reply but, i baked my frozen Christmas cookie cutouts as normal and they came out perfect! Tomorrow is valentines day and i am at it again. I absolutely love this recipe! Have a Happy Valentines Day!
i thought it was hard but it was fun and easy,,,my first try was quite successful…i love your cooking video…!! hope more recipes from you…goodluck
Thanks so much, Amy! Music to my ears :) Hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day too!!
Awesome to hear haidee! Thanks so much for letting me know :)
Hi! I was just wondering if these were soft or hard? Because I’m going to make unicorn poop cookies and i want them to be soft in the middle-ish. Like not hard or crunchy. Haha please reply ASAP!!! thank you!
Hi Jenifer,
“Substantial enough to hold their shape for decorative purposes, but soft enough to satisfy a real cookie craving!”
Good luck with the unicorn poop ;)
Dear AverageBetty,
If I want to freeze the dough for faster chilling, how long do I need to do if I do that?
Nvm I found the freezing time. Sorry for the mistake. :)
Can you pls tell me, how to convert your three quarter cup and half cup to grammes. Thank you.
Hi where can you buy vanilla extract?
Just about any grocery store, market or big box store — in the baking section.
These look absolutely delicious, and your genuine personality really comes through in the video. Do you think its possible for you to experiment a bit with Protein powder, maybe converting some of your favourite cakes over. At the moment i make allot of protien muffins but the reciepes are pretty samey!