Sugar Cookies

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hrs
  • Servings: 16
  • About This Recipe

    “Delicious treat for all ages.A good dough for cutting into shapes.”

    Ingredients

  • 4cupssifted all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoonsalt
  • 1teaspoonbaking powder
  • 1cupunsalted butter
  • 2cupssugar
  • 2largeeggs
  • 2teaspoons pure vanilla extract or 2teaspoonsfresh lemon juice
  • 2lemons, zest of
  • Directions

  • In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.
  • Set aside.
  • Use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
  • Beat in eggs.
  • Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until thoroughly combined.
  • Stir in vanilla or lemon juice and zest.
  • Wrap dough in plastic; chill for about 30 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • On a floured surface, roll dough to 0.125 inch thick.
  • Cut into desired shapes.
  • Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes.
  • Bake until edges just start to brown, 8-10 minutes .
  • Cool on wire racks; decorate as desired.
  • Reviews

  • “This recipe first caught my frugal eye because it uses less butter than most–only 1/4 by volume in proportion to the flour.I also noticed that three people had posted this recipe–the primary difference being the flavor–vanilla, almond, or lemon–(see #76294 and #81367).I knew there had to be something special about these cookies!I added the last cup of flour as needed, because because the other posters only called for 3 3/4 c, and I’m at high altitude here. I also used both the vanilla and lemon to increase moisture–again because of the altitude (and of course the great flavor!) Delightful results!I used them to make Christmas paintbrush cookies with my kids (see recipe #1670859).”

  • “These are the worst cookies ever!!! 4 cups of flour?!? Who uses that much flour for good cookies! They we’re all hard the next day the whole batch and everything I put into it was ruined DO NOT TRY THIS!!!”

  • “I used my cookie scoopto get the perfect amount for drop cookies.They turned out perfect.They are chewy and so good.This was very easy to put together and didn’t take up much time – my type of recipe.I will be saving this recipe for future use.Thanks.”

  • “These cookies were perfect to roll and cut into shapes once I added a bit more flour (they were very sticky initially). They also tasted delicious and everyone loved them. My one little complaint is they become extremely hard very quickly. If I was not serving these within the next couple of hours I’d freeze them and any extra leftover. I had the same result whether they were underbaked or not plus or minus some time.”

  • “These sugar cookies are delicious. I used only the vanilla instead of the lemon juice and zest. Yum Yum!”

  • “I love sugar cookies with fiends.”

  • “Used this recipe to make ‘standing’ cookies for Christmas.The texture was perfect for what we needed as we needed them to be hard enough to stand them up.We liked the taste better the second day.Thanks for posting!”

  • “I made two recipes for decorating, one lemon and the other vanilla. They turned out great! Thanks for posting.Rachel Castle”

  • “Very yummy! Did get a little hard after cooling on pan for a while. Not sure if it was because we overbaked them..? Who knows, but overall, yum!”

  • “LOVED these cookies….however, the dough did fall apart pretty easy when transferring the cut cookies to the cookie sheet. You’ve got to have a wide enough spatula!”

  • “I made this recipe to make football shaped cookies for the Bears playoff game and they came out AMAZING! I usually make my grandmother’s recipe but I couldnt’ find it so I was whishing and hoping this was going to be really good. I did two different batches one with vanilla and one with lemon. The ones with the lemon were a lot softer in the middle and kind of hard to frost but still very very delicious!! I’ll definatly make these again… Sorry Grandma”

  • “I made these cookies for a halloween party we were going to. I used 1/2 cup of salted butter and 1/2 cup of shortening, 2 tsps of vanilla and 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice. The dough was good for cutting but after 12 cut outs it became too much..for even the kids. I ended up rolling balls and making: pb cup, nestles crunch, butterfinger thumb prints. When I got sick of the chocolate, I made strawberry jam and rhubarb strawberry thumbprints. Then I cut up some apple, added some cinnamon and sugar. I ended up with awesome cookies!!.I did not re-refrigerate the thumb prints. They were easy to make and tasted awesome. (the apple pie cookies were the best)”

  • “I have made this recipe several time it is just great, I find it easier (in our Australian summer heat) to pre roll the dough between 2 sheets of cling wrap then refrigerate before cutting out the shapes, you don’t need to re-refrigerate the cut pieces before baking either. You can get really thin crispy cookies this way too.Our Playgroup made a heap for our annual funday, the kids decorated them with the icing then baged them for mothers day gifts. They were a great hit, I am unsure if any of them lasted till mother’s day though!! “

  • “Excellent cookies, my family loved them,Thank you for posting, I will be making these again.”

  • “The adults and children loved this recipe. The cookie were so soft after they were baked we weren’t sure we baked them long enough. They were delicious without the icing.”

  • “Great recipe for sugar cookies! The dough was easy to roll out and handle and they tasted good. There is no temp. for the oven, so I baked them at 350 and it turned out fine. I noticed that I liked the cookies better if they were rolled out a little thicker, because they were a little softer to eat. I’ll be using this recipe again, thanks!”

  • “I have made many different sugar cookies before, but have never been really pleased with the texture of the cookie. But THESE were absolutely the best ever!! I hope I never misplace the recipe. The lemon juice and lemon zest option is delightful. Thank you Julesong for sharing that hint about chilling the cut out cookies briefly prior to baking. They are so crunchy and irresistable! I didn’t have the full amount of butter, so I added shortening to supplement.”

  • “I tried to make this recipe by halving the ingredients and the ‘dough’ just wouldn’t come together. I had to double the amount of butter in order for my mess of what looked like crumbs used to make a crust for a bar into cookie dough. Not enough butter for the amount of flour. IMHO”

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