Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe

Sugar cookies are a special treat every holiday season. Using holiday shaped cookie cutters make rolled cookies especially fun for children who love to decorate their favorite shaped cookie. Follow the step-by-step sugar cookie recipe below for hours of fun with children of all ages.

There are many variations to sugar cookie recipes. Some recipes call for rolling the dough and others are drop recipes using a glass to press down on the dough to flatten. Some cookies are decorated before baking and others after the baking is finished. However you choose to bake your sugar cookies, the decorating ideas are endless.

Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe

We use this recipe at our house. Although the recipe calls for shortening, you can use butter or a combination of both. Also included are a couple of variations to the basic recipe. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Combine the shortening, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well mixed. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix together.

For rolled cookies, it is best to chill for 2-3 hours, or proceed with the baking for drop cookies. You can drop the dough onto the baking sheet by the teaspoonful and flatten with a glass that has been greased and dipped in sugar or flour.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface, about 1/8 inch thick, or more if desired. When rolling out the dough, you can rub flour on the rolling pin, or place wax paper on the dough and roll to prevent sticking.

Use holiday shaped cookie cutters such as Santa, bells, stars, trees, reindeer, or wreaths. There are many shapes and sizes available at grocery or department stores.

Place the cutout cookie dough on an ungreased baking sheet. You can lightly sprinkle with sugar at this time, or wait to decorate with icing or other decorations after the cookies are baked. Bake 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Flavorful variations

For a variety of flavors, you can substitute lemon, almond, peppermint, or any other flavoring for the vanilla. You may want to use a little less flavoring if other than vanilla. For instance, ½ teaspoon of lemon when the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

You can vary the flavor depending on what shape cookie cutter you use. For example, you can use lemon for star shaped and peppermint for candy cane shaped cookies. Mint would go well with wreath shapes.