Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe (with Video) - Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

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Hi Bold Bakers!

When the holidays roll around, there are certain recipes you need in your back pocket. You know, those recipes you can whip up in a flash and that are fan favorites. My Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe is exactly that. Holiday Cookies are so much fun to bake because they are great for little hands to make and decorate, and you can even give them out as holiday gifts.

Whether you’re decorating cookies for Santa, or just to have with a cup of hot chocolate, these cookies are always my go-to.I break out my holiday cookie cutters and go to town making festive shapes. Then I store them away in an airtight container and I have them to hand when guests drop by.

How To Make My Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe

Holiday baking is the kind of baking that gets the whole family involved. So, it’s time to get the kids in the kitchen too, as it’s just a handful of simple ingredients combined in the food processor. After making the dough from my Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe, what you’re left with is a play-dough-like cookie dough perfect for rolling out and cutting into fun shapes.

I love classic holiday shapes, but you can use any you like! What makes these my Best Ever Sugar Cookies is that they are truly foolproof to make and decorate. The sugar cookie dough consistently comes out perfect every time and is always so easy to use, never too soft or too hard to work with like the store bought stuff can be.

[ If you want to decorate these cookies to the nines, you need my recipe for royal icing! ]

Do You Have To Make Sugar Cookies In The Food Processor?

If you don’t have a food processor, you can absolutely make these by hand in a large bowl. The reason I use a food processor is because it allows me to bring together the dough in minutes flat.

The most important part, whether you’re using a food processor or making the cookies by hand, is making sure that the butter is properly rubbed into the dry ingredients. By doing this and creating the texture of bread crumbs, you ensure the dough has lots of pockets of butter throughout — which makes for a rich and tender cookie.

Can You Substitute the Sugar for Another Sweetener?

If you would like to make my Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe sans the sugar, then you are in luck. The sugar in this recipe can be swapped 1:1 for either Swerve sugar alternative or Lakanto granulated sugar. You can also use a 50/50 sugar and Stevia blend. I really like the results I get with regular granulated sugar, but these alternatives to yield a very similar texture and flavor, which is great for those who are wanting to bake with less sugar.

How To Decorate Sugar Cookies

After cutting the cookies into adorable shapes and baking them, you do not have to decorate them. However, if you want to add to the cookies, I suggest accenting the shape of the cookies with my royal icing. In addition to the royal icing you can add sprinkles and little metallic nonpareils. These cookies are the perfect base to make 3 Easy Christmas Cookies to Bake and Decorate With Kids!

Do You Prefer Chewy Or Soft Over Crunchy?

My Best Ever Sugar Cookies recipe results in cookies with a slight crunch! If you’d rather have more of a chew, I have you covered: try my Perfect Chewy Sugar Cookie Recipe. If you rather your sugar cookies soft, give my Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe a go!

Also, have you seen my Holiday Baking Headquarters page? You’ll find every recipe you could possibly need for the holidays including Christmas Cookies, edible gifts, and my best holiday baking tips!

If you like these sugar cookies you’ll love these recipes!

• The Easiest Soft Sugar Cookies
• 3 Ingredient Shortbread Cookies
• Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
• Snowball Cookies
• Homemade Gingerbread Men

Follow Bigger Bolder Baking on Pinterestfor more recipes and ideas!

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Instructions

Recipe Notes