Hey, friend. What’s your perfect sugar cookie? Is it a cut-out sugar cookie, a little crunchy, a tiny bit chewy, one that you can spend an hour decorating and thirty seconds eating? Then you’ll probably like these Small-batch Cut-out Sugar Cookies. Is it fluffy, soft, and absolutely smothered with buttercream and sprinkles? Sounds like you should try these Small-batch Frosted Sugar Cookies. But if your perfect sugar cookie is simple and buttery with slightly crisp edges and chewy centers, stay right here. I have the cookie you’re looking for.
These cute (not-so)-little Small-batch Sugar Cookies I’m sharing today are my perfect sugar cookie, and you’re going to LOVE them. They’re superb plain or dusted with powdered sugar. They’re fabulous rolled in crunchy sugar or sprinkles before baking. And they’re amazing drizzled with a powdered sugar glaze. (I’ve included instructions for all three ways in the recipe, so you can make the cookie your heart desires.) And best of all, they’re small-batch, no-chill, and easy peasy to make so any time you’re craving a sugar cookie, this recipe has your back.
How to Make Soft and Chewy Small-batch Sugar Cookies
Like my Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies, this is another one-bowl cookie recipe that comes together fast and easy. You start with butter, melted if you’re in a hurry, softened if you remember to plan ahead (we’ll talk more about butter in a moment), and whisk it together with sugar. Add an egg yolk and vanilla or almond extract (my favorite). And stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. That’s it. Then you can use a cookie scoop to transfer the dough to a baking sheet or scoop into balls and roll in sugar or sprinkles. Give them a little press so they spread nicely while baking and cook for 9 to 12 minutes. Finally, add quick glaze or enjoy them as soon as your cookies are cool enough to eat. It’s up to you.
Your Perfect Sugar Cookie
Okay, so that was how to make my perfect sugar cookie, but I want you to make your perfect sugar cookie. And creating that cookie is really easy to do with this recipe. It’s very flexible, and by slightly changing the way you treat your ingredients and dough, you can get drastically different sugar cookie results. If you like a cookie that’s fluffier/crunchier/softer/chewier, than my base model, one of these changes might be for you. The Perfect Base Cookie: Softened Butter + Flattened Before Baking This is the cookie you see in the photos. Creaming butter and sugar together before adding the rest of the ingredients beats air into the dough so the cookies come out a little lighter and softer than cookies made with melted butter. Flattening before baking means that they really spread in the oven so you get nice big cookies with crispy edges while the centers stay soft and chewy. Puffier, Soft and Chewy Cookies: Softened Butter + Not Flattened Before Baking These cookies come out slightly domed, with wrinkled tops, a soft, chewy texture, and very little crunchiness (unless overbaked). Denser, Chewiest Cookie: Melted Butter If you like a very chewy cookie, this is the method you want to use. However, using melted butter makes a wetter, slightly greasy dough, that is a little more difficult to work with. If coating with sprinkles or sugar, I recommend scooping the dough into your bowl of sprinkles and coating before rolling into a ball. It will make the dough easier to work with. Soft Cookie, Underbaked Center: Not Flattened + Cooled Off Tray When left on a hot tray after baking, cookies will continue to cook, so if you’re one of those people who like a slightly under-baked cookie (you know who you are), don’t flatten your cookies before baking and remove them from the tray after just a minute or two out of the oven so they stop cooking and stay soft and underdone. Crispy Crunchy Sugar Cookie: Flattened + Baked Max Time + Cooled on Tray On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you like a cookie that’s crunchy nearly all the way through, cook your cookies closer to the max time (or over if necessary), until the edges are turning gold, and allow them to cool on the hot baking sheet so they keep getting crunchier even as they cool.
Small-batch Sugar Cookies Recipe Notes
Correct flour measurement is very important in this recipe. Too much flour can result in cakey cookies, cookies that don’t spread, or dough that doesn’t come together. I recommend measuring your ingredients by weight (kitchen scales are inexpensive and worth their weight in gold) or using the scoop and sweep method for measuring (stir you flour to fluff it up, scoop it into your measuring cup, and sweep off the excess with the flat of a knife. These are the rainbow sprinkles I used in this recipe (I LOVE them), but I’ve also tested these cookies with Jimmies and Nonpareils, and they both work great too. If you’d like to add a frosting instead of glaze to the cookies, try this Small-batch Vanilla Frosting, Chocolate Buttercream or any of my other small-batch frostings on the site. Looking for more small-batch desserts? Try these Small-batch Peanut Butter Cookies, Small-batch Shortbread, and Small-batch Vanilla Cupcakes.
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