Basic Sugar Cookie 101

Here is a perfect Sugar Cookie recipe when you need your cookies to stay put when baking instead of expanding. It is the perfect recipe for cookies with cut-outs like linzers or pressed designs like when using shortbread molds. I also like it because it takes less than 5 minutes to make. Yep, 5 minutes. Can’t beat that.

Here is how to make it:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add one egg and mix until combined.

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

 Add the flour.

Mix on low speed until the dough comes together.

 

Done, yay! Easy, right? Now on to rolling out your dough. I like rolling out the dough between 2 pieces of plastic film BEFORE refrigerating it. With most recipes, you have to refrigerate the dough as a disk first and then roll it out. The problem with that method is that when rolling out the dough, you have to flour your surface, adding flour to the cookies. Then when you put dough scrapes together to roll those out, you add more flour, and so on. The problem is that more flour = tougher cookies. The other benefit of the plastic wrap method is that you don’t have to clean your counter when you’re done. Anywho…

Place one piece of plastic wrap on the counter. Form your dough into a ball and place it in the center of your plastic wrap. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap.

Roll out your dough to 1/4 or 1/8″ depending on the size of your cutters and how thick you like your cookies. The thinner the cookie, the crispier it will be.

Place the dough on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Cut out your shapes and place them on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Now here is how to re-use scraps. First place all scraps together in plastic wrap:

Press it together like Play-Dough to form a disk:

Place the disk between 2 new pieces of plastic wrap:

And roll it out:

 Now place the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and repeat with the next scraps, and so on and so on…

It’s worth the effort. Less wasted dough = More cookies!

Bake your cookies at 350ºF until the edges turn golden.