By ShowMeStepByStepPublished
Based on a video by Little Cookie Co.
Most sugar cookie disappointment is the same disappointment: you cut a perfect snowflake, it goes into the oven, and it comes out as a circle. This dough is built to stop that happening.
Three things do the work. Enough flour that the dough feels firm rather than soft. A full teaspoon of baking powder, which pushes the cookie up instead of out. And a short chill on the tray before baking, so the butter has further to go before it melts.
Plenty of cut-out recipes use only white sugar or powdered sugar. Brown sugar caramelises in the oven and gives the cookie an actual flavour rather than just sweetness. It also means you want to bake these until the edges go golden - pulling them out pale wastes the thing that makes them good.
The flour quantity is not fixed. Altitude, humidity and how warm your butter was all move it. The test is tactile: squish the dough between your hands, and if it gives easily it needs more flour. This is the one part of the recipe you cannot do by numbers alone.
These are built as a base for royal icing, which sets hard and holds detail. Bake them, cool them completely, and ice them the next day if you can - a fully cooled, slightly dried surface takes icing far better than a warm one.
12 steps · about 15 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Set out measuring cups, a spatula and a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. A hand mixer works too, but swap to a dough hook once the flour goes in.
Tip
A hand mixer is fine for the creaming, but swap to a dough hook once the flour goes in - this dough gets stiff enough to strain a small motor.
Drop room-temperature butter into the bowl with both the brown and the white sugar. The brown sugar caramelizes in the oven and carries most of the flavor.
Tip
If your butter is not quite at room temperature, chop it small first. Cold lumps never fully cream.
Cream the butter and sugar on medium-low for a couple of minutes until the crumbly texture smooths out and the color lightens. Scrape the bowl as you go.
Tip
Start slow so nothing flies out, then bring it up to medium-low. Scrape the bottom of the bowl - these bowls are deep and sugar hides down there.
Add the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla and a little butter emulsion, mixing between each. The emulsion holds its flavor through baking where extract fades.
Tip
One egg at a time, mixing between. Butter emulsion is optional but it survives the oven where extract fades - craft and cake shops carry it.
Whisk the salt and a full teaspoon of baking powder through the measured flour. Baking powder makes the cookies rise taller rather than spread wider.
Tip
A full teaspoon of baking powder is more than most recipes call for. It makes the cookie taller, not wider, so it works with the no-spread goal rather than against it.
Add the flour mixture a bit at a time, pausing 10 to 15 seconds between additions so the dough can rehydrate instead of throwing flour everywhere.
Tip
Pause ten to fifteen seconds between additions. The dough rehydrates and you avoid a flour cloud.
Keep adding flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and feels firm when you squish it. Too little flour is what causes spread.
Tip
Squish a handful. Easy give means it needs more flour. Too little flour is the single most common cause of spread.
Press the dough flat between two long sheets of parchment, then roll it out to an even thickness. Run your hand over the top to find thick spots.
Tip
Use long sheets and let one end hang over the counter so you can pin it with your body. Rolling pin guides or a pair of paint stirrers keep the thickness even.
Push the cutter straight down and wiggle it slightly to release the sides. Dip it in flour first if the dough sticks.
Tip
Push straight down and wiggle slightly to release the sides. If the cutter drags, dip it in flour or cornstarch.
Peel away the scrap dough, then slide a hand under the parchment and lift each cutout onto the tray so you do not dent the edges.
Tip
Slide a hand under the parchment and lift from below rather than pinching the edges. Fingerprints in raw dough bake in permanently.
Chill the loaded tray for 10 to 15 minutes. Firmer butter takes longer to melt, which is the last defence against spread.
Tip
Ten to fifteen minutes is enough - roughly the time it takes to roll the next batch. Firm butter takes longer to melt, which is your last defence against spread.
Bake until the edges turn golden brown. Pulling them out pale leaves the brown sugar flavor underdeveloped.
Tip
Golden edges are the point, not a mistake. That is the brown sugar caramelising. A cookie pulled out pale tastes underbaked.
Keep going
Green Bean Casserole
How to Make Sugar Cookies
How to Make Sugar Cookies
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