Perfect For Any Occasion

While this is the perfect sugar cookie recipe for your holiday cookie swap or for Santa's snack on Christmas Eve, they can be customized for any special occasion. The best part about these cookies is you can frost them or cut them into shapes for any celebration. They're perfect for Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, and bridal or baby showers. The frosted possibilities are endless!

Baking Tips

Start with slightly chilled butter. If your butter is too soft, you'll have to refrigerate the dough for longer. It will only take a few seconds to soften it in the mixer.

Weigh your dry ingredients. If you have a scale, now's a good time to use it. Weighing flour is more accurate than using measuring cups because there may be more or less air than you need taking up space in measuring cups. If you use too much flour in the dough, your cookies may end up too dry or crispy, when they should come out soft. If you can sift your flour, even better!

Don't overmix the cookie dough. When you stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, bring them together until just combined. You should still see some flour in your mixing bowl. Overmixing adds aeration which means your cookies will rise and then fall.

Make a thick dough. Make sure that your dough is thick when you roll it out. These cookies should be puffy. If the dough is too thin, they may burn.

Watch the baking time. Be sure to watch your cookies in the last few minutes and bake until the edges are just browned. At this point, they're done (if they start to brown on top they're overcooked).

Hold the frosting. Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting. Otherwise, you'll risk melting the frosting and it won't stay put on the cookie.

Variations

Want to customize your sugar cookie recipe? Try one of these fun options:

Frosting: Use a variety of colors or stick to a theme, depending on the occasion.

Sprinkles (an optional — but highly recommended — step): Is there anything more joyful than rainbow sprinkles? Maybe heart sprinkles for Valentine's Day or pumpkins for Halloween!

Shapes: Use a cookie cutter to create fun shapes and different sizes.

Go gluten-free: Feel free to swap the all-purpose flour for gluten-free flour with a 1:1 ratio to make these cookies gluten-free.