Vanilla Butter Sugar Cookies

A batch of sugar cookie dough inspires all sorts of variations, from quick unadorned treats for school lunchboxes to painstakingly decorated cutouts displayed at a holiday party. These vanilla butter sugar cookies yield a tender full-flavored cookie thanks to a heavy dose of vanilla and real butter. They also use a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar, which creates a dough ideal for rolling into cutout cookies any time of year. Still, the dough is versatile enough to shape into balls or drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheets like some of our other best sugar cookie recipes. The best part? The batch is large enough that you don’t have to choose: Bake some of the dough as drop cookies to eat right away, and roll and cut out the rest for decorating.

Vanilla Butter Sugar Cookie Ingredients

• Butter: Butter is the ideal fat for cookies because it adds the best flavor. You’ll definitely taste it here, so use high quality butter. Avoid whipped, tub, soft, liquid or reduced-fat butter products, which contain air and water and will produce flat, tough cookies. Soften sticks of unsalted butter because this recipe adds salt separately.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar usually provides the sweetness in sugar cookies, and this recipe is no exception. Sugar helps make the cookies crisp and uniformly pale.
• Eggs: Bake these cookies with room-temperature eggs so that the dough comes together evenly. Eggs with darker yolks will give these cookies an attractive, slightly golden hue.
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla is the dominant flavor in this sugar cookie recipe, so use the best vanilla extract, not imitation or artificial flavoring, for stellar cookies. Alternatively, make vanilla extract at home. It’s an easy DIY project, but it takes at least six weeks of infusion time.
• All-purpose flour: When baking cookies, all-purpose flour has just the right amount of protein to give them shape and keep them light. It’s the workhorse of the culinary world, so you likely already have some in your kitchen.
• Leavening agents: Baking soda plus salt make these cookies mildly salty. Cream of tartar makes them a little tangy, but more importantly, its acidity interacts with the baking soda to make the cookies rise. If you’re out of cream of tartar, substitute 2 teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar.
• Frosting: A simple American buttercream frosting, made with confectioners’ sugar, butter, vanilla extract and milk, pairs sweetly with sugar cookies. The butterfat helps keep the mixture from becoming saccharine and makes the mixture thick enough to pipe. Use the plain frosting for a neutral look, or add coloring or other decorations for vibrant cookies.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the wet ingredients

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, five to seven minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Editor’s Tip: It takes longer than you might think to properly cream butter and sugar. Most electric mixers create the ideal consistency in five to seven minutes. By hand, you’ll need to keep stirring for about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Add the dry ingredients

In another bowl, whisk the flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Refrigerate the dough, covered, for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Roll out and cut the cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out cookies with floured 2-1/2-inch cookie cutters. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets, then refrigerate for an additional 15 minutes.

Editor’s Tip: Don’t discard the scraps. Gather them together, roll out the dough ball and cut out additional cookies until you’ve used all the dough. If the excess dough becomes overly sticky, refrigerate it again until workable.

Step 4: Bake

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Step 5: Mix the frosting

For the frosting, beat the confectioners’ sugar, butter and vanilla with enough milk to reach the desired consistency. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring.

Step 6: Prepare the piping bag

Cut a small hole in the tip of a pastry bag or in a corner of a food-safe storage bag. Transfer the frosting to the bag.

Editor’s Tip: A piping bag with a tip coupler, an array of tip patterns and a little practice let you create professional-looking designs on cutout cookies. If you don’t have a complete setup, frost cookies with a Ziploc bag and disguise any wobbles with colored sugar.

Step 7: Decorate the cookies

Pipe decorations onto the cookies. If desired, sprinkle with colored sugar or decorate with sugar pearls.

Vanilla Butter Sugar Cookie Variations

• Make them softer: Roll out the cookie dough a little thicker to create slightly softer cookies that remain crisp enough to decorate intricately. Pull them from the oven after 10 minutes because they will become firmer as they cool. For even softer cookies, follow our best tips for sugar cookies, such as adding an egg yolk and substituting brown sugar for some of the granulated sugar.
• Build sandwiches: Instead of using a piping bag, cut each cookie shape in pairs to create sandwich cookies. Your homemade frosting choices for fillings expand from American buttercream to cream cheese and ganache frostings. Alternatively, sandwich jam between the cookies and drizzle them with a quick confectioners’ sugar glaze.
• Change the shape: Simply drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheets, or use a cookie scoop or spoon to shape the dough into balls. Bake the balls as round cookies, or make an indent in the center of each and fill it with jam for thumbprint cookies. For spritz cookies, load the dough into a cookie press.

How to Store Vanilla Butter Sugar Cookies

Vanilla butter sugar cookies last the longest if you store cookies unfrosted. Let them cool completely, and then pack them in an airtight container, alternating the cookie layers with parchment or waxed paper. Store them in a cool, dry place, such as the back of a pantry, until you’re ready to frost them. Once you frost the cookies, let them air-dry until the frosting firms up enough that it won’t smear. Pack the cookies into containers in a single layer. Or, if lightly frosted, layer them with waxed paper.

How long do vanilla butter sugar cookies last?

Frosted vanilla butter sugar cookies taste best when stored in a well-sealed container for up to three days. Unfrosted, they last at room temperature for up to three weeks.

Can you freeze vanilla butter sugar cookies?

You can freeze vanilla butter sugar cookies—just don’t decorate them yet. Freeze the plain cookies, layered with waxed paper, in freezer-safe containers for up to 12 months. Let them thaw completely before decorating. Alternatively, freeze the cookie dough, shaped into a flat disk and wrapped tightly, for three to six months. Thoroughly chill the dough in the refrigerator before freezing it, and let it thaw completely in the fridge before rolling it out and baking the cookies.

Vanilla Butter Sugar Cookie Tips

What if the dough is too sticky?

Flour volume affects cookie dough stickiness. You don’t need to sift the flour for vanilla butter sugar cookies; doing so will actually create stickier dough. Instead, to ensure you’re using the amount called for in the recipe, measure flour correctly: Fluff it up, spoon it into the measuring cup and then level it off.

Once the dough is mixed, it might take more or less than 30 minutes to cool down, depending on your kitchen’s temperature. To check, pinch off a piece of dough. If the sample piece is still sticky to the touch or when you roll it out, refrigerate the dough a little longer. If it still sticks to a lightly floured rolling surface and rolling pin, roll it out between sheets of parchment or silicone baking mats.

How can you tell when these sugar cookies are done baking?

Vanilla butter sugar cookies are done baking when they have set enough that the edges are just beginning to brown and you can slide a spatula under them—without tearing the cookies—to remove them from the baking sheet. The cookies will become firmer as they cool. Be careful not to overbake, which will yield cookies that are hard and overly crispy.

How do you avoid cookies spreading while baking?

Bake cookies on ungreased baking sheets or parchment paper, rather than on greased surfaces or silicone mats, to prevent spreading. This recipe also chills the cookies twice—once after mixing and again on their baking sheets—to keep the cookies from spreading while baking. You can extend the chilling time if you’re working in a hot kitchen, but avoid leaving the dough in the refrigerator for too long. These cookies get their rising power from baking soda and acidic cream of tartar, which begin to work upon contact with the wet ingredients and then peak quickly. If you make the dough in advance, bake the cookies within two days for the best results.