How to Make Perfect Sugar Cookies

I like to use a hand mixer for thisrecipe but you can use a stand mixerfitted with a paddle attachment if youwant to in a large bowl we’re gonnastart by adding the butter I have twoand a half sticks of butter here and I’musing a salted but you can certainly useunsalted now in order for this recipe tocome out perfect the butter really needsto be the correct level of softness andI’ll show you how to test for that nowusing your finger press it into thebutterif you struggle at all then you knowit’s still too hard I let this buttersit out on the counter for about an hourand it’s still not right so I popped abowl into the microwave for literallyjust a few seconds and now you can seemy finger easily glides to the butternote there’s no liquid in the bottom ofthe bowl so the butter is not meltedjust soft[Music]next we’re going to measure our sugartake the backflow butter-knife and leveloff the cup of sugar that way you havethe perfect amount[Music]now we’re going to use the hand mixer toblend the sugar and the butter togetherand you’re gonna want to graduallyincrease the speed and power of themixer as it combinesand you want to make sure that thebutter and sugar become very very lightand fluffy that’s the texture you’relooking formake sure every once in a while you usea rubber spatula to scrape down thesides and the bottom of a bowl you don’twant any pockets of unmixed ingredientsin your doughas you can see the texture of this myspatula has an easy time guiding throughthe mixture it doesn’t fall off thespatula so it’s not too soft that’s thetexture that you’re looking for nextwe’re gonna add eggs I just have twolarge eggs here and I always crack themin a separate bowl not right into thelarge bowl that way you can dig out anyshells if you need to then we’re gonnamix that until light and fluffy as well[Music]and make sure you scrape the sides inthe bottom of the bowl again the key tomakingany recipe for baking you really want tomake sure all your ingredients are mixedthoroughly so it takes a few extraminutes to scrape and remix but yourbaked goods will definitely come outbetter if you do[Music]next we’re gonna add vanilla extract[Music]and we’re gonna mix again[Music]next we’re going to start with our dryingredients and whether you’re scoopingflour right out of the bag or out ofyour own container the first thingyou’re going to want to do is go in witha large spoon and fluff up the flourflour will gradually settle over time soyou want to make sure that it’sperfectly aerated so that you don’tthrow off the ratios and for your recipeif you scoop in packed flourand the best way to measure out flour isby scooping it into your measuring cupand leveling it off from there[Music]so once your measuring cup is about fullyou’re gonna take the back of a butterknife and fill in any gaps by moving thepushing the flour back and forth andthen you’re gonna level it offcompletely and now you have perfectlymeasured flour[Music][Music]to the flower we’re going to add therest of our dry ingredients so we’regoing to start with baking powderand I love these little containers ofbaking powder because they have abuilt-in love ler right right and againwhich makes it super easy[Music]next we’re gonna add salt and I like touse a finer-grained sea salt and alwaysmeasure it off to the side never measuresalt above the bowl now we’re going towhisk it together you want to whisk forabout a good minute and make sure thatall of your dry ingredients arethoroughly mixednow we’re ready to add the dryingredients into the wet ingredients Ilike to start by adding about half ofthe dry mixture first and then goingfrom there otherwise it might be liketoo hard to mix in all the flour andright now I have the mixer set on thelowest speed setting and I’m justgradually incorporating all the flourmixture into the wet mixture and youjust want to take it easy take it slowyou don’t need to rush this part youdon’t need to go in and fast speed youdon’t want to risk overworking the doughthese are very soft and tender cookies[Music]so as the dough begins to form likelarge crumbles you can stop using thehand mixer and you can start working thedough together with your hands and youdon’t want to knead the dough you justwant to kind of bring it together into alarge ball so as you can see the dos notsticking to my hands it’s not too wetit’s it’s just a really nice texture andas I pull it apart here you can see itjust kind of you know it holds togethervery very well but it’s not overly wetor dry and crumbly so just gently workit into a ball until it’s smooth andthen then you’ll be ready to go andstart rolling it out so here I have alarge cutting board underneath that is apiece of paper towel to stop it frommoving I have flour and a rolling pinobviously to roll out the cookies andthen I have a smaller offset spatula tolift the cookies out of the dough it’s ahandy tool to have and then nearby Ihave a baking sheet lined with parchmentpaper so that way I can easily transferthe cookies right onto the sheet and ofcourse I have cookie cuttersso first things first we’re gonna startby flowering our surface so be a littlegenerous because you don’t want thedough to stick at all to the surfacewe’re gonna take their portion of thedough again this this dough wasn’tchilled I use it right out of the bowlthat we just mixed and I like to flattendown the surface and then spread moreflour flip the dough always alternatingthe surfaces every time you flour thatway both sides of the dough are alwaysfloured consistentlythen we’re gonna flower our pin andstart rolling and I like to move thedough just ensuring that it doesn’tstick and then the key to rolling evendough I find is I go from alternatedirections as you can see my hands kindof keep moving here that just helps mekeep it very even and you want it ensurethat you keep flouring your rolling pinso it doesn’t stick and then every oncein a while I’ll just feel the surface tofind any like high points or low pointsand right now it feels about good itfeels pretty even and I’ll show you howthick I rolled these out the doughshould be about a quarter of an inchthick and that produces a really nicethick cookienext I’ll use my cookie cutter um I findthat I don’t need to flower my cookiecutters I usually can just press it inthe dough since there’s a thin layer offlour on the dough already and it comesout perfectExce you’re gonna lift the cookies verygently out of the dough it is a littleon the softer side so just be gentle andtake your time[Music]now once all your cookies are pulled outyou can reball that same dough and useit again I wouldn’t recommend youreusing the dough more than three timesover because the dough will start to getdry and very unpleasant so sorry for thebad quality here is late at night but Ijust want to show you these cookies justcame out of the oven they’re veryslightly golden brown on the edges andthey held their shape perfectly umm theycome out great every time here they aredecorated with royal icing you can findthat recipe on my blog as well and thisrecipe has just always been consistentfor me I love it it tastes so good thecookies are soft but they hold theirshape well and they’re so great fordecorating as you can see I’ve decoratedall kinds of things here and it’s it’smy go-to sugar cookie recipe I hope youlove it just as much as I do