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No Spread Sugar Cookies

This simple no-spread sugar cookie recipe is perfect for cutout sugar cookies. Not too sweet, perfectly soft, and chewy. Decorate them with royal icing or enjoy them as is for any holiday or cookie baking occasion!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoon corn starch
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C.
  • In a stand mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until JUST combined.
  • Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Then mix in the egg and vanilla. Scrape down the bowl again.
  • Mix in the flour, baking powder, corn starch, and salt until just combined and there are no more dry flour streaks.
  • Divide the dough in half. Place one half on a piece of parchment paper.
  • Press the dough down into a flat disk and place another sheet of parchment paper on top. Roll the dough to ⅛ inch thickness for thin cookies or ¼ inch thickness for thicker cookies.
  • Transfer the slab of dough still between the sheets of parchment on a baking tray and chill it in the freezer while you roll out the other half of dough in the same way.
  • Chill both trays of dough for 5-10 minutes or until it feels firm.
  • Then remove the top sheet of parchment paper. Cut out cookies with your desired cookie cutter. Place the cut cookies back on the baking tray. You can rework the dough 1-2 times but no more than that or they will shrink from being worked too much.
  • Freeze each tray of cut cookies until completely frozen solid, about 15-25 minutes.
  • Bake one tray at at time for 10-13 minutes depending on the size and thickness. They are done baking when the tops look matte, dry, and slightly wrinkled. Do not let the edges brown or they will be more crisp.
  • Allow the tray to cool completely on a wire rack before removing and decorating.

Notes

Step-by-step process photos are provided above, in the body of this post.
recipe notes
  • Use a kitchen scale. Baking with a scale is much more accurate than cup measurements. To convert this recipe, click the "metric" button next to the ingredients title on the recipe card.
  • Use room temperature butter. The butter needs to be firm but still soft. Leaving the butter out longer than a few hours will result in too soft butter that will make your cookies spread.
  • Use a high-quality vanilla extract or paste. The high-quality vanilla makes a huge flavor difference since there are so few ingredients in this recipe.
  • Do not over-cream the butter and sugar. You are looking just to combine the ingredients. Creaming the butter and sugar past the point of being just combined will make them spread in the oven!
storage & freezing
  • Fridge: Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for 2-3 days. Let it come to room temperature before rolling out!
  • Freezer: To freeze the unrolled dough, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and freeze for 2-3 weeks. To freeze the rolled and cut-out cookies, let them freeze solid then transfer them to an airtight container with parchment in between layers for 2-3 weeks.
  • Room temperature: Store the baked cookies in a zip lock bag or airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days.
  • Make-ahead: You can pre-make the dough and keep it in the fridge, or you can store the cutout cookies in the freezer and pull them when you want to bake some!