Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe (with Video) - Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

FAQs

What makes a cookie thicker? ›

A low proportion of sugar relative to flour reduces spread, keeping the cookies thick. A high proportion of mix-ins helps thicken the dough. Blending chocolate chip styles creates a more dynamic flavor. Overnight refrigeration hydrates the flour, again helping the cookies stay thick.

Baking soda

When added to dough, baking soda releases a carbon dioxide gas which helps leaven the dough, creating a soft, fluffy cookie. Baking soda is generally used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, sour cream or citrus.

Start by outlining the cookie with piping-consistency icing in any color you choose. Then, use flooding-consistency icing to fill the outlined area, starting by flooding around the edges and working your way towards the center. If the flooding is inconsistent in thickness, redistribute the wet icing with a toothpick.

All-Purpose Flour: The Versatile Choice

If you're looking for a safe bet or are new to cookie baking, all-purpose flour is your go-to option.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

Flattening the cookie dough provides more surface area that comes into contact with the ice bath, shortening the time it takes to chill. Then submerge the dough in the ice water and let it chill. After 20 minutes the dough will be completely chilled and ready for baking.

In that role, white sugar aerates the dough when creamed with butter for thick and puffy cookies. Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more.

What happens if you forget to add brown sugar to cookies? ›

What happens when you bake without brown sugar? To be succinct, the resulting baked good could be slightly drier or more crisp. Without the excess moisture from the molasses in the brown sugar, the final cookie won't be as chewy and the final bread might be drier.

While overcooked sugar cookies are certainly still palatable, they'll be hard and crunchy, instead of soft and chewy.

Take plain sugar cookies up a notch with exciting mix-ins like chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, toasted chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit or M&M's. Add these after blending your butter and egg into the sugar cookie mix.

My favorite way to decorate sugar cookies—especially for holidays and special occasions—is by using royal icing. The secret to getting precise lines, dots, and other details with royal icing is using a squeeze bottle.

The size of your cookie, the temperature of the dough when it goes into the oven and the type of fat you use will all affect the texture of the final cookie. Butter will tend to spread and make a thinner cookie, while shortening spreads less.

Reduce the sugar in your dough recipe—sometimes cutting out as little as 50 grams (¼ cup) of sugar from a cookie dough will reduce the spread and lead to thicker cookies. Increase the flour in your recipe—sometimes just 30–60 grams (¼–½ cup) more of flour can improve the texture of your cookies.

Incorporate more flour.

The simplest and most advisable way to thicken cookie dough is to add a couple tablespoons of cake flour to a runny cookie dough. Mix it gently to prevent overmixing, which will result in a tough cookie dough.

If you use too much butter, the cookies will end up flat and greasy. And if you use too little flour, the amount of butter and sugar will be proportionally too high, meaning the cookies will spread for the aforementioned reasons.