My Favourite Sugar Cookie Recipe

When I ran my novelty cake business in London, I made thousands of sugar cookies for birthday parties, corporate events, and holidays.

Here are some tips I found helpful for making cookies in large quantities:

1. Roll the Dough Between Parchment Paper: As soon as the dough is made, I roll it out between two sheets of parchment and then chill it. This saves time compared to chilling the dough first and then trying to roll it out.
2. Cut Cookies at the Right Temperature: Cut the dough when it's firm but not overly cold. Cutting through hard dough can strain your hands, which isn’t ideal when you're working through hundreds of cookies!
3. Make and Freeze: For big orders, I’d often prep all the cookies in advance and freeze them unbaked. It’s a huge time-saver!
4. Flavour the Dough: Depending on the season, I’d add citrus zest or spices to the dough for a subtle twist.
5. Decorate with Fondant or Royal Icing: I found that using a pasta machine to roll out fondant saved a lot of time and helped achieve a consistent thickness.

My Favourite Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients
360g / 3 cups plain flour / AP Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp flaky sea salt (like Maldon Salt)
226g / 2 sticks butter, room temperature
200g / 1 cup granulated sugar (you can use caster sugar too / super fine sugar)
1 egg (50g) Europe Medium Size / USA Large Size Egg
2 tsp good quality vanilla extract / or 1 tbsp lemon / or orange zest / or 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon or cardamom

Method

1. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside. (Add the spices at this stage if using).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute or so.
4. Add the flour mixture slowly and in 3 inclusions while mixing on a low speed.
5. Blend until all of the flour is incorporated. The mixture will look crumbly at first but just keep blending until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand just a bit to form a smooth ball.
7. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, or between 2 pieces of parchment paper.
8. Chill the dough until slightly firm, but not too firm that it is difficult to cut the cookie shapes.  Cut out your shapes.
9. Remove the excess dough, re-roll and repeat the process.
10. Chill down the cut out dough until firm or freeze the unbaked cookies until required.
11. Preheat oven to 170C / 350F.  Bake the cookies in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your cookies. Keep an eye on the cookies. I like to have them baked right through. This extends the shelf life if you are not eating them immediately.
12. Cool on a baking rack.
13. Once cooled you can decorate with royal icing or fondant.