Perfect High Altitude Vanilla Sugar Cookies (No Spread Recipe)

Today I’m sharing my recipe for the most perfect high altitude vanilla sugar cookies. With flecks of real vanilla bean, the flavor of these sugar cookies is just incredible, with a delicious balance of sugar, butter and vanilla. They’re soft, not too sweet, and hold their shape beautifully when they bake. These no spread sugar cookies never fail me whenever I want to make a perfectly shaped, cutout sugar cookie.

Looking for more recipes like this one? You’ll love these chocolate sugar cookies, easy royal icing, and soft white chocolate chip sprinkle cookies.

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What Makes a Perfect Sugar Cookie?

There’s nothing like a freshly baked batch of perfect vanilla sugar cookies, ready for decorating for the holidays, a birthday party or any other special event. So what are the qualities that make a vanilla sugar cookie recipe simply perfect?

Sugar cookies shouldn’t spread when they bake.

First, you want to be sure that you’re using a no spread sugar cookie recipe. To accomplish this, your recipe shouldn’t contain any leavening, which includes baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and even eggs. Yes, eggs can cause your cookies to puff and spread, losing their sharp edges and perfect shape that you want to keep for your cutout cookies.

Sugar cookies shouldn’t be too sweet.

In spite of the name, sugar cookies shouldn’t be too sweet, since you’ll probably be adding more sugar with a sweet royal icing or buttercream frosting on your cookies. So you need a good balance of flour, butter and sugar. In my recipe, I use 3 parts flour to 1 part sugar so that they’re just sweet enough, but not cloyingly so.

Sugar cookies should be soft, not crunchy.

This is a matter of preference, of course, but a sugar cookie with a dark brown crunchy edge just isn’t appealing. If your vanilla sugar cookies are perfectly baked, they will still be pale in color, with no browning. The edges will have delicate flaky layers, and the cookies will have a tender, buttery texture, like soft shortbread. Absolutely delicious.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure and strength to the cookie dough.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the cookies, while the fine texture of the powdered sugar makes a softer cookie than granulated sugar.
• Salt. Coarse Kosher salt balances the sweetness.
• Unsalted Butter. Adds flavor, moisture, richness and fat. As the water in the butter evaporates, the steam creates tiny flaky layers for a very tender cookie.
• Vanilla. The vanilla adds flavor, and for my perfect vanilla sugar cookies, I prefer to use a real vanilla bean. I’ve been buying Tahitian vanilla beans online, and I find them to be very affordable. The vanilla bean flecks look just gorgeous in these cookies. You can also use vanilla bean paste, or a good quality vanilla extract. Of course, you can also use any other flavor of extract that you like, such as almond extract, lemon or orange extract, or even maple extract.
• Milk. Without any eggs in the dough, I add a splash of milk, which moistens the dough and binds it together without adding any leavening, like an egg would do.

Instructions

• In your food processor, pulse the flour, powdered sugar and salt until combined.
• With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.

• Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.

• Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.

• Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
• On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness of about 1/4 inch thick. Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can.
• Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour – chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don’t spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
• Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
• Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I keep sugar cookies from spreading?

• Use cold butter. Many sugar cookie recipes use room temperature butter for making the dough, which then requires a long chill time for the dough. I use cold butter, which I cut in quickly and easily with a food processor, so the dough only needs a short time to chill and rest before you roll the dough and cut your cookies.
• Don’t use leavening. Leavening is the enemy of no spread sugar cookies, as it will cause them to puff, spread and lose their shape. You shouldn’t use leavening of any kind, including baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar and eggs.
• Keep the dough cool. Keeping your dough cool, and handling it as little as possible is key to no spread sugar cookies. After rolling the dough and cutting your cookies, you’ll also be chilling the cut cookies prior to baking, to ensure they don’t lose their shape in the oven.
• Bake the cookies on parchment paper. You should never use non-stick baking spray or a baking sheet greased with butter when baking your sugar cookies. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (a Silpat baking mat will do, too, although I prefer parchment paper), and your sugar cookies will not spread.

How thick should I roll the dough?

• For perfect sugar cookies, it’s best to roll your dough out to 1/4 inch thick. A 1/4 inch thickness is just right for a sugar cookie that’s thick and sturdy enough for decorating, as well as allows the cookie to bake evenly.
• When I make sandwich cookies, I will usually roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick, since two cookies will be sandwiched together with buttercream filling. Note that the cookies are quite delicate when they’re this thin, and this is far too thin for a standard sugar cookie.

Can I make the dough ahead of time?

• To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months.
• Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.

Can I make the dough if I don’t have a food processor?

• Sugar cookie dough is fast and easy to make with a food processor. But if you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter.
• In the bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed.
• Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.

What should I do if my dough is too floury and doesn’t stick together?

If your dough is too floury or crumbly, then it’s likely you measured too much flour. Be sure you’re measuring your flour correctly, using the “spoon and sweep” method, by first fluffing the flour in the canister, lightly spooning it into your measuring cups, and then sweeping it off the top to level it. You can try adding more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, to moisten your dough if it won’t stick together.

Why did my cookies puff up in the oven?

While these cookies don’t spread, they can sometimes puff or bubble up on top. This could be the result of overworking the dough, and it can also happen simply because of the butter content. As the moisture in the butter evaporates in the oven, it creates steam, which can cause air pockets to form in the cookies. Your cookies are not ruined, though. When you take them out of the oven, if there are any areas that puffed up, simply use the flat bottom of a spatula to gently pat the tops of the cookies and press out the air. The cookies will flatten right back down. Using a higher quality butter with less water content can also help. You can also try lightly pricking the tops of the unbaked cookies with a toothpick to allow any steam to vent without causing the dough to puff.

How should I store these cookies?

• The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
• If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.

What’s the best way to decorate sugar cookies?

• Buttercream Frosting. Buttercream icing or frosting is one of my favorite ways to decorate sugar cookies, such as on these pumpkin sugar cookies. You can spread it on with an icing spatula, or pipe beautiful buttercream flowers, ruffles and swirls. Since the surface of buttercream crusts over while staying soft underneath, buttercream frosted sugar cookies need to be stored in a single layer, and cannot be stacked for storage.
• Royal Icing. With royal icing, you have unlimited options for beautifully decorated sugar cookies, regardless of your skill level. My basic royal icing recipe is easy to use, and perfect for flooding sugar cookies with a smooth, pretty finish.
• Sparkling Sugar. Vanilla sugar cookies look gorgeous with decorated with coarse sparkling sugar. Simply brush the unbaked, cut cookies with egg white, then dip them in sparkling sugar (or even sprinkles). Bake as instructed. See more of this technique on these almond sugar cookie Christmas trees.
• Powdered Sugar. A simple dusting of powdered sugar, such as on these snowflake cookies, is perfectly lovely.
• Other Ideas. You can also just search my site for “sugar cookies” or “Christmas cookies” for other decorating ideas, as I’ve used this vanilla sugar cookie recipe as the base for dozens of other cookies on my site.

For a yummy variation, add a few spices and icing for these addictive cinnamon sugar cookies.

Recipe Variation: Iced Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

• Cookies. To the cookie dough, add 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg. A small pinch of cardamom would be great, too.
• Icing. For the icing, just whisk together 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup, 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, and 1 1/2 tablespoons warm water. Whisk until smooth, then spread onto the cooled cookies. If the icing starts to get too thick to spread, add more warm water, 1 teaspoon at a time. Sprinkle the iced cookies lightly with cinnamon and sugar, before the icing sets. Let the icing set and crust over before storing the cookies.

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