Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe – Oma's Zuckerkekse (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good cookie? ›

Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown. Adding too little sugar can affect the taste and texture of cookies. Adding too much can cause them to be brittle.

Using butter that's too soft.

This will very likely make the butter too soft. Cookies won't hold their shape as well and are likely to turn out greasy when made with butter that's too soft. → Follow this tip: Let the butter stand at room temperature for about an hour, until it's soft and gives to gentle pressure.

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

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.

Chilling cookie dough helps prevent spreading. The colder the dough, the less the cookies will over-spread into greasy puddles. You'll have thicker, sturdier, and more solid cookies. Whenever I make cookies, I plan ahead and chill the cookie dough overnight.

HEAT oven to 350°F (or 325°F for nonstick cookie sheet). PLACE cookie dough rounds about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. BAKE 13 to 17 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. COOL 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet.

There are several issues at play with over-mixing. The first is aeration: If too much air is incorporated into the butter-sugar-egg mixture of cookie dough, for example, the cookies—in the oven for relatively a short amount of time, and without structural support from the sides of a pan—will rise, then fall.

What is the best sugar for cookies? ›

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.

Vanilla does offer more than just a bit of floral flavor. Sometimes it's a flavor enhancer and sometimes it's a flavor balancer. But to be honest, unless it's a vanilla cookie, it's not a true dealbreaker. Especially if you're making cookies that have lots of other flavors going on, like coconut or dark chocolate.

Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.

Transfer the dough, still between the two pieces of parchment paper, to a baking sheet. Chill in the fridge for at least two hours to allow the dough to firm up, and up to three days ahead. Proceed with the recipe as written - such as my easy sugar cookie recipe.

With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.

The best cookies have layers of texture. A slightly crisp outer shell that holds up to some heat with an inner core that's soft and chewy. Premium cookies taste great at room temperature, straight out of the fridge or slightly heated. Creating cookies in small batches is key.

Eggs are a major source of moisture in your cookie dough. Using egg whites will give you a taller, drier cookie. More egg yolks will give you fudgy, dense cookies. Bringing eggs to room temperature beforehand will add more volume to the dough.