Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe from Grandma

To make these Easy Sugar Cookies you will need the following ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, four, salt, baking powder, and vanilla.  

Here’s the History of these Simple Sugar Cookies


One of my biggest memories growing up revolves around this easy sugar cookie recipe.

My birthday is in December and my mom worked really hard to make it so that it wasn’t jumbled in with Christmas. One way I did things differently was having everyone decorate cookies instead of having cake. Now as a mom I realize this was just a great way to send the sugar home with the kids. Brilliant mom, brilliant.

Birthday time would come around and my mom would get to work in the kitchen mixing up several batches of sugar cookie dough. When you are looking to send 12 – 15 sugar cookies home with each guest you know you’re going to be busy.

Now imagine the giggles taking place around the kitchen table when you have 15 girls around the table rolling out cookie dough and passing cookie cutters around to get the shapes just right.

Now it’s time to wait.

Grandma's easy sugar cookies baked on a clear plate with a pink table runner under them. Pin

And wait some more.

Do you know how long it takes to bake that many cookies? To 15 little girls, it takes forever!

Decorating the Cookies


Finally, it would be time to decorate and my amazing mom would pull out the icing, Wilton featherweight decorating bags, sprinkles, shaved chocolate, and just about anything else she could find around the house that was edible.

Two hours later, with lots of laughs and a huge mess, we would all place our decorated sugar cookies in our boxes (back when pop flats were actually cardboard) covered with aluminum foil. The cookies would all be set out on the inside porch to go home the next day and the pile of giggling girls would head downstairs for the night.

What a genius plan of my mother’s right? We didn’t get sugared up on cake and ice cream at her house and it killed hours during a slumber party. I must say well played mom, well played.

 

Ingredients on a white background that are needed for crispy drop cookies. Pin

 

How To Make Our Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe


Preheat the oven to 350.
 
Butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl to be creamed for an easy sugar cookie recipe.Pin
 
Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together.
Wet ingredients creamed together in a clear bowl with the beaters of an electric mixer for crispy drop sugar cookies. Pin
 
Add eggs and mix for 1 minute total to whip air into your dough.
 
Adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in a clear bowl for easy sugar cookies.Pin
 
Add salt, baking powder, and flour and mix well.
 
A bowl of drop sugar cookie dough, a cookie scoop with cookie dough and a bowl of sugar on a white background.Pin
 
Form cookie dough into even size balls.
***If you’re going to use a cookie cutter to shape them roll onto a floured surface to cut out and bake as directed.***
 
Drop sugar cookie dough in a bowl of white sugar.Pin
 
Drop rounded balls into white sugar to coat.
 
Grandma's Easy Sugar Cookie dough rolled into balls and sitting on a stoneware baking sheet.Pin
 
Bake 13-15 minutes.
 
Chewy sugar cookies on a pampered chef stoneware.Pin
 
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes.
 
7 sugar cookies made from scratch sitting on a cooling rack.Pin
 

Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Tips for Making Grandma’s Sugar Cookies


  • Your dough is going to be a bit sticky/soft.  That’s ok!
  • You don’t want to use melted butter.  Your butter does need to be soft but if it’s too soft you’ll encounter cookies that spread.  Refrigerate your cookie dough for a few minutes if you notice your cookies spreading too much.
  • White chocolate chips or sprinkles make a great addition to your Grandma’s Sugar Cookies.
  • It will take about a 1/2 cup sugar for rolling your drop sugar cookies in.
  • Drop sugar cookies will store in an airtight container for at least 4 weeks.
  • If your easy sugar cookies are getting too hard you can add the heel of the bread to your storage container to soften them back up.

Common Questions About Drop Sugar Cookies


Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about old fashioned sugar cookies:

How do you make old-fashioned sugar cookies?

I find that this recipe is an old-fashioned sugar cookie recipe as the ingredients are very basic.  The ingredients needed are ingredients that would have been on hand in most households.  Also, this old-fashioned sugar cookie recipe doesn’t require refrigeration which would have been essential.

How do you make easy sugar cookies?

Keeping it simple like this easy sugar cookie recipe makes the best easy sugar cookies.  With only 7 ingredients that most of us keep in our house at all times.  No refrigeration needed!

Why do my sugar cookies spread and lose their shape?

Baking cookies is a science.  Too much flour and your cookies will be crumbly, while too much butter will allow your cookies to spread when they start to bake.

How do you make easy cookies from scratch?

I find that sugar cookies are one of the easiest cookies to make from scratch.  Sugar cookies need the most basic of ingredients to be made and can be easily adapted with a variety of mix-ins once you have your favorite cookie dough recipe.

 

Other Cookie Recipes From Scratch


 

Helpful Tools To Make Easy Sugar Cookies



Grandma’s Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe


Grab this easy drop sugar cookie recipe that’s crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Yum.

If you loved this easy sugar cookie recipe let me know with a 5-star rating!

Grandma's Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe
Yield: 24

Grandma's Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Extra sugar for rolling

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together.
  3. Add eggs and mix for 1 minute.
  4. Add salt, baking powder and flour and mix well.
  5. Form cookie dough into even size balls (I use a small ice cream scooper) and drop into white sugar to coat.
  6. ***If your going to use a cookie cutter to shape them roll onto a floured surface to cutout and bake as directed.***
  7. Bake 13-15 minutes.
  8. Allow to cool for 3 minute on baking sheet. 
  9. Move cooled cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. 

Notes

Calories are not calculated with the additional sugar needed to roll the cookies in.  Calories were caculated at https://happyforks.com/analyzer

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