Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

This soft and chewy vanilla sugar recipe does not require chilling and will not spread!!!

Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (1)

Remember that one time I mentioned that I have updates to my "other" vanilla cookie recipe? And then I never posted them? And I am a bad friend? Yikes!

I am going to post the changes as a new recipe. You can see the original

HERE

... or just forget about it and use this one every day for the rest of your life. (What? You don't make cookies every day?)

Check out my favorite baking tool recommendations HERE.

Author: Georganne Bell

Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (2)

Vanilla 2.0

A soft and chewy no-chill and no-spread vanilla roll out sugar cookie recipe.

Prep time: 15 MCook time: 30 MTotal time: 45 M

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup slightly softened unsalted butter (227 grams)
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar (200 grams)
  • 1/2 cup granulated white sugar (100 grams)
  • 2 large eggs (100 grams)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla (10 grams)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt (4 grams)
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder (1 gram)
  • 3 1/2 cups (or 4 cups) all-purpose flour ( 490-560 grams)

Instructions:

How to cook Vanilla 2.0

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
  2. Cream the butter and both sugars together. If you have any brown sugar lumps, you should crush them up or pull them out. They make weird dents in your baked cookies.
  3. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
  4. Add the salt and baking powder and again with the mixing of the dough.
  5. Before you add the flour, let's have a little chat. Different altitudes need different amounts of flour. Differences in humidity will the change the amount of flour you should add. Is there a storm coming? That changes things. Add only 3 1/2 cups to begin with. Then add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky and pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl. (This happens at about 3 1/2 cups of flour for me...except in the winter time when it happens at 4 cups flour.) That's when you should stop if you are going to chill the dough overnight, or just wait for another day to bake it. If you are going to roll it out right away, add another half of a cup of flour so it will be thick enough to move from the rolling out surface to your baking sheet.
  6. Bake at 350F. If you roll to 1/4" thick, bake for about 7 minutes. If you roll to 3/8" thick, bake for about 10-12 minutes.

Created using The Recipes Generator


FAQs


HOW IS THIS RECIPE DIFFERENT FROM THE VANILLA VARIATION?-- The Vanilla 2.0 is slightly more dense and a little more chewy. The brown sugar gives it a light caramel flavor...kind of like a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips!

The Vanilla Variation is a lighter cookie - both in color and texture

MY DOUGH IS TOO SOFT! WHAT SHOULD I DO? -- If your dough is too soft, try adding a little more flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. ALSO... If it's very hot where you live and your butter was room temperature instead of just slightly softened - you might actually need to cool everything down in the fridge for 10 minutes before rolling out the dough.

MY DOUGH IS TOO DRY! WHAT SHOULD I DO? -- The two most common reasons for this dough turning out dry is:

1) Not using large eggs. It's SURPRISING what a difference that makes.

2) Using too much flour. I'm not saying you used more than the recipe calls for - but since this recipe is written by volume and not weight, you might be adding more flour depending on elevation and humidity. Next time you make this recipe, try starting with 1 cup less flour and adding flour until it's just right. But you can still save this batch too!

Luckily, the solution to both of them is the same -- Crack an egg into a bowl and whisk together. Mix a little at a time into the dry dough until the dough comes together again.

SHOULD I USE SALTED OR UNSALTED BUTTER? -- If we're talking purely about science - it doesn't matter in this recipe. It's purely a personal preference. Use the butter you normally reach for. If you know you love things with just a little more salt - use salted butter. If you are someone who generally reduces salt in recipes - use unsalted butter.

Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (3)


HOW MANY COOKIES WILL THIS RECIPE MAKE? -- The yield for this recipe varies. It depends on how thick you roll your cookies. I can get about 3 dozen cookies when I roll them at 1/4 inch thick and use a 3 inch wide cookie cutter.

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE DONE? -- Watch the surface of the cookie. As the dough begins to bake, the butter starts melting - creating a shiny or "wet" look on the surface of the cookie. As it continues to bake, the outside edge of the cookie will look dry and the wet spot in the middle shrinks. When that shiny "wet" spot in the middle disappears and the entire surface of the cookie is dry -- your cookies are done!

MY COOKIES TASTE DRY AFTER THEY ARE BAKED - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM? -- It could be a couple of things.

1) You might be slightly over baking them. I watch the surface of the cookies and when the shiny spot in the center looks dry instead of shiny... I know they are done.

2) You might be using a little too much flour. If your butter was too warm to begin with, the dough will seem soft, and if you add more flour to make it not sticky...it will turn out dry. OR you might be adding too much flour for the amount of time that the dough sits. - This is why the recipe has two different amounts of flour. As the dough sits, the flour continues to absorb more moisture...making the dough more dry.

HOW LONG ARE THESE COOKIES GOOD FOR? -- It depends on how they are stored, but generally you can expect these cookies to taste fresh for about 7-10 days at room temperature.


WHY ARE SOME OF YOUR METRIC CONVERSIONS DIFFERENT THAN THE ONES I GOOGLED? -- Because I'm a weirdo. Apparently I don't measure "to standard". 🤣🤣 I figured it was more important that you have the best possible metric weights than that I match a standard. I hope you don't mind.

Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (4)

MY FAVORITE BAKING TOOLS:

After more than a decade of baking and decorating cookies, I definitely have some favorite tools. Here are links to what I use --

These are my absolute favoriteBAKING SHEETS(I have about 16 of them now!)

I use thisPARCHMENT PAPERor theseGRID SILICONE MATS(I love the way the silicone mats make the bottom of the cookies look...but I also REALLY love not washing the parchment paper!)

I use THIS ROLLING MAT AND GUIDE STICK SET with THIS ROLLING PINbecause it allows me to roll out half a batch of dough at once. (Another alternative is theJOSEPH JOSEPH ROLLING PIN, but you can't roll quite as much dough out at once.

I use this DIGITAL SCALE. (But to be completely transparent...I've never tried any others. This one was cheap and it's never stopped working.)

Use a

HIGH HEAT THERMOMETER

to make sure your oven is the right temperature.

NEED MORE??


Ready to start making and baking an army of decorated sugar cookies?! Check out my Beginner's Guide to Making and Baking Sugar Cookies for Decorating!!

And then learn all about royal icing in this post!

Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (5)


Vanilla 2.0 -- A Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you add too much sugar to sugar cookies? ›

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. Take your time creaming the sugar and butter together at the beginning.

What does extra sugar do to cookies? ›

What happens if you increase the amount of sugar called for in cookies? Conversely, when you increase the sugar in cookies, you'll get cookies that spread more and have an ultra moist and chewy texture in addition to a sweeter flavor.

What does less sugar do to a cookie? ›

The lower the sugar, the less cookies spread, the drier/more crumbly they are. Cookies with less sugar taste less sweet, of course. But beyond that, their flavor also becomes flat; sugar is a flavor enhancer much like salt is.

What can I add to sugar cookie mix to make it better? ›

There are a few things you can add to your ready - to - bake sugar cookies to give them more flavor . One option is to mix in some vanilla extract or almond extract to enhance the overall taste . You can also add in some cinnamon , nutmeg , or other spices to give the cookies a warm and cozy flavor .

What happens if you put too much baking powder in sugar cookies? ›

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center.

What happens if you use more brown sugar than white sugar in cookies? ›

The molasses content of brown sugar leads to baked goods that are softer and moister. You can still swap them, but you'll need to use less brown sugar in a recipe that calls for white. Brown sugar will add a caramel-ish hint to your baked good and darken its color.

What happens if I use powdered sugar instead of regular sugar in cookies? ›

All levels of powdered sugar grind can be used interchangeably with each other in cookie recipes. But take note: powdered sugar is not to be substituted for granulated sugar or brown sugar, since the added cornstarch in powdered sugar changes cookie chemistry and texture.

Are sugar cookies better with powdered sugar or granulated sugar? ›

Powdered sugar has a much finer texture and a higher cornstarch content, which can absorb moisture and lead to a drier, crumbly cookie texture. If you use powdered sugar in place of granulated sugar, you'll likely end up with cookies that are more cake-like and less chewy.

What is the purpose of eggs in cookies? ›

To create cookies, you typically use whole eggs and their proteins for flavor, leavening, structure, and color. Eggs promote puffiness and spreading in cookies, while also holding the cookie together during baking.

What does butter do in cookies? ›

The job of butter in baking (besides being delicious) is to give richness, tenderness and structure to cookies, cakes, pies and pastries. We alter the way butter works in a recipe by changing its temperature and choosing when to combine it with the other ingredients.

Should sugar cookies be hard or soft? ›

The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender. → Follow this tip: One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they're just incorporated, and not a second longer. Once the dry ingredients are added, less mixing equals more tender cookies.

How to fancy up sugar cookies? ›

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.

How to make cookie mix taste like bakery? ›

No one will even suspect they're store-bought (and we won't tell anyone!).
  1. Add brown sugar. ...
  2. Experiment with extracts. ...
  3. Mix in different candies and snacks. ...
  4. Add espresso or coffee grounds. ...
  5. Deepen the flavors by refrigerating the dough. ...
  6. Salt before baking the cookies. ...
  7. Reduce baking time for extra soft cookies.

What can I add to sugar cookie mix that is too dry? ›

To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough. Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

What to do if I added too much sugar? ›

If your dish is a little too sweet, try rounding out the sweetness by adding flavors or ingredients that are sour, bitter, or spicy. It may be obvious not to add more sweet ingredients, but you should also stay away from salty ones since they actually bring out the sweetness in food.

What happens if you use too much sugar in baking? ›

However, if too much sugar is added (these simple vanilla cupcakes had twice as much as they should have), then not only do they rise to the extreme but the structure takes so long to set (these were baked for 15 minutes longer than a normal batch) that they then collapse dramatically towards the end of baking.

What will happen if too much sugar is added? ›

Over time, this can lead to a greater accumulation of fat, which may turn into fatty liver disease, a contributor to diabetes, which raises your risk for heart disease. Consuming too much added sugar can raise blood pressure and increase chronic inflammation, both of which are pathological pathways to heart disease.

What happens if you put too much sugar in dough? ›

While sugar and other sweeteners provide "food" for yeast, too much sugar can damage yeast, drawing liquid from the yeast and hampering its growth. Too much sugar also slows down gluten development. Add extra yeast to the recipe or find a similar recipe with less sugar. Sweet yeast doughs will take longer to rise.

References

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