While my favorite cookie is one of these chocolate crinkle cookies, every cook should have a good recipe for drop sugar cookies in his or her repertoire.
This particular recipe produces a cookie that is a standout on its own, with a buttery, just-sweet-enough flavor. Give it a light dusting of granulated sugar and enjoy their tender yet chewy texture as is.
Or it’s also the perfect base recipe for cut-out cookies since it holds its shape well and doesn’t have a lot of rise while baking, giving you a nice flat surface to work with while decorating.
While this sugar cookie dough can be a bit on the sticky side, chilling it well should solve any issues when working with it. I like to use an OXO cookie scoop when making cookies to ensure that they’re all uniform in size.
Just scoop out the dough and roll it into a smooth ball. Then roll the ball of dough in a bowl of granulated sugar.
Then use a flat-bottomed ramekin or glass to flatten each cookie to about 1/2-inch thick. I sprinkled on a little extra granulated sugar before baking, but had I thought to pick some up at the store, I would have sprinkled some coarse sugar on at this point for extra visual appeal.
I guarantee these easy sugar cookies will go fast, so you may want to consider making a double batch! Or you can make a second batch and freeze it for later. Yes, you really can do this, and I have the scoop on how to freeze cookie dough so you can have fresh-baked cookies ANY TIME!

Old-Fashioned Drop Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 sticks salted butter, softened*
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
- 4 eggs
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
- Cream together softened butter, lemon zest, granulated sugar, and confectioners' sugar.
- Add vanilla extract and almond extract, and beat in eggs one at a time.
- Stir in flour and baking powder.
- Chill dough for at least two hours, or even better, chill it overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Scoop out cookie dough and roll into uniform balls. Dredge each ball of dough in granulated sugar, and then flatten the balls using a flat-bottomed ramekin or glass to about 1/2 inch thick.
- Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until just starting to brown around the edges.
Notes
* I do not add salt to this recipe, as the salt in salted butter is plenty. If you prefer to bake with unsalted butter, you may add 1 teaspoon of salt along with the flour and baking powder in step #3.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 2Amount Per Serving: Calories: 260Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 61mgSodium: 144mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 4g
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
P.S. If you want to use this dough for cutout cookies, I highly recommend checking out this easy royal icing recipe… It has hundreds of glowing reviews!!
Paula
Sunday 2nd of January 2022
How much salt?? Doesn't say?
Tara Kuczykowski
Sunday 2nd of January 2022
Oops, sorry about that! I actually don't add salt because I use salted butter, but if you use unsalted butter, you can add 1 teaspoon of salt. Thanks for pointing that out -- I'll make a note in the recipe now.
Freya
Sunday 13th of January 2013
How much is a stick of butter?
Tara @ Unsophisticook
Sunday 13th of January 2013
A stick of butter would be equal to 8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup.
Ana P
Friday 21st of December 2012
Can these be rolled out to be cut out cookies?
Tara @ Unsophisticook
Friday 21st of December 2012
Yes, you can definitely roll out the dough for cut-out cookies. I've always rolled them out with flour, but a friend recently told me that she uses powdered sugar instead which I think is an awesome idea!
Maria
Wednesday 19th of December 2012
Hi, Tara!
Are these cookies chewy? Also, if I scooped them to about a walnut-sized and pressed them down. so they came out to be about 3" spread out...would they still be chewy?
Tara @ Unsophisticook
Wednesday 19th of December 2012
Yes, they are a chewy cookie. As I mentioned, I used my OXO scoop and I believe it holds about 4 teaspoons. I don't think they pressed out quite to 3" but it should be close and still chewy.
Misty
Tuesday 18th of December 2012
Hi! Just wondering if the salt in the recipe is that regular table salt? I'm assuming it is because most recipes call for that type. Thanks!
Tara @ Unsophisticook
Tuesday 18th of December 2012
Yep! Regular table salt it what is most often used in baking. I will always specify if I use kosher salt in a recipe. Good question!