Vintage Sugar Cookies

This chewy sugar cookie recipe has been around since 1877, and it still holds up. Made with butter and your choice of shortening or vegetable oil, these cookies are crisp-edged, soft-centered, and no-fail.

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About These Cookies

These sugar cookies are chewy, sturdy, and slightly crunchy, thanks to a combo of butter and vegetable oil—or shortening—in the dough. You'll roll the simple drop dough in sparkling sanding sugar before baking.

Modern bakers might side-eye shortening, but it helps cookies keep their shape—and has earned its spot in your baking toolbox.

If you love unfussy sugar cookies, give my Grapefruit Cookies, Confetti Cookies, or this easy rolled cut-out recipe a try next.

Ingredients for Drop Sugar Cookies

How to Make Drop Sugar Cookies

Recipe Tips

Be sure to cream the butter, oil OR shortening and sugar together for five minutes or until light and fluffy.

Use room temperature butter. It's cooler than you think it is, about 67 F°. If your butter is too warm, your cookies will turn out greasy.

When the mixture is fluffy enough, your spatula should glide through it easily. 

How to Customize Drop Sugar Cookies:

-Replace the vanilla extract with 1 teaspoon of one of the following:

• almond extract
• peppermint extract
• lemon extract

-Roll the cookie dough in colored sanding sugar instead of white sanding sugar. What's sanding sugar?

How Long Will Sugar Cookies Last?

These cookies will last up to a week at room temperature if stored in an airtight container. Or freeze for up to three months if double wrapped, including tucking into a freezer safe container.

What's the difference between sugar cookies and shortbread cookies?

The chief difference is that shortbread cookies are made without eggs.

Shortbread cookies are also made without leavening--meaning baking soda or baking powder.

Shortbread cookies are a minimalist's cookie, generally calling for sugar, flour, butter, salt and sometimes an extract like vanilla or another flavoring.

My most favorite shortbread cookie recipe is for Lemon Shortbread Hearts.

But, double chocolate chunk shortbread is a close runner up.

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Recipe

Yield: 36 cookies

Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

Print

Delicate edges. Sparkly tops. Zero fuss. These drop sugar cookies call for both butter and oil or shortening to keep them really soft. Roll with sanding sugar for extra sparkle and crunch.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 27 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup shortening or vegetable oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ cup sanding sugar, any color

Instructions

1. Measure dry ingredients, flour, baking soda and baking powder into a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, shortening and sugar on medium high for five minutes or until light and fluffy. Be sure to pause briefly at least twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl and the bottom of the bowl with a spatula.  
3. Add vanilla extract and egg and beat for another minute until combined.
4. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The dough will be somewhat thick. 
5. No need to chill this dough. 
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Pour sanding sugar into a bowl.
8. Using a cookie scoop, or spoon, portion one-inch balls of dough and roll into the sanding sugar.
9. Place balls of dough--four rolls of three balls each--on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
10. Once you have 12 balls of dough on the sheet, flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass. After the first couple balls, you may have to dampen the glass to keep it from sticking to the dough.
11. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden.
12. Let cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Unlike many other cookie doughs, there's no need to chill this dough before baking. That makes this cookie a great choice if you've got to crank out many dozens of cookies for a swap or a party.

Sanding sugar gives these cookies an extra bit of crunch and sparkle. If you don't have sanding sugar and don't want to buy any, you could substitute granulated sugar.

However, sanding sugar gives a more polished, pretty look to your cookies so I would encourage you to see it out. You can find sanding sugar just about everywhere these days--including Target and Walmart--or at your local gourmet food shop.

You can also buy sanding sugar on Amazon (of course!).

To switch things up a bit or to customize these cookies for a certain holiday, look for colored sanding sugar.

Recommended Products

This post and/or recipe may contain affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, I'll earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See Disclosure policy.

• 
  Reynolds Kitchens Cookie Baking Sheets, Pre-Cut Parchment Paper,25 Count (Pack of 4), 100 Total Sheets
• 
  The Sugar Lab Confectioners Sugar - Extra Coarse Sugar - 1 Pound - Con AA - Sugar Crystals for Baking and Cupcake Decorations - Excellent for Decorating Candy - Perfect for Bakeries Sanding Sugar
• 
  Cuisinart HM-70 Power Advantage 7-Speed Hand Mixer, Silver
• 
  KitchenAid Bamboo Spatula Set, 2-Piece, Aqua Sky
• 
  Nordic Ware Naturals Half Sheet, 2-Pack, Natural

Nutrition Information

Yield 36 Serving Size 36 cookies
Amount Per Serving Calories 106Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 14mgSodium 47mgCarbohydrates 13gFiber 0gSugar 7gProtein 1g

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