Vanilla Sugar Cookies – these basic cookies are a must for Christmas or other festive event, such as birthday or anniversary. Make them festive by adding sprinkles! Also, read my note below for how to make sure that these vanilla sugar cookies have a perfect texture and are not dry.
So, are you looking for a simple, delicious, and festive Holiday cookie recipe that does not involve a lot of time and effort but still looks like a true Christmas cookie? Then, try these perfectly shaped vanilla sugar cookies, decorated with colorful sprinkles! My other favorite simple Christmas cookie recipes are these almond shortbread cookies and pecan shortbread cookies.
Do you notice this really cute, rounded (not flat) shape of these cookies? It makes them very attractive, and the secret to achieving such rounded cookie top is to roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls (then roll in sprinkles), freeze them for 30 min, then refrigerate for 30 min and only then do you bake the cookies.
As a result, your vanilla sugar cookies will have this nice rounded top:
Rolling the cookies generously in sprinkles creates a festive look without much effort. This is a perfect vanilla sugar cookie recipe if you don’t have time to frost them or otherwise decorate them.
How to avoid dry cookie dough?
Is your cookie dough too dry and the cookies crumble after baking? Here is how to make sure it doesn’t happen.
It usually happens because you have used too much flour. So, let’s make sure we measure the flour the right way. The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first.
- Aerate the flour by sifting it using a strainer.
or
- Aerate the flour by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with dry cookie dough!
I am usually very short on time so rolling these Christmas cookies in sprinkles works for me as a perfect way to dress them up!
I love this recipe and will definitely be making these vanilla sugar cookies again!
Perfectly shaped vanilla sugar cookies, decorated with colorful sprinkles. These are easy to make and they look super festive for Christmas and other holidays without much effort.
- 3 cups all-purpose flour , sifted or aerated – see my notes below
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 oz unsalted butter (226 grams), room temperature (let the butter from refrigerator sit on the counter for about an hour or so), not melted but softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract pure
-
In a medium bowl, combine together flour and salt and mix.
-
In a separate bowl, using electric mixer, beat softened butter and granulated sugar until light in color and fluffy. Add an egg and vanilla – continue beating for a couple minutes. Turn off the electric mixer, add flour-salt mixture and then continue beating on low speed until well-combined but without over mixing.
-
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Roll these cookie balls in sprinkles. Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Freeze until firm, for about 30 minutes.
-
Bake at 350 degrees F in the preheated oven for 14 minutes. Do not over-bake. Remove from the oven, and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart
Important note about properly measuring flour using measuring cups:
The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour, or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with dry dough!
I just made these, & am trying to figure out the calorie value per cookie, I believe it’s 96 ? Did anyone else try this , lmk thanks:)
I made these and they tasted good, but retained the little ball shape.
I made these, and they were good! And they looked so pretty with all of the sprinkles. I like to read through comments on recipes to see if there were common problems or ideas that were good. I wanted to report that mine were NOT dry whatsoever. 🙂 Measuring and using the correct amount of flour is key in all baked goods.
Thank you Kristen!! I read through all these comments and I saw that Julia had originally written to make sure and sift the flour first. And I hadn’t read anyone that had done that and had issues. I am going to be making these today! Thank you ladies!!!
Hi. I looovvveee these, did a batch a few weeks ago and they are beautiful! I was wondering if you can freeze the dough so I could make them in advance for a party?
Thanks
Thank you – I am glad you liked them! Yes, the dough freezes really well for these cookies. I would roll them into balls and then freeze them that way. That will save you a step of defrosting the dough and rolling into balls. Plus, frozen cookie dough balls will result in better shaped cookies when baked.
LOVE, ♥, LOVE those pretty sprinkles! Cookies look fabulous! {pinning!}
was very excited to make these… same dry dough issue. had to just take a handfull of crumbles and knead in hand…then the sprinkles didnt stick as well as i thought they would. they were so hard after being in the freezer for 25 min that i skipped the fridge and baked. they stayed in the exact shape they were rolled into. but tasty !!!
Hi Jen! Thanks for stopping by – it seems like you have used too much flour. The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour, or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. In fact, if you use the method of aerating flour I just described, you will have a much higher success rate with most baking recipes on the web, because when the recipes call for cups of flour, the flour is supposed to be sifted (aerated). Hope this helps! 🙂
I ran out if sprinkles so i replaced it with crushed candy canes. it They are delicious!
It’s very easy to run out of sprinkles with these cookies! 🙂 I bet crushed candy canes were so good too! So glad you liked the cookies! 🙂
who doesn’t love sprinkles?!