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Simple Fantastic Kitchen
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BEST No-Spread Sugar Cookies!
Discover the secret to baking perfect sugar cookies that retain their shape and won’t spread. This family recipe has been passed down through generations and is now being shared with you. Learn the tips and tricks to making soft, chewy, and delicious sugar cookies that are perfect for any occasion. With this recipe, you’ll be able to create beautiful cookies that will impress your friends and family. Get ready to take your baking skills to the next level and make sugar cookies like a pro. We use these cookies on many holidays. We shape and decorate them for Halloween…
Valentine’s Day…
Game Day Cookies…
And of course, Christmas Cookies…
I even have a homemade Buttercream Frosting Recipe that you can use to help decorate these sugar cookies! So, let’s get starting on making my absolute favorite no-spread sugar cookies!
Best No-Spread Sugar Cookies | A Secret Family Recipe
This is a really historic recipe for our family. This is a recipe passed down from my grandmother. It’s a wonderful recipe that yields the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had in my life.
We start with the mixed dry ingredients. So it’s five cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking soda, one teaspoon salt and then mix them together.
Now we’re going to go ahead and put the wet ingredients into a stand mixer and make the dough. So we’re going to start with one cup of shortening and two cups of granulated sugar. I am using cane sugar because that’s what I like best.
Now, we’re going to cream them together until the mixture is light and fluffy and creamy.
Once that’s accomplished, you’re going to beat in two eggs, one teaspoon of vanilla and then one cup of sour cream.
The sour cream is pretty much the secret ingredient. Once that’s all mixed together, we’ll switch from a flex beater attachment to a dough hook. Then we’re going to bring in the dry ingredients. Then we’ll turn this mixture into a dough.
Then we’re going to put it into a tupperware any kind of storage you could just keep it in this mixing bowl if you wanted to put a little cling wrap over it and then you put it in the fridge for 3 hours minimum to get it nice and chilled. We like to leave it in overnight and then make the cookies the next day. That also spreads the activity into 2 days, which is really fun to do and makes it less overwhelming. Making the dough on day one. Baking and decorating on day 2.
How to Bake
The next step in making our wonderful sugar cookies is to take the sugar cookie dough out of the refrigerator.
Then, you’re going to take just a section of it, about what you can hold comfortably in two hands and you’re going to preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Have a silicone mat out and flour it well. Put your sectioned ball of dough onto it. Then you’re going to just roll it out until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
Use your cookie cutters to make as many cookies as you can.
Now we put them in the oven for approximately 10 minutes but you check them at 8 minutes, because they bake quickly and you don’t want them overcooked. You don’t want any browning around the edges. You let them cool for 10 minutes before you transfer them to an actual cooling station
That’s the best way to do it because they’re going to keep cooking on the inside but if you remove them from the oven at this stage, they will be real soft and delicious on the inside.
So our next step we’re going to be frosting and decorating… the really fun part!
How to Decorate
Now, you can use store bought frosting for this part. You can also make my delicious Buttercream frosting recipe from scratch and then use my favorite food coloring dye to match the perfect colors, if you are so inclined.
How Do They Taste?
These truly are the most delicious sugar cookies I’ve ever had. These cookies are absolutely scrumptious and will add joy to any festivity. I hope you love them as much as I do!
No-Spread Sugar Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Sugar Cookie Recipe: Mix dry ingredients by combining flour, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl then set aside.
- Use a stand mixer (or mixer of your choice) to combine and "cream" shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in eggs, and add vanilla extract and sour cream. Once creamy and fully combined, add dry mix ingredients from other bowl, (using a dough hook attachment with stand mixer). Once dough is fully formed, place in covered container and chill in refrigerator for minimum of 3 hours (overnight is recommended).
- Once dough is properly chilled, remove from refrigerator and take smaller chunks at a time to roll out the dough.
- Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
- Have 1-2 cups extra flour to use while working with the dough, which can be sticky. Roll out the dough into an even 1/4 inch thickness. Then use cookie cutters of your choice and place each cookie onto a lined cookie sheet.
- Bake at 375°F for 8-10 minutes (please check on them as you don't want them to overcook). Once finished, allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes then move to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes. Then you are ready to decorate!
- Decorating Christmas Tree Cookies: Use Christmas tree cookie cutter, then use brown frosting for stump of tree and green frosting for tree itself. Use green sanding sugar to coat the frosting. Put a yellow candy star on top of the tree. Optional: create tinsel with white and/or yellow writing gels and place candy balls as ornaments throughout the tree. you can also sprinkle a second time with green sanding sugar.
- Decorating Star (of Bethlehem) Cookies: Use star cookie cutter, then use yellow frosting then add yellow sanding sugar to the top.
- Decorating Snowflake Cookies: Use snowflake cookie cutter, then use white frosting then add white sanding sugar to the top.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, I’m Allison, the founder of Simple Fantastic Kitchen. I live in the mountains in a tiny house with a tiny kitchen where I make