Buttery Sugar Cookie

by | Dec 18, 2020 | 1 comment

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A quick, buttery sugar cookie designed for those who are short on time, but still want a colorful, tasty treat!

taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies on a plate with blue sprinkles

These cookies were created in response to a need for a colorful sugar cookie without frosting. People loved our Frosted Sugar Cookies (and you will too! Click here to try them) but they took extra time and space for the frosting layer. These Butter Sugar Cookies are simple to make and look beautiful, no matter where you take them.

Using Sparkling Sugar

This little gem of a cookie needed more butter and sugar in the dough to fully round out the flavor, without adding frosting. It needed to stand out all on its own. The cookie alone needed to stand out. I nailed down the flavor but found the texture a bit boring. Colored sparkling sugar solves this problem, plus adds a fun burst of color.

While you may be tempted to use normal sprinkles, I’ve tried them and they bake up… not as beautifully. The color bleeds into the cookie. Sparkling sugar maintains its color during baking, ensuring a beautiful result.

taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies spread out on a marble slab with blue sprinkles

Always Creating

A friend of mine once said, “You never quit creating, do you?” She was right. Creating in the kitchen makes it so much more fun for me, and adds extra meaning to everything I bake. 

These Buttery Sugar Cookies look so fun with the blue sugar sprinkles on top. As I was typing this recipe up, a thought occurred to me to try using turbinado sugar for the top. I hoped it would give the same sweet result while upgrading it to an adult treat. I was right! Using turbinado sugar adds a sophisticated adult flair while keeping the delightful sugar crunch.

taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies piled up together

Easy Gifting of These Cookies (If You Don’t Eat Them All First)

It would be fun to make these using a #40 (1 ½ T) cookie dough scoop, or even smaller, to make a bunch of little cute cookies. Package them up and add a raffia bow and you’ve got the easiest gift that anyone will love to receive. Play with the colors of sparkling sugar to match any occasion. 

I hope your inner child comes out as you make these. I hope you are thrilled with how easy they are to make and how delicious they taste. Let me know in the comments what you think of this Buttery Sugar Cookie!

taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies stacked on top of each other

Products I Love to Use When Making the Buttery Sugar Cookie

taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies layed out on marble slab with sprinkles
taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies on a plate with blue sprinkles

Butter Sugar Cookie

Yield: 19 cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Additional Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 43 minutes

A quick, buttery sugar cookie designed for those who are short on time but still want a colorful, tasty treat!

Ingredients

  • 1 C (8 oz) salted butter, slightly softened
  • 1 C (7 oz) white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 ⅔ C (12 oz) all-purpose flour
  • ¼ C colored sprinkling sugar, for decorating

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350*F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Cream together butter and white sugar for one minute. 
  3. Add egg and vanilla and mix.
  4. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
  5. Pour colored sugar sprinkles onto a plate. Using a #30 (2 ½ T) cookie dough scoop, scoop dough. Carefully take each dough ball and turn it upside down into the sprinkles. Press down to ½ thick, then place on parchment paper, sprinkle side up.  
  6. Bake for 8 minutes or until edges barely start to brown.
  7. Let cool before storing. These freeze well.

Notes

  • Only use coarse or sanding sugar. Other types of sprinkles bleed their color into the cookie and are less pretty.

Pick Your Favorite Pin and Save It for Later!

taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies on a plate with blue sprinkles pinterest pin
taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies stacked on top of each other pinterest pin
taste before beauty buttery sugar cookies layed out on marble slab with sprinkles pinterest pin

1 Comment

  1. We looked for coarse sugar at a couple stores and couldn’t find it, so we just used yellow sugar sprinkles. I can’t tell you how they look after two days because they didn’t last that long, but they looked for the first day! We made these into 1.5 inch disks (about 1/4 inch thick) and we baked them just until the tips looks dry (before the edges were golden). After the first batch, my kids wanted a giant cookie to decorate with frosting, so we pressed probably about 1 cup of dough into a 1/2 inch thick circle and baked it until the top looked dry. We topped it with some leftover buttercream and decorated it was delicious too!


Hi, I’m Missy. Welcome to Taste Before Beauty. For 28 years I’ve been developing recipes that taste delicious, before they look delicious.

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