The Absolute Best Sugar Cookie

In Absolute Best Tests, Ella Quittner destroys the sanctity of her home kitchen in the name of the truth. She’s boiled dozens of eggs, mashed a concerning number of potatoes, and seared more Porterhouse steaks than she cares to recall. Today, she tackles the sugar cookie.

Most sugar cookies are just fine. Good, but not great.

I don’t mean to toss undue ill will toward the entire category of sugar cookies, which in name alone contains two of the very best words. It’s just that most variations taste like a missed opportunity.

Perhaps that’s due to their roots. The sugar cookie can be dated back to the 1700s, when a group of Pennsylvania settlers set out to create a cookie that contained only the most basic ingredients and shaping techniques. Though simplicity as a holy grail doesn’t necessarily mean a dish has to be dull in flavor or texture—unsweetened whipped cream is, after all, one of the best arguments for getting out of bed in the morning.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of sugar cookies offer no such argument. They can taste of nothing, or even worse, hit the mouth with a saccharine punch. Their texture can hover between soft and crumbly in a way that checks neither box. But then, once in a while, a sugar cookie will be exceptional. It will taste of buttery blankets draped over pockets of crystalline caramel. Its carapace will delicately crunch as your front teeth pass through into the lush center. It will bend almost ninety degrees before its chewy center gives way and it finally snaps into two pieces. It will whisper in your ear that you are beautiful and perfect and that the only way in which you could improve would be to eat another cookie.

This latest round of Absolute Best Tests was conducted in the pursuit of that exceptional sugar cookie.

Baking is wildly fussy. To ensure that any differences in flavor, texture, and appearance were in fact due to recipe tweaks, I…

• Used an oven thermometer religiously
• Used the same brand of ingredients for each batch
• Weighed all ingredients on a digital scale
• Used butter and eggs that were at the same temperature

Each batch was a riff on this classic Chewy Sugar Cookie Recipe.

1. Original Recipe

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (99 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (52 grams) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 ½ cups (180 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup turbinado sugar

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Line two large sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, cream butter and sugars for 1 minute. Scrape sides of bowl. Continue beating for another 1 to 2 minutes, until lightened and fluffy. Scrape bowl again. Add vanilla. Beat for 1 minute. Scrape sides of bowl. Add egg. Beat for 1 minute, until combined. Scrape sides of bowl.

3. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat 1 minute. Scrape sides of bowl and beat for 1 minute or until combined and no flour clumps remain.

4. Place turbinado sugar in small, shallow bowl. Using a small cookie/ice cream scoop (about 1½ inches in diameter), scoop balls of dough and drop a few at a time in the coarse sugar and gently roll around. Place balls of dough on parchment, leaving about 1½ inches of space around each. Do not press the balls down. This will ensure a chewy middle.

5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, turning pans midway through baking, until cookies have spread into rounds and the edges look set. Resist the urge to bake your cookies longer, or they won’t be chewy. The tops don’t get much color, but the bottoms will be nicely golden.

6. Place pans on cooling racks. When cool, store cookies in air-tight containers up to a week.

Findings:

The control batch yielded a thick and chewy cookie with a satisfying crunch on the exterior from turbinado sugar, and a plushy interior. After cooling, each center was sunken and gratifyingly chewy. My only complaint was flavor. They tasted faintly of vanilla and cane sugar, which was neutral—maybe net positive, but ultimately not thrilling. The recipe would be an admirable blank canvas on which to splatter or swirl flavor like with caramelized pumpkin purée, cinnamon, or hunks of fresh ginger.

2. Sliced From Log

Follow the original recipe as written until Step 3, then proceed accordingly:

1. Use a spatula to scrape onto a flat, nonstick surface, like a long sheet of parchment paper, or a lightly floured countertop. Gently use your hands and the wrap to form a log about 1 ½ to 2 inches in diameter.

2. Transfer log to plastic wrap or parchment paper, fully wrap, and let chill in refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until log is firm enough to slice.

3. Spread turbinado sugar on a large cutting board. Transfer log to the board and roll, pressing gently, until the long sides of the log are coated in turbinado. Slice cookies about ½-inch-thick, and place on parchment-lined sheet pans with about an inch between each cookie.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, turning pans midway through baking, until centers look set. Resist the urge to bake your cookies longer, or they won’t be chewy. The tops don’t get much color, but the bottoms will be nicely golden.

5. Place pans on cooling racks. When cool, store cookies in air-tight containers for up to a week.

Findings:

While this sliced from log batch had the same exact dough preparation as the control batch, they were more gratifying to eat, owing to the textural difference. They had mostly flat tops, which were buttery and crisp like shortbread, with only a stripe of the sweet turbinado crunch around their waists. The interiors were still soft and chewy, but without the thick centers of the control batch. The reduced surface area coverage of turbinado gave the other flavors of the dough some room, which allowed the butter to mount a more prominent position than the sweetness alone.

3. 24 Hour Rest

Follow the original recipe as written until Step 4, then proceed accordingly:

1. Cover with plastic wrap and let chill in refrigerator for 24 hours.

2. After 24 hours, bake for 10 to 12 minutes, turning pans midway through baking, until cookies have spread into rounds and the edges look set. Resist the urge to bake your cookies longer, or they won’t be chewy. The tops don’t get much color, but the bottoms will be nicely golden.

3. Place pans on cooling racks. When cool, store cookies in air-tight containers for up to a week.

Findings:

It pains me to recommend something more labor intensive than an old standby (I hate to sous vide, for example), but these 24-Hour Rest cookies really were orders of magnitude more delicious than the Control batch. The stock reasons that recipes will provide for the resting and chilling of dough are that the respite in the process allows the moisture to distribute more evenly among the dry ingredients, and that it deepens the flavor. Both proved true in this case. The cookies had a better texture throughout, were chewier in the centers and crispier on the exteriors, spread less, and the flavor was leagues more interesting, with more intense brown sugar notes than the control batch.

4. Bread Flour

The ingredients for this variation are the same, with the exception of a bread flour swap—use 1½ cups bread flour in place of the original all-purpose flour. Follow the steps in the original recipe as written.

Findings:

Bread flour has a higher protein content than all purpose flour, so I hoped this batch would produce even chewier cookies. I was disappointed to bite into one and find that instead, it only produced a firmer specimen, with less overall chew. The texture was also extremely consistent all the way through, whereas the other batches had more chew in the center and more softness toward the sides.

5. Brown Butter

The ingredients for this variation are the same. Use the ingredients in the original recipe as written.

Heat oven to 375°F. Line two large sheet pans with parchment paper.

Brown the butter: In a small saucepan, heat butter over medium until it foams and sizzles and subsides, leaving golden brown bits in its wake, about 5 to 7 minutes. Pour browned butter into a heat-safe glass measuring cup and let cool about 10 minutes. Add a splash of milk or cream to get the browned butter to meet the ½ cup mark (some water will have evaporated during the browning process). Stick in the refrigerator to bring butter back to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Once the butter is solid again, proceed with the steps of the original recipe as written.

Findings

For the first batch, I only let the butter brown to a midpoint, a sort of golden walnut tone; the flavor in the resulting cookies was so subtle, I went back for another round. For the second batch of Brown Butter sugar cookies, I let the butter brown until it was a dark mahogany. It lent the cookies nutty undertones that played nicely with the vanilla-sweetness. That said, the cookies lacked the toffee flavor of brown butter chocolate chip cookies; the effect was more understated, and likely could’ve been heightened by swapping out some of the all-purpose flour for a toasted nut flour.

6. Extra Yolk

The ingredients for this variation are the same, with the exception of an additional egg yolk. Follow the steps in the original recipe as written.

Findings:

The Extra Egg Yolk batch proved to be a delightful, custardy surprise, with richer centers that were just as chewy as the Control cookies. The exteriors were also crisper and slightly more browned, which meant a little more flavor in each bite.

7. Confectioners’ Sugar

The ingredients for this variation are the same, with the exception of a sugar swap—use ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar in place of the original granulated and light brown sugars. Follow the steps in the original recipe as written.

Findings:

The Confectioners’ Sugar cookies sort of bummed me out. From a texture-only perspective, they were pleasant, soft and puffy, like those frosted grocery store cookies. But flavor-wise, they tasted like almost nothing. (That was partially because I swapped the sugar by weight, so there was less overall sugar in the cookies, but I also suspect that the sugar also did not pick up as much flavor when it hit the heat on the pan.)

8. Baking Powder

The ingredients for this variation are the same, with the exception of a leavener swap—use ½ teaspoon baking powder in place of the original baking soda. Follow the steps in the original recipe as written.

Findings:

Baking Powder doesn’t need an acidic element in order to react and cause leavening, so I was excited to swap it into these (fairly non-acidic) cookies, in place of the baking soda. Doing so produced a much puffier cookie that did not spread quite as much as the control. It was still chewy, but less so, with a plusher, softer crumb.

For sugar cookies with…

• A classic composition, deeper flavor, and maximum chew, use the control recipe above, but let the dough rest 24 hours before baking.
• Extra crispy flat outsides and soft interiors—like a shortbread-sugar cookie hybrid—roll into a log and slice.
• Custardy texture with a crisp and browned exterior, add an egg yolk
• More nuanced flavor, use deeply browned butter in place of regular.
• Less chewiness, use baking powder.