Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe- Small Batch of Cookies. This is a sugar cookie recipe that makes just a small batch of 6. No chilling required!
This small batch cookie recipe is a classic sugar cookie. It is a simple, easy cookie recipe with a base of sugar, butter, and flour. I consider this one of my easy cookies recipes with few ingredients (7 total), that makes a small batch of sugar cookies (six cookies).
Another reason this cookie recipe is quick and basic is that there is no chilling required for these sugar cookies. No chilling required sugar cookies can go from bowl to bake without any wait time in between.
While I always encourage humility, in this particular case, I feel confident saying I make the best damn homemade sugar cookies in the world, ever. They are soft, chewy, easy and quick. I understand this is a bold statement, but it’s one I am committed to stand behind for the rest of my life.
Scroll through the comments on this recipe below, if you’re inclined not to believe me.
The search for the easy sugar cookie begins:
When I found out I was going to be a Mom, I knew a great classic sugar cookie recipe needed to be in my arsenal. I have visions of being the favorite house on the block because of my soft, chewy, quick, easy sugar cookies recipe.
Fast forward to my baby being a toddler these days, and I now try to limit her sugar intake as much as possible. She definitely eats these cookies on occasion, but I am not the cookie factory I said I would be after I became a Mom.
My grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe from scratch uses shortening for fluff, but I went with all butter for this version. Over the years, I think we’ve all lost our taste and tolerance for shortening, haven’t we?
Homemade sugar cookies with all butter just tastes better, and you can definitely quote me on that. The flavor is a classic sugar cookie with slightly crisp edges, a soft chewy center, and crackles on the surface. They are the best!
Even if you’re not looking for a small batch cookie recipe, you should make this recipe.
Easy sugar cookie recipe tips:
I love this easy sugar cookie recipe because it starts with melted butter. Personally, I always forget to the put the butter out on the counter to soften for baking, but I still want cookies quick in 20 minutes.
It’s a sad recurrent theme in my life, but I don’t have to worry about that with this recipe. For this easy sugar cookie recipe, I can pull a stick of frozen butter out of the freezer, hack it in half with my biggest knife and melt it to make cookies in just 20 minutes!
How many cookies is small batch?
The recipe makes 6 perfect sugar cookies that spread, puff, and crackle perfectly in the oven. They’re super chewy, which is precisely what makes them so addictive.
You can press a chocolate peanut butter heart in them like I do for the photos, (these were inspired by my red velvet sugar cookies recipe), or eat them plain. Or, you can smash lavender buds or tea leaves into the sugar to flavor them. Your favorite citrus zest is very welcome here, too, as are plenty of pretty sprinkles. If you're looking for for sprinkle cookies with frosting, try my Lofthouse Cookies recipe.
This sugar cookie dough is completely no chill; in fact, chilling the dough will prevent them from spreading. Finally, you’ve found the best no chill sugar cookie recipe on the internet!
I also recommend tattooing the recipe on the inside of your right arm because that’s how much you’ll use this recipe.
I love the way the leftover heat from the oven slightly melts these peanut butter hearts on top of the cookies. What a cute Valentine’s Day cookie, am I right?
Why a homemade cookie recipe tastes better:
I am such a proponent of making homemade everything for three reasons:
- I think making delicious food is a skill we should strive to have that requires practice.
- You can take a base recipe and have fun with it, adding citrus zest, lavender buds, tea leaves, top them with colored sprinkles or candies. There are so many options to have fun with when you bake from scratch.
- It helps me be grateful whenever we go out to eat and I know how much work someone else put into feeding me.
What makes a classic sugar cookie recipe that is easy to make:
This recipe is based off the sugar cookie recipe in my Sweet & Simple: Desserts for Two cookbook, and so if you love a simple small batch recipes, you should really grab a copy.
But my opinion is heavily biased, naturally.
I love that this recipe has few ingredients, uses just ½ a stick of butter (that you don’t have to have at room temperature) and I love even more that it only bakes up 6 cookies. This built-in portion control is what keeps my life in order.
Plus, when my daughter comes home from school and wants to bake cookies, it’s pretty simple to pull out all the ingredients to make these. Camille wants me to mention that YES, sprinkles are very welcome here.
If you like small batch cookie recipes (or just lack self-control around a big plate of cookies like I do), you have to try my recipe for small batch chocolate chip cookies!
This recipe uses just an egg yolk, click to see my recipes that use a leftover egg white.
This is my section for recipes that use leftover egg yolks.
The best way to store sugar cookies:
These cookies keep well at room temperature in an air-tight container. If they’re not completely sealed, the cookies will dry out, so make sure you’re using something that snaps tightly.
They’ve lasted for up to 3 days on my counter, but it was really hard to not eat them quickly! However, I make these cookies a few times a month in my house, and there’s no shortage of people to share the cookies with.
Make these for a small cookie tray to deliver to a new neighbor or someone who’s had a baby recently. In the case of someone who had baby, I recommend doubling the recipe.
Yes, I’ve successfully doubled this recipe many times because it so simple. I bring this easy sugar cookie recipe to many of my book signings. Actually, to be honest, my Mom helps me bake a lot of the things for my book signings, and since these sugar cookies are so easy, she usually makes these!
We’ve never actually tripled them, but it’s a pretty straight-forward recipe with simple ratios, so you can try it. If you do and it works, please, let us all know in the comment section below. When doubling or tripling, follow the recipe exactly. So, use two egg yolks in the case of doubling; three egg yolks in the case of tripling.
Can I use this recipe with cookie cutters?
I should mention: these are not cut-out sugar cookies; these are no-chill drop sugar cookies. If you’re looking for cut-out cookies, I have those, though!
I have Christmas Cut-Outs and plain Cut Out Sugar Cookies with Frosting. I even have gingerbread cut-out sugar cookies with hot pink frosting, too!
What kind of Pan should I use?
The best pan to use for these easy small-batch sugar cookies is a quarter sheet pan. The one I’ve used for years and love is this one by NordicWare.
If you have any questions about these cookies, leave them in the comments section and I’ll answer them below. Be sure to scroll through the comment section first, as someone else may have already asked your question.
Happy Baking!
Yield: 6 cookies
Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe
Small batch sugar cookies recipe for two.
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
11 minutes
Total Time
21 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk, white reserved for another use
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon fine salt
- 6 peanut butter chocolate hearts (like Reese's)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350, and line a small baking sheet with parchment paper (or use a silicone mat).
- Stir together the melted butter, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Stir very well to combine.
- Next, sprinkle the flour, baking soda and salt evenly over the dough, and stir just to combine.
- Press the dough flat and evenly in the bowl, and then divide it in half by eye. You should get 3 cookies from each half.
- Roll each dough ball in your hands, roll lightly extra granulated sugar, and then space evenly on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they spread, start to crackle and appear dry on top.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- After the cookies have cooled for 10 minutes, press a chocolate heart into the center of each cookie. Move the cookies to the fridge (so the hearts don't melt too much) to set for 30 minutes.
- Bring to room temperature before serving.
Notes
This recipe starts with melted butter, which makes it so simple. Yes, you can double the recipe.
Also, please note that the recipe uses just 1 egg yolk, not the entire egg. If you add the entire egg, the dough will be too soft.
If you double the recipe, use 2 egg yolks, not 1 whole egg.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 230Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 83mgSodium: 170mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 4g
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Jenny says
Wow! I made this recipe and could barely stop myself from eating the whole batch but it was so delicious I’ll admit I ate 3 😂 I added a quarter teaspoon of almond extract and it was just delightful. Definitely making this again!
Sandra Friesen says
I made these tonight and they were super fast to mix up. I added a couple of tablespoons of multi coloured jimmies to the mix just to “jazz them up”.
Phyllis M Thomas says
Can I use use margarine instead of butter
Christina Lane says
I'm a little worried about the dough spreading too much while baking, since margarine is oil. If you try it, refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes before baking, just to be sure.
Matt says
This won't work with most modern margarines. In the past, they were made of oils that firmed up in the fridge like transfats and hydrogenated oils. These were fine for baking purposes (though awful for your body). Modern margarine is an emulsion, it's "solidity" depends on a chemical balance that breaks when you melt it. No amount of refrigeration will firm it back up and this simply doesn't work for things like cakes and cookies where you need the fats to set back up after baking to help form those sugar and starch latices that give us the various textures you're looking for.
Lily Dunbar says
Best cookie recipe ever! It was so easy and only took about 30 minutes of my time. My family loved them and I got to get creative and put fun things in the cookies. I rolled 2 in cinnamon sugar, and I put sprinkles in 2, and put chocolate chips in the other 2. They got gobbled up so fast, I have to make more!
Traces says
great idea, I did the sprinkles dots, next time I will try cinnamon sugar ..Yess how about peanut butter chips, man so many choices
Amanda says
Could you make this in a 6" pan or would you need to double the recipe?
Philip says
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp of flour = how many grams for this recipe?
Unfortunately not all measuring cups are exactly the same, and many websites list the weight of flour per cup differently as the weight can change drastically depending how you measure or scoop the flour.
I used about 76g of flour and I’m wondering if I used too much or too little as the cookies didn’t come out looking the same as yours. Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Thank You.
Kim says
I made these last night. They live up to their easy name for sure. So I have been into all things maple since fall hit. I subbed 1/4 teaspoon maple extract for half of the vanilla. I had some maple sugar left over from another recipe and rolled the dough balls into it. I pressed a 1/2 pecan onto each cookie in place of the heart. Yum yum and more yum. I'm glad this only made 6 because they are dangerously delish!
John says
could you please make the same recipe with 12 servings instead of one? Ima big fan and it was so delicious and i cant convert. If you do i swear you are the best!
Claire says
Made these today for our Christmas cookies and they turned out SO good! We do sugar cookies every year and these have been by far the best!
Rina says
Recipe says to sprinkle the flour, baking soda and salt evenly over the dough. What dough? We haven't Madde any yet?
Christina Lane says
Sprinkle it over the wet ingredients you already have in the bowl.