Quick, Easy and delicious sugar cookies made with just 3 ingredients – butter, flour and sugar! Can’t get easier than that!!
If you love sugar cookies, you’ll also love our famous recipe for soft sugar cookies and our sugar cookie bars.
Just a Few Ingredients!
We love sugar cookies – and we love when yummy recipes only require a few ingredients.
Put those two together and we ESPECIALLY love yummy cookies that take just a few pantry staples, and today’s recipe is just that. Delicious, butter-y cookies that call for just butter, sugar and flour. We decided to add some almond extract because it’s our favorite, and for the kids – some sprinkles.
The result was amazing! The cookies were crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and a hit with the whole family!
How to Make 3 Ingredient Sugar Cookies
Like I said – SO EASY to make! Begin by preheating the oven to 325.
In a medium bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until combined. Then, you’ll add the flour and almond (if you want to) and mix well.
At this point, you’ll most likely need to get in there with your hands and mix until a dough forms. Roll into 1 – 1.5 inch balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Dip the bottom of a cup into sugar and then press the balls down. If adding sprinkles, add now and lightly push into the top. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden on the bottom.
Let set for at least 10-15 minutes before eating.
Recipe FAQ
Can you make them without butter? If you don’t have butter you can try to use canola oil. This will get the “fat” that you need in the recipe, but you may need to experiment with using more flour because the substance from the butter is not there.
Can you make these for cut out cookies? Unfortunately you can’t use this recipe for cut out cookies. It doesn’t bind super well since it doesn’t have eggs so you risk the cookies falling apart when you try to use a cookie cutter. They may also burn and turn crispy too quick.
How to decorate: They would be delicious to cover in lots of frosting! Other than that you can press some sprinkles onto the cookies before baking them for some sort of decoration.
How to store cookies? Store sugar cookies in an airtight container on the counter. They should last 3-5 days. If you are worried about them drying out then you should store them with a piece of bread. Then the bread will become stale instead of the sugar cookies.
To Frost or Not to Frost?
We loved these cookies as is!
Having said that – we know that frosting just makes cookies better sometimes. If you want to add frosting, we suggest using our favorite sugar cookie frosting recipe, which is a combination of:
- softened butter
- powdered sugar
- milk
- vanilla
- almond extract
So good!! You could also make a glaze, which is typically made with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.
For more easy cookies, check out:
3 Ingredient Sugar Cookie Recipe
Quick, easy and delicious sugar cookies made with just 3 ingredients - butter, sugar and flour.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 cups flour (may need 1/4 cup more)
- 1 tsp almond extract optional
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325.
Mix butter and sugar in a medium bowl until combined.
Add flour and almond (if adding) and mix well. You will need to use your hands to make sure it gets combined to form a dough.
Roll into 1 - 1.5 inch balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Dip the bottom of a cup into sugar and then press the balls down. If adding sprinkles, add now and lightly push into the top.
Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden on the bottom. Let set for at least 10-15 minutes before eating.
Fantastic! Like a combination of sugar cookie and short bread. What could be better….. for high altitude baking bread to add a couple tablespoons of water for a better dough. Other than that…perfect!!!!
Thank you for sharing that 🙂
These are the easiest cookies & taste so good!! Love that they are ingredients I always have on hand!
Love this!! This is so simple and the girls loved helping me make them.
My kids love these cookies! We’ve used your recipe so manty times and it always turns out perfect!
Is that 170 cal per one cookie?
I dont like making sugar cookies because they are always So involved, but these were Quick and easy.
A very simple cookie that takes No effort but produces great resUlts!
Easiest sugar cookie recipe and delicious! Perfect for a small batch for my grandkids! Thank you!
You are so welcome! That’s why I love it, too! Thank you!
TOO SIMPLE!! LOVE IT 😍😍
Glad you think so 😉 Thank you!!
my cookies spread out really far, and are falling apart. also took 25 minutes instead of the 14-16. what did i do wrong?
I wish I knew for sure? There are a few different reasons cookies can spread out. I would google that, to see if any of the reasons could be what may have caused yours to do that. I’m sorry, they did. It’s just so hard to know.