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
Ingredients
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.
loved it
Glad you did! Thank you!!
I haven’t baked in a while, getting ready for some Xmas baking..(excited 😁) tried this recipe..it was very easy to follow.. I think my 1st batch i rolled the ball to big. Ut in all they tasted yummy…
I am excited for the holiday baking, too! Thank you for sharing that!
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.
I just made these. So easy and so delicious. I had all the ingredients on hand. Already sent the recipe to both of my daughters. Thanks?
You are welcome! Love when I have everything on hand when I find a recipe. Thank you so much!
Planning on trying this soon! Can I use vanilla extract instead of Almond? Also sprinkles go one before placing in oven? Will this burn them? (New to baking and trying easy recipes out while i am home!)
Yes, I haven’t swapped those personally, but you sure could! And, yes, add them before baking, won’t burn them 🙂
Is the flour plain or self raising?
Just regular all-purpose flour 🙂
This was Very good. But can i add VANILLA extract INSTEAD?
I haven’t baked anything in years until I’ve been staying home with the pandemic. I didn’t have almond extract so I used vanilla. But I ground up some sliced almonds and put them in the dough and then I did the same and MIXed them with sugar to put the cup in to flatten the cookies. I added a couple of sliced almonds on top for garnish. I BAKEd the first batch for 16 minutes but I wasn’t sure they were completely done, so I did the second for 20 minutes, then put the first back in for 5 minutes. Love how easy and quick this recipe is and I can see myself making it again and adding different things into the dough for different FLAVORINGs.
That sounds great! I’m glad you shared what you did! Thank you so much!
Good idea i just carmalized the bottom of mine so not sure if i had it right but really sugary