Sugar Cookies Lab513 recipes

Sugar Cookies Lab

Sugar Cookies: what 513 recipes agree on

Cut-out to soft and puffy: butter, sugar and egg per 100 g of flour.

513 recipes from 117 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.

Recipes

513

from 117 sites

Typical flour

280 g

about 2 1/4 cups

Oven

350°F

175°C · median of 450

Bake time

11 min

most 10 to 13 min

The typical batch of sugar cookies

The median of all 513 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 280 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Typical sugar cookies recipe in grams, with the range most recipes use
IngredientGrams
FlourThe scale for everything else280 gabout 2 1/4 cups
FatMost recipes use 140 to 195 g170 gabout 3/4 cup
SugarMost recipes use 150 to 230 g180 gabout 1 cup
EggMost recipes use 39 to 65 g50 gabout 1 large egg
LeaveningMost recipes use 1 to 6 g3.5 g
SaltMost recipes use 0.5 to 3 g2 g

Bake350°F (175°C) for about 11 minutes.

Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, a large egg 50 g.

Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient

Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.

  1. Fat

    median 61% · most 50 to 70%

    Butter is most of the flavor. More of it makes a richer, softer cookie that spreads; cut-out recipes stay near the low end so shapes hold.

    0%50%100%150%
    Each dot is up to 10 recipes.

    range 20 to 114%

  2. Sugar

    median 64% · most 53 to 83%

    Sugar tenderizes and spreads the dough as it melts; powdered sugar gives a finer, less spreading cookie than granulated.

    0%50%100%150%200%
    Each dot is up to 11 recipes.

    range 25 to 150%

  3. Egg

    median 18% · most 14 to 23%

    Egg binds the dough and makes it cakier; some cut-out recipes use none for a crisper, flatter cookie.

    0%20%40%60%
    Each dot is up to 7 recipes.

    range 0 to 53% · 7% use none

  4. Leavening

    median 1.3% · most 0.4 to 2.1%

    Soft sugar cookies use baking powder to puff; cut-out recipes use little or none so edges stay sharp.

    0%2%4%6%
    Each dot is up to 13 recipes.

    range 0 to 5.8% · 22% use none

  5. Salt

    median 0.7% · most 0.2 to 1%

    A little salt keeps a butter-and-sugar dough from tasting flat.

    0%1%2%3%
    Each dot is up to 12 recipes.

    range 0 to 2.7% · 19% use none

Where recipes disagree

Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.

  • Leavening. The middle half of recipes use 0.4 to 2.1% of the flour weight in leavening, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 5.3 times as much as one at the 25th.
  • Salt. The middle half of recipes use 0.2 to 1% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 5.0 times as much as one at the 25th.

Recipes agree most on fat and sugar: fat 50 to 70%, sugar 53 to 83% for the middle half.

Around the world

506 of the recipes come in 4 languages with enough of each to compare: English 420, French 58, German 18, Italian 10.

  • French recipes use 17% less fat than English ones (50% against 61% of the flour weight) and 23% less sugar (50% against 66%); most use no leavening (70%, against 13% of English recipes).
  • Italian recipes use under a third as much salt as English ones (0.1% against 0.8% of the flour weight); most use no leavening (70%, against 13% of English recipes).
Every language, ingredient by ingredient →

What the words in titles mean

English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.

Recipes called “soft” (45), “easy” (20) or “best” (14) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.

“chewy”

16 recipes vs 404

Recipes called “chewy”: more sugar (86% vs 64%).

“chewy” (16)the rest (404)middle half of all

  • Sugarrecipes called chewy 86% vs the rest 64%

“brown sugar”

18 recipes vs 402

Recipes with “brown sugar” in the title: more sugar (107% vs 64%).

“brown sugar” (18)the rest (402)middle half of all

  • Sugarrecipes with brown sugar in the title 107% vs the rest 64%

All 5 words, and 9 that change nothing →

The most-reviewed recipes

91 sugar cookie recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 422, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:

On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.

50+ ratings (91)the rest (422)middle half of all

  • Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 61% vs the rest 61%

  • Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 64% vs the rest 64%

  • Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 16% vs the rest 18%

  • Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 1.5% vs the rest 1.3%

  • Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 0.8% vs the rest 0.6%

Most reviewed

  1. Sugar Cookie Recipe · preppykitchen.com5.0 from 4,988 ratings
  2. Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 4,604 ratings
  3. Sablés de Noël au thermomix · cookomix.com · French4.9 from 2,046 ratings
  4. Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting · sugarspunrun.com5.0 from 1,796 ratings
  5. Sugar Cookies · foodnetwork.com4.3 from 1,684 ratings

Oven temperature and time

450 of 513 recipes state an oven temperature, and 71% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 63 do not say.

  • 350°F322 recipes
  • 375°F71 recipes
  • 325°F34 recipes
  • 400°F14 recipes
  • 300°F6 recipes
  • 275°F1 recipe

499 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 11 minutes and the middle half bake 10 to 13 minutes.

Temperature and time together

The single most common pairing is 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes, with 121 of the 445 recipes that state both.

Rows: oven °F (°C in gray), every 25°F. Columns: minutes, 2 a column, from the start of each; the middle of a stated range counts. Darker: more recipes, up to 121 in one cell. Outlined: the median, 350°F for 11 minutes. 445 recipes state both. The edge rows and columns also hold the few recipes beyond them.

Recipes to start with

Closest to the typical batch

Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.

Most fat

Least fat

All 513 sugar cookie recipes →

Go deeper

Top sources

  • 1212tomatoes.com
  • 12beyondfrosting.com
  • 12chefsimon.com
  • 12crazyforcrust.com
  • 12iambaker.net
  • 12kingarthurbaking.com
  • 12kirbiecravings.com
  • 12melskitchencafe.com
  • 12ptitchef.com
  • 12sallysbakingaddiction.com
  • 12sugarspunrun.com
  • 12tasteofhome.com

In 7 languages: English 420, French 58, German 18, Italian 10, Spanish 3, Portuguese 2, Dutch 2. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 117 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.

How the numbers are made

Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.

95% of the 4,563 ingredient lines got a weight. 25% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.

A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 222 were left out: 71 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 59 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (sugar 37, fat 16, egg 4, leavening 1, salt 1), 56 with a title that names a different dish, 17 over the 12-per-site cap, 15 duplicates of other pages, 3 too many lines without an amount, and 1 made from a boxed mix.

Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.