Sugar Cookies Lab · Calculator

Design your own sugar cookies

The sliders start at the typical batch: the median of 513 recipes for each ingredient, in grams per 100 g of flour. Move any of them within the range that 90% of recipes use (the 5th to the 95th percentile) and the grams update, with where your choice sits among the recipes and what that ingredient does.

This scales ratios; it is not a tested recipe. Each ingredient moves on its own against the flour, and a combination no recipe uses may not bake the way you expect. For the method, pan and oven, follow the real recipes nearest your numbers.

Flour

Flour weight (g)

280 g, about 2 1/4 cups, makes one typical batch.

Start from a recipe

Load a real recipe's percentages into the sliders. Search by title or site.

Grams per 100 g of flour

Fat
170 g · 61%about 3/4 cup
In the middle: 42% of recipes use more, 57% less.
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.
Sugar
180 g · 64%about 1 cup
In the middle: 48% of recipes use more, 46% less.
Sugar tenderizes and spreads the dough as it melts; powdered sugar gives a finer, less spreading cookie than granulated.
Egg
50 g · 18%about 1 large egg
In the middle: 47% of recipes use more, 52% less.
Egg binds the dough and makes it cakier; some cut-out recipes use none for a crisper, flatter cookie.
Leavening
3.5 g · 1.3%
In the middle: 49% of recipes use more, 48% less.
Soft sugar cookies use baking powder to puff; cut-out recipes use little or none so edges stay sharp.
Salt
2 g · 0.7%
In the middle: 47% of recipes use more, 49% less.
A little salt keeps a butter-and-sugar dough from tasting flat.

Your sugar cookies

Your sugar cookies in grams, with approximate volumes
Ingredient	Grams
Flour	280 gabout 2 1/4 cups
Fatbutter, oil and shortening	170 gabout 3/4 cup
Sugarwhite sugar, brown sugar, honey and syrups	180 gabout 1 cup
Eggwhole eggs, yolks and whites	50 gabout 1 large egg
Leaveningbaking soda and baking powder	3.5 g
Salt	2 g
Total	686 g

686 g in all from 280 g of flour, counting only the groups above.

Closest real recipe: Classic Sugar Cookies (jessicagavin.com).

BakeThe median of 450 recipes is 350°F (175°C), most for 10 to 13 minutes at their own size. A bigger or smaller batch, or a different pan, changes the time.

The 3 real recipes nearest your numbers

Measured on fat, sugar, egg, leavening and salt at once. These are published, tested recipes: follow one for its method, pan and timing, or load its percentages and adjust from there.

1
Classic Sugar Cookies · jessicagavin.com
fat 58% · sugar 69% · egg 17% · leavening 1.6% · salt 0.7%
2
Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe · chelseasmessyapron.com
fat 61% · sugar 73% · egg 18% · leavening 1.6% · salt 0.8%
3
Stars and Stripes Sugar Cookies (Fourth of July Cookies) · sugarhero.com
fat 62% · sugar 67% · egg 14% · leavening 1.2% · salt 0.8%

How the calculator works

Every recipe is reduced to baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient group per 100 g of flour. The starting point is the median of all 513 recipes for each group separately, so no single recipe is exactly the starting batch. Grams are your flour weight times each percentage, rounded to the nearest 5 g above 50 g and the nearest gram or half gram below.

“More than 80% of recipes” counts the recipes with strictly less of that ingredient per gram of flour. The nearest recipes are measured on every ingredient at once, each scaled by how much recipes vary on it, so a wide-ranging ingredient does not outweigh a narrow one.

Only the groups listed are counted. Vanilla, spices, mix-ins and toppings are left out unless they have their own slider. Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, a large egg 50 g.