Best Easy Sugar Cookies

These sugar cookies sit closer to a snickerdoodle than a typical cutout. The cream of tartar plus baking soda combination is the same chemical pairing that gives snickerdoodles their slight tang and crackled tops. Skip the cinnamon and roll in plain sugar, and you’ve got a sparkling drop cookie that bakes up tender in the middle and crisp at the edges.

Shortening instead of butter is the deliberate move. It keeps the cookies tall and tender without spreading thin, and gives them that storebought-soft texture that lasts for days. Brown sugar adds a faint caramel note to balance the sharp acidity from the cream of tartar.

There’s no chilling step here, which is why this lands in the easy category. Mix, roll, sugar, bake. The dough is firm enough straight from the bowl to handle rolling into balls.

Ten to twelve minutes at 350°F (175°C) is the sweet spot. The cookies look just barely set and slightly puffed when ready. They flatten and crack as they cool, which is exactly what you want.

Pro Tips

• Don’t skip the cream of tartar. It’s what gives these cookies their distinct chew and crackled tops.
• Roll the balls smaller than golf balls for the right finished size. They spread modestly during baking.
• Use medium-coarse sugar like sanding sugar for the dramatic sparkle effect.
• Pull at 10 minutes for soft centers, 12 for crisper edges. Both work.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the sugar roll for a classic snickerdoodle.
• Stir a teaspoon of lemon or orange zest into the dough for a citrus brightener.
• Press a chocolate kiss into the center as soon as they come out of the oven for thumbprint-style cookies.