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The holidays are officially upon us. While there is technically never a bad time to make sugar cookies, now is arguably the perfect time to find the best recipe and make it your own. There are multitudes of sugar cookie recipes out there, so to save you a little time and stress, I tested the five most popular ones from Allrecipes community members. Here’s what I learned.

In Search of the Perfect Sugar Cookie

What really makes a sugar cookie stand out above the rest? The perfect cookie holds its own without adornment and gets bonus points for adaptability and/or frostability. The ideal recipe results in a cookie with crispy edges, a chewy center, and flawless flavor balance. The ingredients and methodology are simple, but require attention to detail in order to achieve these standards. 

Meet the Contestants

Mary-Claire Britton

How I Judged the Recipes

I considered three key factors when judging each recipe: 

The Results Best For Decorating: The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

Of the five recipes I tested, this is hands-down the best for decorating. The author calls simply for butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and salt. The dough requires a minimum rest in the fridge of an hour.  These cookies roll out beautifully and maintain their shapes during the baking process, which makes them so versatile. They also ranked high in both flavor and texture categories. 

Mary-Claire Britton

Best Last Minute Cookies: Easy Sugar Cookies

Meredith Food Studio

Stephanie’s recipe is as easy as they come. Softened butter and sugar are creamed together with an egg and a dash of vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients and you’re more than halfway there. This recipe goes straight from the mixing bowl to the oven with no required rest in the fridge. The cookies bake up crisp on the outside with a chewy interior. This is 100 percent the recipe to use when you need sugar cookies…and you need them 10 minutes ago. My only real gripe with this recipe is that it does not include any salt. 

Mary-Claire Britton

Most Versatile: Cracked Sugar Cookies

Nick's Vlogs

Pam’s recipe calls for creaming softened butter and sugar before adding egg yolks and folding in dry ingredients. This is another quick recipe that requires no rest in the fridge after mixing. The dough is scooped and rolled into balls before baking for 10 minutes. The result is a supremely soft and chewy cookie with that coveted crackly top. While these cookies are great on their own, the recipe lends itself to adaptability. A little nutmeg and cinnamon turn these right into snickerdoodles. The texture, while not ideal for cookie cutters, is great for frosting and decorating.

Mary-Claire Britton

Best Supermarket Dupe: Thick Cut-Outs

Sherry Deray

Margo’s recipe includes eggs, egg yolks, and a tablespoon of baking powder. All of this leavening results in a tall and cake-like cookie with an airy interior. This outcome is reminiscent of the frosted sugar cookies that have been so popular in grocery stores over the past several years. This is the ideal recipe for either replicating these cookies at home or for making black and white cookies. I tested this recipe with a variety of cookie cutters—while they mostly maintained their shapes, they’re a little goofy-looking due to the amount of puffiness and height gained in the oven. I found the dough to be an absolute delight to work with: It’s smooth and silky and doesn’t break or tear easily. The flavor is nice and benefits from the addition of frosting. 

Mary-Claire Britton

Best Overall: Chewy Sugar Cookies

Dotdash Meredith Food Studios

This recipe was a complete surprise to me—and the favorite among my kids. The recipe calls for margarine instead of butter, which made me a bit dubious, but the results were fantastic. Margarine and sugar are beaten together until creamy, followed by eggs and vanilla. Dry ingredients are folded in, just until the mixture comes together. The dough goes for a brief rest in the cooler before walnut-sized balls are scooped and rolled in a bit of granulated sugar. Not only were these cookies great right out of the oven, but they maintained their flavor and texture for several days in a box on the countertop. This recipe managed to challenge my loyalty to butter, which is not something I’ve ever publicly admitted. I have bookmarked this recipe to make again very soon.