What more can I say about this wonderful Vintage Betty Crocker Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe, other than PERFECT! This is the same recipe that my Grandma Janet and I used when we made sugar cookies every year at Christmastime and I hunted it down when it was time to make the traditional rolled sugar cookies with my own children.
Sometimes the Classics are Still the Very Best
It is the base recipe that I use for any sugar cookies, like my classic rolled sugar cookies which is my adaptation to include my favorite ingredients for the best tasting sugar cookies around!
If you need to cut the prep time down and skip the chilling, you can try out my no chill rolled sugar cookies for another fantastic sugar cookie recipe!
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Need a frosting recipe for your sugar cookies? Try my sugar cookie frosting that hardens, it's ultra white base color works great for adding colors to for amazing sugar cookie decorating!
My amazing glossy sugar cookie icing is also ideal for all of your holiday cookie baking! Like my frosting, this shiny icing will harden once set to make stacking a breeze!
Ingredients You'll Need
These classic cookies are made with 7 simple ingredients that most of us always have in our pantry!
- Shortening - Or a combination of shortening and butter. The original recipe itself calls for shortening and margarine, as do many vintage recipes.
- Sugar - What would sugar cookies be without the staple granulated sugar that makes them so tasty!
- Eggs - To add structure and bind your ingredients together.
- Salt - A touch of salt to keep your cookies from being overly sweet, salt makes everything taste better!
- Baking Powder - To give just the right amount of rise to your cookies.
- Vanilla Extract - Use more if you want, it won't hurt anything! Vanilla helps to heighten all of the delicious ingredient flavors in cookies.
- All-Purpose Flour - The bakers' staple ingredient for adding bulk to baked goods.
How to Make Rolled Sugar Cookies
The instructions in the recipe card below are very true to the original recipe. My preferred method for mixing cookie dough, a one-bowl method, is given here.
Mix the Cookie Dough
- To make Vintage Betty Crocker Rolled Sugar Cookies, for best results, cream together the shortening (plus butter or margarine) and sugar.
- Add the eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla and combine well.
- Add the flour until your dough forms, then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before rolling out your dough for cut out sugar cookies.
Roll, Cut, and Bake the Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Transfer a portion (I roll my batches in roughly quarter portions of the dough) to a lightly floured working surface. Roll out the dough until it is approximately ¼ inch in thickness. Cut desired shapes out using your cookie cutters.
- Place the cut-out cookie shapes onto your prepared baking sheets and bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the bottoms are just beginning to turn golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to set on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
How Long Can I Store My Vintage Betty Crocker Rolled Sugar Cookie Dough In The Refrigerator?
Once your dough is made, rather than simply covering the bowl with plastic wrap for the required chilling time, place dough in an airtight container. It can be refrigerated for up to 1 week, but I suggest using your cookie dough within the first 3 to 5 days for best results.
Can I Freeze My Vintage Betty Crocker Rolled Sugar Cookie Dough?
You can easily freeze your dough! Once you have combined all of your ingredients, rather than chilling the sugar cookie dough in the refrigerator, I split my dough into two halves.
Form a disc shaped round between a couple of sheets of plastic wrap (about 1 inch in thickness), then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Once the discs are formed, they can be stored in a freezer storage bag or an airtight container in the freezer.
How Long Can I Freeze Sugar Cookie Dough?
Sugar cookie dough in general can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. How well the dough has been wrapped and stored for freezing will affect your dough's best 'use by' date.
My best results when baking frozen sugar cookie dough, is to use dough no older than 3 months. Other family members say that their dough stores easily for more than 6 months (and even up to 1 year!).
*Recipe as it was originally printed with very minor exceptions and an additional note or two, such as creaming the shortening and sugar together. Also, although the recipe states that it yields 4 dozen 3" cookies, my batches have never yielded more than 3 dozen 🙂
📖 Recipe Card
Vintage Betty Crocker Rolled Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup shortening (part butter or margarine, softened)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (or ½ teaspoon lemon extract)
- 2 ½ cups Gold Medal (all-purpose) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Mix the shortening, sugar, eggs, and flavoring together thoroughly (best to cream the the shortening and sugar together until smooth first). Blend in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill for at least an hour.
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness on a lightly floured pastry mat or board. Cut out desired shapes and transfer them to your baking sheet(s). Bake 6-8 minutes or until very lightly brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Anonymous says
I've been looking for the Betty crocker cookbook with this recipe for ever what year was it
published
Angela Latimer says
Someone had commented that this recipe is in the 1963 cookbook, but I know this came from a 1950's cookbook. It is from 1959 if I remember correctly. I'll have to check again and make a note in the post for everyone that's trying to match up the correct recipe to their version they remember.