Alright folks, got my hands a bit messy today testing out that super simple 4-ingredient sugar cookie recipe everyone keeps asking about. Honestly, I was skeptical. How good could it be with just four things? Here’s exactly what went down in my kitchen.
First thing I did was grab everything I needed. Seriously, just four things: one big cup of flour (all-purpose, just the regular stuff), one stick of butter (left it out for an hour-ish until soft – that part’s key!), about a half cup of sugar (white granulated sugar), and one large egg. That’s the whole crew. Felt kinda naked without baking powder or vanilla, gotta admit.
Next up, creaming the butter and sugar. Slapped that softened butter into my mixing bowl – was nice and squishy, perfect. Dumped in the half cup of sugar. Used my hand mixer and beat those two together for a solid two minutes. Just kept going until it looked light and kinda fluffy. Yeah, my elbow felt it a bit!
Then came the egg. Cracked it right into the sugary butter mix. Whirred it around with the mixer just until the yellow disappeared into the rest. Didn’t overdo it, just blended it in.
Time for the flour. Took my big measuring cup, scooped it straight out the bag, and leveled it off. Dumped that whole cup of flour right on top of the buttery-sugary-egg mix in the bowl. Switched the mixer off – this part is hand work. Grabbed a big spoon or spatula and started folding. Just pushed it through, turned it over, folded it in. Kept going until all that flour vanished. Looked like a soft dough ball at the end. Pretty sticky! Floured my fingers a little just to handle it.
Preheated my oven right then. Cranked it up to 350 degrees F (that’s 175 C for my metric pals). Pulled out a baking sheet, didn’t grease it or anything. Floured my countertop lightly, plopped that slightly sticky dough ball down. Divided it roughly into maybe 10 smaller chunks? Rolled each chunk between my palms to get little dough balls. Flattened each one gently with my palm – kept them about half an inch thick. Plopped them onto the baking sheet, not too close, they do spread a tiny bit.
Stuck the sheet in the preheated oven. Set my phone timer for 12 minutes. Peeked through the glass around the 10-minute mark – saw the bottoms starting to tan nicely and the tops looking sort of set, no wet shine. Pulled them out right at 12 minutes. The edges looked lightly golden.
Biggest tip? Let them rest on the hot pan for like 2-3 minutes after baking. They firm right up! Then carefully moved them to a wire rack to cool completely. Poured myself a glass of milk, waited impatiently.
Results? Genuinely shocked! They were crispy on the outside, slightly soft inside, sweet and buttery – totally tasted like proper sugar cookies! Sure, they didn’t have that vanilla punch, but the simplicity was awesome. Quick to make, minimal cleanup, crazy tasty for the effort. Definitely a keeper for those “need cookies NOW” moments. Give it a whirl!
