Easy Sugar Cookies Recipe Without Butter (So Soft)

Sugar cookies without butter are the ones I make on the afternoons I want to bake and open the fridge to find the butter gone. Oil steps in for the butter here, and it does one thing butter can’t: because oil stays liquid at room temperature, the crumb keeps its soft, just-baked feel a day or two after they come out of the oven.

This is my go-to dough when I want soft cookies with almost no fuss, since it comes together with a short chill and a roll in sugar. The chill is the part that gets skipped by most people, and it’s the part that decides whether the cookies hold a neat round or spread thin across the tray.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• No creaming or softening step, so the dough mixes in a few minutes.
• Oil gives a soft, tender crumb that stays soft for days instead of firming up as the cookies cool.
• The dough is naturally dairy-free, which makes these easy to bring to a table where someone skips dairy.
• One base recipe bends two ways: granulated sugar for a classic soft cookie, brown sugar for a chewier one.

Ingredients You’ll Need

You’ll need all the ingredients shown in the photograph below.

• Oil. The fat that replaces the butter. Three-quarters of a cup of a neutral oil, like vegetable oil, keeps the flavor clean and the crumb tender, and coconut oil works too if you don’t mind a faint coconut note.
• All-purpose flour. It gives the structure. Spoon it into the cup and level it off, since packing in an extra spoonful or two is the fastest way to a dry, crumbly dough.
• Granulated sugar. Sweetens the dough and, in a final roll, gives the tops their light crackle. It’s divided: most goes into the dough, and the rest coats the balls right before baking.
• One egg. Binds everything and keeps the cookies from turning crumbly, standing in for some of the structure butter would normally give.
• Vanilla extract. It carries most of the flavor here, so it’s worth using the real thing.
• Baking powder and salt. They do the quiet work: a little lift, and enough salt to keep the sweetness from going flat.

How to Make Sugar Cookies Without Butter

A complete printable recipe and the measurements in both US customary and metric are available in the recipe card below.

Make the dough

Start with the dry mix. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set it aside. In a larger bowl, beat the oil with three-quarters of the sugar until they’re well combined, then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing just until a soft dough forms; if it feels too sticky to handle, work in a spoonful more flour.

Cover and chill

Cover the bowl and chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes. The cold firms the oil-based dough enough to roll cleanly, and without it the dough is slack, and the cookies spread thin, so this is the step I never rush. While the dough chills, heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment. 

Shape and coat

Roll the chilled dough into 1½-inch balls, roll each one in the reserved sugar, and set them about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball gently with your palm or the flat bottom of a glass.

Bake and cool

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just turning golden and the centers still look soft. Pull them while the middles look slightly underdone; if you wait until they look fully set, they’ll firm up crisp instead of soft once they cool.

Let them sit on the tray for 2 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. If you want a decorated, frosted holiday cookie, our festive Christmas tree sugar cookies are that; this cookie is the simple, soft, everyday version made without butter.

Recipe Notes and Expert Tips

• The chill is not optional. Oil-based dough that goes onto a warm tray straight from the bowl spreads into thin, greasy-edged cookies. If your kitchen runs hot, give the shaped balls another ten minutes in the fridge before they bake.
• Don’t worry if the dough feels a little oily as you shape it. That’s normal for a butter-free dough, and it bakes out; the cookies won’t taste greasy.
• Spoon and level your flour. Too much flour is the usual reason these turn dry and crumbly rather than soft.
• These are drop-and-flatten cookies, not a roll-and-cut dough. If you want cookies you can roll out and cut into shapes with cutters, use a firm, butter-based dough like my decorated Christmas sugar cookies, which is rolled thin and cut in a way this soft dough won’t handle.
• For evenly sized cookies that bake at the same rate, a small cookie scoop is worth using to portion the balls.

Recipe Variations

• Swapping the granulated sugar for the same amount of brown sugar bakes up chewier and a little softer. I’ve tested it, and it’s the version I make when I want chew over tenderness.
• For a crisp cookie instead of a soft one, leave them in the oven an extra minute or two, until the edges deepen and the centers set. That longer bake is tested and dependable, and it tips the whole cookie from soft to snappy.
• The oil you choose shifts the flavor: a neutral vegetable oil keeps the vanilla in front, unrefined coconut oil adds a soft coconut note, and a fruity olive oil takes it somewhere more grown-up. All three are supported swaps in the same three-quarter-cup amount.

How to Store Leftovers

Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze them for up to 3 months with parchment between the layers. Because there’s no butter or dairy in them, they sit happily at room temperature and don’t need the fridge.

You can make the dough ahead. Wrapped well, it keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days, or you can freeze the shaped balls for up to 3 months.

What to Serve With Sugar Cookies Without Butter

These are plain, soft cookies, so they go with almost anything sweet you’d set beside a cookie: a cold glass of milk, a mug of coffee, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream pressed between two of them for a quick sandwich.

On a plate for company, they sit nicely next to a contrasting cookie or two, like a batch of soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies for something richer, or a few soft spiced gingerbread cookies when you want a little warmth against the plain sweetness of these. For a party tray, keep them plain and let the other cookies bring the color.

FAQs

More Cookies Worth Baking

If this batch goes fast, here’s where I’d point you next.

• Double chocolate chip cookies. For the nights when plain won’t do, and you want cocoa in the dough as well as chips.
• Homemade peanut butter cookies. My pick when I want a cookie with a little more substance than a sugar cookie.
• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. When you’re feeding a crowd with mixed tastes, these cover both camps at once.
• White chocolate chip cookies. The sweeter, mellower choice if double chocolate feels like too much.