Easy 3-Ingredient Brown Sugar Cookies

4 minutes

Often with baking, you need to get out multiple bowls, follow a list of complicated instructions whilst juggling 30 different ingredients. Well, not here! Not with my super simple, foolproof 3-Ingredient Brown Sugar Cookies recipe.

Normally, baking is a faff, right? It’s not something you can quickly do on a Wednesday after work. You have to set time aside. You have to be prepared. Fortunately, this recipe proves you can throw the baking handbook out of the window.

How to Make My 3-Ingredient Brown Sugar Cookies

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) or 160°C (300°F) for fan-assisted ovens or Gas Mark 4. The last thing you want to do is wait around for the oven to warm up when your cookies are ready to bake. Likewise, make sure you have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Step 2: Once the unsalted butter is at room temperature and slightly softened, pop it into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat together with the sugar until they come together. You can also use an electric mixer in a large bow.

If you’ve got the stamina and willpower, you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon.

Step 3: Add the plain flour (or all-purpose flour for US readers) into the bowl in stages and continue to mix until it all comes together into a soft dough. You can sift the flour in to remove lumps but this is just more effort and more washing up!

Step 4: Now, you could roll the dough into a log, chill it and then slice it into rounds. But that involves waiting around…

Instead, use a tablespoon or ice cream scoop to spoon equal-sized portions of the dough. Roll it between your hands and then pop it onto the baking tray. This means no rolling the dough out, cookie cutters, or chilling. Just try not to eat these cookie dough balls!

Step 5: It’s time to bake them! Place the tray into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. Be careful as you don’t want to bake them for too long as they’ll become brittle. They should just have turned golden brown.

Step 6: This is the hardest step. You’ve got to try not to eat them. Remove them from the tray, pop them onto a cooling rack and give them plenty of time to cool down.

This will give them a chance to finish baking and to solidify slightly.

Tweak

As I mentioned, this is the perfect recipe to form the base of many cookies. Once you learn this recipe, you can add whatever you fancy to them. Here are some ideas:

• Add Vanilla or Spices: A drop of vanilla or almond extract, a pinch of cinnamon, or a grating of nutmeg would all work amazingly in these cookies.
• Stir Through Chocolate Chips: One of the most popular cookies has to be chocolate chip cookies, right? Pour a handful of chocolate chips into this recipe, and you’ve made them!
• Use Flavoured Sugar: Ever thrown out a used vanilla pod? Next time, pop that into a jar with sugar, and you’ll instantly flavour the sugar. Coconut, citrus rinds and cinnamon sticks can all be used to make flavoured sugar too.
• Switch the Sugars: I’ve opted for soft brown sugar as I think it helps with the chewy texture, but you could use dark brown sugar,
• Dollop In Peanut Butter: Calling all peanut butter lovers! If you want to make these cookies nutty, add a spoonful of peanut butter. Cashew butter and almond butter would work well here too.
• Go Vegan: The only non-plant-based ingredient in this recipe is butter. You can swap out the butter for vegetable oil, olive oil, or coconut oil. Swap 125g of butter for 95ml of oil.

Store

Of course, I won’t judge you if you eat them all in one go. But let’s assume you need to store them for over an hour or so. What should you do?

Room Temperature: When kept in an airtight container, these cookies will last around 1 week at room temperature. They should be kept in a cool, dark cupboard away from direct sunlight.

Refrigerate: If you want the cookies to last a bit longer, you can store them in the fridge. They will stay fresh for about 2 weeks when stored this way.

Freeze: For even longer storage, you can freeze the cookies. Wrap each cookie in plastic wrap or in a freezer bag or container. They can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.