The 10 Best Store-Bought Sugar Cookie Doughs and Mixes, According to Our Rigorous Taste Test

Scroll down for in-depth reviews of each.

• Best Overall: Williams Sonoma Vanilla Sugar Cookie Mix
• Crispiest Sugar Cookies: Pillsbury Ready-to-Bake Sugar Cookie Dough
• Chewiest Sugar Cookies: Cheryl’s Cookies Sugar Cookie Dough
• Most Homemade-Tasting Sugar Cookie Dough or Mix: King Arthur Baking Company Sugar Cookie Mix
• Best Sugar Cookie Dough or Mix for Frosting: Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
• Best Dough or Mix for Sprinkle Sugar Cookies: Stonewall Kitchen Sugar Cookie Mix
• Best Better-for-You Sugar Cookie Dough or Mix: Thrive Market Organic Protein Sugar Cookie Mix
• Best Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie Dough or Mix: Sweet Loren’s Sugar Cookie Dough
• Best Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough or Mix: Renewal Mill Upcycled Sugar Cookie Mix
• Best Sugar Cookie Dough for Snacking: Ben & Jerry's Frozen Sugar Cookie Dough Chunks

Best overall

• Value: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 18/20
• Quality: 20/20
• Texture: 19/20
• Flavor: 20/20

TOTAL: 96/100

Willing to splurge on a next-level sugar cookie that will have your guests asking for the recipe? This vanilla-laced mix from Williams Sonoma is at your service. The box includes a basic mix of enriched wheat flour and baking powder, plus a bag of vanilla-flavored sugar. You’ll have to work a little harder (read: you’ll need to bust out the electric mixer and let the dough chill for at least three hours before slicing and baking), but we promise it’s worth it. The cookies taste super vanilla-y and the texture is impeccably balanced, with a hint of crispness where you want it. One box will cost you $15, which is pricey compared to other supermarket brands, but it comes out to about 34 cents per cookie since each box makes 44 total.

Crispiest sugar cookies

• Value: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 20/20
• Quality: 18/20
• Texture: 18/20
• Flavor: 20/20

TOTAL: 95/100

Some sugar cookie aficionados prefer pillowy-soft, cloud-like cookies. But if you’re all about golden-brown edges and crunch, Pillsbury’s slice-and-bake option was made for you. Not only do the cookies spread beautifully, meaning they’re prime for decorating with all the festive fixings, but they also have a nostalgic, buttery flavor with just a touch of salt (in essence, it tastes exactly how you want a sugar cookie to taste). The main ingredients in the dough are sugar, enriched bleached flour, palm oil and canola oil. All you’ll have to do when you unwrap it is slice it into half-inch-thick rounds and pop them in the oven. Did we mention the dough is also safe to eat raw because the eggs are pasteurized and the flour is heat-treated? Yeah, good luck getting the cookies in the oven.

Chewiest sugar cookies

• Value: 18/20
• Ease of Use: 20/20
• Quality: 20/20
• Texture: 17/20
• Flavor: 18/20

TOTAL: 93/100

If you’re serving a ton of relatives or your kid’s entire class, you’ll want this two-pound bucket of dough from Cheryl’s Cookies on your team. Aside from sheer quantity, these cookies stand out due to their fluffy centers, soft crumb and chewy texture. Their mildly sweet flavor makes them prime for sweeter icings and mix-ins, like green and red M&Ms or butterscotch chips. Plus, the dough is made with real butter, along with wheat flour, eggs, baking soda and salt.

Most homemade-tasting sugar cookie dough or mix

• Value: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 18/20
• Quality: 20/20
• Texture: 18/20
• Flavor: 19/20

TOTAL: 94/100

Brace yourself for vanilla-scented cookies that taste like childhood. Whether you’re making drop cookies or festive cut-outs, this gem from King Arthur Baking Company is sure to please. The blend of unbleached wheat and malted barley flours gives the cookies a slight nuttiness. There’s also cane sugar, rice flour and a touch of sea salt in the mix. The cookies require a bit of patience since you’ll have to wait at least an hour for the dough to chill before baking them, but they taste super buttery and have a tender-yet-crisp texture. The cookies don’t spread as much as some others on this list because the dough was chilled, but they make for a sturdy, toothsome treat that looks perfectly imperfect, like most homemade goods. (We’d argue that their size and flavor make them prime for eating on their own instead of decorating them.) The brand also has a gluten-free sugar cookie mix, in case you’re sensitive to wheat.

Best sugar cookie dough or mix for frosting

• Value: 20/20
• Ease of Use: 19/20
• Quality: 18/20
• Texture: 19/20
• Flavor: 17/20

TOTAL: 93/100

One of the main reasons sugar cookies are so popular during the holidays? Everyone wants to flaunt their decorating skills. This mix from Betty Crocker is just the ticket, since the cookies spread nicely. Their wide surface area gives you plenty of room for frosting, peppermints, gumdrops and all the holiday candy you can pile on. But even if you eat them plain, they won’t disappoint, thanks to their balanced texture (crisp and crackly on the outside and moist on the inside) and sweet, buttery flavor. They’re just about as wide as Pillsbury’s cookies, but nowhere near as thin, meaning you’ll have more soft, fluffy cookie to sink your teeth into under all that frosting. You’ll need butter and an egg to make the dough, but that’s it. We also love that you don’t need to wait for it to chill before baking.

Best dough or mix for sprinkle sugar cookies

• Value: 18/20
• Ease of Use: 19/20
• Quality: 18/20
• Texture: 18/20
• Flavor: 19/20

TOTAL: 92/100

This mix by Stonewall Kitchen is like your favorite black blazer—it's easy to dress up or down, depending on what you're going for. You can stick to standard balls of dough, or cut them out with seasonal cookie cutters for flair. You can bake them plain or finish them with sanding sugar or sprinkles. Either way, you won't need to wait for this mix (made with baking basics and natural vanilla flavor) to chill before rolling it out, so it's pretty low-lift in our book. They turn out tender and soft in the middle with a vanilla-forward, buttery flavor. They're a little pricier than most supermarket options, but what better thing to modestly splurge on than your annual Christmas Eve bake-off?

Best better-for-you sugar cookie dough or mix

• Value: 18/20
• Ease of Use: 19/20
• Quality: 18/20
• Texture: 18/20
• Flavor: 17/20

TOTAL: 90/100

So, you want to get in on the fun without totally spoiling your diet (before the fudge and apple pie hit the dessert table, anyway). Lean on this pick from Thrive Market, which just so happens to be gluten-free. Most importantly, cane sugar, chickpea powder, brown rice flour and tapioca starch are combined with organic pea protein for an extra boost of protein. (Don't let the scent of the dough turn you off—it smells like protein powder or a vitamin supplement, but the taste isn't nearly as strong.) It's definitely not a meal replacement at 4 grams per cookie, but that's higher than its competitors, plus a bit lower in sugar to boot. If you want to make them vegan, simply swap the butter and egg for flaxseed and water.

Best gluten-free sugar cookie dough or mix

• Value: 18/20
• Ease of Use: 20/20
• Quality: 20/20
• Texture: 18/20
• Flavor: 18/20

TOTAL: 94/100

Gluten-free bakers (and snackers), rejoice! A Christmas miracle has arrived under your tree this year in the form of Sweet Loren’s sugar cookie dough. The dough is pre-portioned, so you won’t have to get your hands sticky rolling it into balls, or even slicing it for that matter. Instead of wheat flour, the dough stars a gluten-free blend of oat flour, tapioca flour and potato starch, which is combined with cane sugar, sustainably sourced palm oil, filtered water, natural vanilla flavor, sea salt and baking soda. Full disclosure: They’re not the prettiest sugar cookies we’ve ever seen, given their crackly tops and brownish color, but a dollop of frosting on top could fix that. Taste-wise, you’d have no idea they aren’t regular sugar cookies.

Best vegan sugar cookie dough or mix

• Value: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 19/20
• Quality: 20/20
• Texture: 17/20
• Flavor: 17/20

TOTAL: 92/100

Are these cookies vegan? Check. Non-GMO? Check. Gluten-free? Check. Do they fight climate change by using upcycled, plant-based ingredients? You bet. Renewal Mill’s cookie mix contains brown rice flour, potato starch, okara flour (flour made from soybean pulp), tapioca starch, garbanzo bean flour, white rice flour and organic pea starch. The mix is also infused with vanilla powder made from real vanilla beans. The dough is super low maintenance since it doesn’t need to be chilled before baking, but the cookies are definitely on the smaller side. (For context, the recipe called for using a heaping teaspoon of dough per cookie, while most other brands call for two-tablespoon scoops.) The flavor is vanilla-forward and sweet, yet there’s also something vaguely vegetal about it (it tastes almost like vegetable oil smells, if that makes sense). But if you have plant-based or vegan guests at the party, these are bound to be a hit.

Best sugar cookie dough for snacking

• Value: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 20/20
• Quality: 18/20
• Texture: 18/20
• Flavor: 18/20

TOTAL: 93/100

Raw dough noshers, this one's for you. If you tend to nibble on your cookies before they even reach the oven, Ben & Jerry's snackable cookie dough will help you satisfy your cravings without making you sick. The bites are made with pasteurized eggs and heat-treated flour, so they're totally safe to eat raw. Not only are they deliciously poppable, but they're also dappled with crunchy sprinkles. We just might toss a few into our next peppermint hot cocoa, mini marshmallow-style.