Top Butter Brands for Perfect Sugar Cookies

Baking the perfect sugar cookies often comes down to the quality of your ingredients, and butter is no exception. With its creamy texture and rich flavor, choosing the right brand of butter can elevate your baked goods from simple to spectacular. Many bakers have their personal favorites, whether it's a well-established, widely available brand or a more artisanal option, each bringing a unique taste and texture to the table. If you're searching for the best butter to take your sugar cookies to the next level, read on to discover some of the top choices recommended by bakers.

Illustration of butter for sugar cookies

Best brands of butter for sugar cookies in 2025

Land O'Lakes

Land O'Lakes is renowned for producing high-quality butter that excels in baking, particularly for sugar cookies. Its butter, whether salted or unsalted, provides consistent and superior results, even under varied conditions such as different temperatures and baking surfaces. The use of Land O'Lakes butter can result in cookies with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and excellent flavor, as evidenced by a 26.5% volume increase during creaming and a 7.9% volume increase during mixing. This brand has been a go-to choice for many bakers since at least 2013, especially for no-chill cutout sugar cookie recipes. The FlavorProtect® Wrapper ensures the butter retains its fresh taste, making it a standard for flavor and quality.

Kerry Gold

Kerrygold is renowned as one of the best producers of butter for sugar cookies, thanks to its high butterfat content and rich flavor derived from the milk of grass-fed cows. This Irish butter, with its nuanced cultured flavor profile, enhances the texture and taste of baked goods, making pie crusts flakier and cookies more delectable. Each tablespoon of Kerrygold Unsalted Butter contains 100 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 8 grams of saturated fat, contributing to its superior baking performance. The brand's commitment to quality, evident since its inception, ensures that every batch meets high standards. For sugar cookies that retain their shape and flavor, Kerrygold's unsalted butter is a preferred choice due to its lower water content compared to other butters.

Plugrá

Plugra is renowned for its high-quality butter, particularly suited for baking sugar cookies due to its 82% butterfat content, which is higher than regular butter's 80%. This higher butterfat and lower moisture level result in flakier, crisper, and more flavorful baked goods. Introduced in 1989, Plugra has been a trusted choice among professional chefs, including those at Chicago's French Pastry School and New York's James Beard House. The slow-churned process enhances the creaminess and flavor of the butter, making it ideal for achieving the perfect texture in sugar cookies. Using Plugra ensures consistent and flawless baking results. For more information, visit their official website.

Challenge Butter

Challenge Butter, a quality staple in kitchens since 1911, is an excellent choice for sugar cookies due to its high quality and consistent texture. Made from 100% real pasteurized sweet cream, Challenge Butter offers both unsalted and salted options, giving cooks control over the flavor and savoriness of their dishes. The unsalted version, known as "sweet butter," contains no added salt, making it ideal for those looking to reduce sodium intake. With its rich flavor and smooth texture, Challenge Butter ensures that sugar cookies are soft, tender, and full of flavor. Its daily production from fresh ingredients guarantees freshness and quality. For more details, check out their butter products.

Vermont Creamery

Vermont Creamery is renowned for producing some of the best butter for sugar cookies, particularly their Sea Salt Cultured Butter, which boasts an impressive 82% butterfat content. This high butterfat percentage, combined with the butter's cultured process that involves fermenting cream overnight to develop notes of buttermilk and hazelnuts, makes it ideal for baking. The cultured butter adds a tangy and rich flavor to sugar cookies, enhancing their overall taste and texture. This product is gluten-free, kosher, and made from fresh Vermont cream, ensuring a premium quality. For those seeking to elevate their cookie baking, Vermont Creamery's cultured butter is a top choice.

Cabot

Cabot brand is often praised for its high-quality butter, making it an excellent choice for baking sugar cookies. With a higher fat content than lower-quality butters, Cabot butter ensures better texture and flavor in your cookies. For instance, using Cabot butter can help maintain sharp edges and a crisp texture, especially in no-spread sugar cookie recipes. The brand's consistency and rich flavor profile have made it a favorite among bakers, even though it may not be the only option available. As of recent recipes, Cabot butter has been recommended for its reliable performance in sugar cookie baking.

President

President brand is renowned for its high-quality butter, making it an ideal choice for baking sugar cookies. Their Salted Butter Bar, produced in France, boasts a velvety texture and subtle nuttiness, perfect for adding decadence to any bake. With awards such as the 2022 American Cheese Society recognition, President butter stands out for its excellence. Each serving of their butter contains 11g of total fat and 8g of saturated fat, ensuring rich flavor and texture in your cookies. This premium butter is essential for achieving soft, chewy, and flavorful sugar cookies.

Horizon Organic

Horizon Organic is a top choice for butter in sugar cookies due to its high-quality, USDA Certified Organic products. Made from fresh, sweet organic cream, their unsalted butter offers a delicious, creamy taste perfect for baking. Each box contains four sticks of non-GMO butter, sourced from cows that are given no antibiotics, no persistent pesticides, and no added hormones. With a serving size of 1 Tbsp (14g), their butter contains 11g of total fat and 7g of saturated fat per serving, contributing to 15% and 36% of the daily value, respectively. This commitment to organic and sustainable practices makes Horizon Organic a trusted brand for bakers. For more details on their unsalted butter, visit their product page.

Organic Valley

Organic Valley is renowned for producing high-quality, organic butter that is ideal for baking sugar cookies. Their unsalted butter, made from pasteurized organic sweet cream, contains no antibiotics, synthetic hormones, toxic pesticides, or GMOs, ensuring a pure and healthy ingredient. The butter's natural variation in color, due to the cows' seasonal diet, adds a unique touch to its richness. With an 80% butterfat content, Organic Valley butter enhances the flavor and texture of sugar cookies. This commitment to organic farming practices reduces exposure to pesticide residues and environmental toxins, making it a preferred choice for health-conscious bakers.

Tillamook

Tillamook is renowned for its high-quality butter, making it an ideal choice for baking sugar cookies. Their Extra Creamy Butter boasts an impressive 81% butterfat content, significantly higher than the industry standard, ensuring a rich and creamy texture. This premium butter is made from pasteurized cream and is kosher certified, adding to its appeal. For optimal use, it is recommended to store the butter in the fridge and let it sit out for about an hour before use. Tillamook's commitment to quality and taste makes their butter a staple for any serious baker.