Update: Since posting this recipe years ago, I since tweaked the recipe and reposted a new, more comprehensive tutorial here. If you're looking for a dough that holds it shape a bit more, I recommend checking that one out!
Today, I'm sharing my family's favorite cut out sugar cookies. A soft, buttery, sugar cookie dough that is great for cut-out sugar cookies. I've actually posted this sugar cookie base recipe a time or two before with various decoration ideas, but because it really deserves a little more attention, I'm featuring it again in a little different way.
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So what makes this such a great cut out sugar cookie recipe?
Well, there are two factors that I think make cut out cookies "work." The first thing is the dough. You need a dough that isn't going to break, crumble, or stick while rolling & cutting. I've made plenty of cut out cookies in my day that turn into big blobs when they're intended to be Christmas trees.
They stick to the counter because the dough isn't sturdy enough, and just like that, your five-pointed stars turn into two-pointed cat ears. No bueno. This sugar cookie recipe cuts out perfectly so that you can ensure those gingerbread men don't lose their arms this holiday season.
Update: Since posting this recipe, I have a new cut out sugar cookie recipe that I like. (I'm keeping this one on the site because it's still great & a lot of people have tried and love it.)
- This Recipe: All powdered sugar, more butter = a buttery, slightly flakey texture.
- New Recipe: Granulated Sugar, Less Butter = a thicker, softer, more moist texture (better for more intricate shapes).
Be sure to check out my Christmas Cookie Frosting Guide for my favorite recipe, food coloring tips, and piping tips! And for EASY decorating ideas, check out myย 5 EASY Christmas Cookies for Kids!
The dough is made with powdered sugar, which makes it super soft and a complete cookie-dough-eating-worthy-snack. I typically don't promote eating raw cookie dough (on public forums), but in this case, I don't think I hold back from telling you to try it.
It's crazy soft, has a hint of almond, and is just all-around addicting. If you don't actually have any left to make cookies with, I won't judge.
Rolling It the Perfect Thickness
The second thing that makes the perfect sugar cookie is how thick you roll out the dough (check out my guide on how to roll the perfect sugar cookie). If you roll it too thin, you're going to have a crunchy cookie that breaks easier when cutting them out. Roll them too thick and you're going to have trouble getting the cookie to bake evenly. My ideal thickness is ยฝโ thick.
A few months ago, I came across The Cookie Thing, which is a simple tool for rolling out doughs to the perfect thickness. It comes with four sets of boards in different widths, letting you decide how thick or thin you want the dough. It's been sitting in my craft corner for a few months now and I was eager to try it out for holiday sugar cookie season.
I also have the Joseph & Joseph adjustable rolling pin and use it on the thickest ring (the purple one).
I'm more excited to bring this nifty tool home in a few weeks because it will relieve me of some of my cookie-rolling duties. Let's just say that some people in my house haven't quite mastered the perfect sugar cookie thickness, which results in crunchy cookies. With The Cookie Thing, all the guessing is over and the fam can finally stop asking me if they rolled the cookies thick enough.
You'd swear I was Martha Stewart with the demand of questions during the annual holiday baking weekend. Heck, the family might need this more than ever, because after 30 days of cookies, I may just take the year off and take a weekend-long nap instead of participating in our annual Christmas baking day.
I rolled the dough using the โ " thick boards, cut them out, and baked them on a parchment-covered baking sheet for 8 minutes. Depending on the size you cut them out, you may need to add or subtract a minute or two from the baking time. The smaller cookies are usually done in 8 minutes, while the larger ones are closer to 9 or 10.
The trick with these cookies is to take them out when you see a tiny, tiny bit of browning around the edges. The cookies may look underdone after 8 minutes, but they will continue to bake on the hot pan outside of the oven. This allows them to be fully baked on the inside, while still having a soft outside.
My Favorite Frosting Recipes
After cooling, these are ready to frost and decorate with your favorite frosting (I like using my sugar cookie buttercream for non-fancy decorated cookies or my easy sugar cookie icing for a smoother finish). Pop them on your favorite holiday plate or use these free printables for a fun holiday decorating idea to help gift the perfect DIY cookie tray.
Tip: For more royal icing or piping ideas, check out my guide on 4 sugar cookie icing without corn syrup.
How to Make The Perfect (Soft) Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (i.e. 2 sticks) softened (*Read Tips below)
- 1 ยฝ cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg medium sized
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ยฝ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda *See note below
- 2 ยฝ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 recipe sugar cookie frosting
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the unsalted butter (1 cup, i.e. 2 sticks) and powdered sugar (1 ยฝ cups) together with an electric mixer.
- Add the egg (1 large), vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), almond extract (ยฝ teaspoon), and baking soda (1 teaspoon) and continue to stir on medium speed. Once incorporated, turn the mixer down to low speed and add the all-purpose flour in one cup portions (2 ยฝ cups total).
- When the flour disappears, turn off the mixer and transfer the dough onto a floured surface. Knead the dough until it forms a solid ball. If dough is sticky, add additional flour while kneading (do not be afraid to add ยผ-1/2 cup more flour while kneading if sticky).
- Next, on a floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to โ to ยฝ inch thickness. The thinner you go, the faster they will bake & the crispier they will be. I like them to be thick and soft, so I keep them around โ inch thick and use a 2.5 inch circle cookie cutter or wine glass rim to cut them out.
- As you are cutting them out, transfer them to a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between them (to allow them to spread). Cover and refrigerate cut out cookie dough for 1-2 hours. (For more intricate cut out shapes, I highly recommend this refrigeration step. For regular circle cookies, refrigerating is not as important, but will result in a cookie that does not spread as much. For intricate shapes, I cut out the cookie shapes first and then refrigerate the entire trays. This helps so you do not have to work with a cold chunk of dough.)
- Bake at 350ยฐF for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. Do not worry if they look underbaked, as they will continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet after it comes out of the oven.
- Cool and frost with a vanilla icing of your choice. Have fun with colors & decorations to make these match any occasion.
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Notes
Nutrition
Do you have a go-to sugar cookie recipe that you stick with every year? Since doing 30 Days of Cookies, I have a few other ones that would foot the bill, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to convince the family to branch out from this one. But I guess now that they can make these themselves with the new rolling pin gadget, I may just let them do all the sugar cookie dirty work while I go take a two-day nap under my heater blanket. Hibernation season has officially begun.
Need a easy homemade cream cheese buttercream recipe? Check out my favorite Sugar Cookie Buttercream recipe.
Or want a smoother finish? Try out my Easy Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe.
Need some fun sugar cookie decorating ideas?
Izzi
Never thought about using powdered sugar instead of regular granulated sugar...can't wait to try it! Thanks for the recipe..kids are going to have a lot of fun Christmas Eve making cookies for Santa!!
karime
Hi! can I store the cookies for 3 days without freezing them? with aluminum foil inside a plastic container?
Melissa
That should be just fine! We have stored them for up to a week. After 3-4 days, they aren't as soft but are still tasty!
Patty G.
The recipe does not say whether you still use the electric mixer when you start to add the flour. I read all the comments and saw that in one of your comments you implied that you are still using the mixer when obtaining the final dough. Just a suggestion to add that into the instructions for overly detailed people like me. lol I can't wait to make these in a couple days. My husband asked if I could make softer Christmas cookies this year. He is going to be happily surprised. Also, I am not heavily experienced using parchment paper. The couple times I did it also had you butter the pan first and butter the parchment paper. You say just line the cookie sheet with the parchment paper alone, correct? Thanks so much!
Melissa
Hi Patty - thanks for the feedback! Yes, I still use the electric mixer (on the lowest speed) when adding in the flour. For the parchment paper, I don't personally butter or grease the pan first. I just lay the parchment down and place the cut-out cookies right on top. Hopefully this helps! Be sure to report back to let me know how you like them!
Joni Hafner
HI!
I can't wait to try these soft cut out sugar cookies.... I have to ask though, do you
personally use royal icing? I've never tried it... I have a love for cream cheese icing.... but I know Royal icing holds it shape and is better for shipping etc.
I always imagine the harder than a rock icing found on cookies shrink rapped at the checkout counters of restaurants... ugh
Can't wait to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Melissa
Hi Joni! I've used royal icing a few times, but I actually prefer using cream cheese frosting or canned (gasp!). We like the flavor of these best, although you're right in the fact that they don't hold up as well for shipping. I'd much rather have taste over presentation, so I usually stick with canned/cream cheese over royal icing (which doesn't really have much taste to me!).
Stella
Hi, Melissa! Thanks for sharing this recipe...I can't wait to try it! I'm not a big fan of "plain" sugar cookies so think that I'll love the addition of almond extract in your recipe and am thinking of trying the addition of nutmeg as one of your commenters suggested. If they turn out well for me, I imagine that I'll end up trying the lemon zest/juice substitution for a change of pace as well. My question...after freezing the baked cookies, how long does thawing take before you can frost them? Thanks in advance and hope that you & your family have a wonderful & blessed holiday season! :)
Melissa
Can't wait to hear how you like them! The almond truly makes them irresistible - not to mention a dangerous munching dough ;) The cookies usually thaw out rather quickly after freezing (I'd say an hour or so), as long as you have them layered in parchment so they don't stick together! We sometimes freeze them after icing too (when we just do a simple frosting) and they're also really good half-frozen. But that might just be me and my weird love for half frozen baked goods, haha!
AJ
I have now baked these five times, they are simply the easiest cookies ever and always come out amazing! I have a bunch of lemons so I have been omitting the almond and putting in the zest of one lemon and about a tablespoon of juice. Needless to say I am getting rave reviews. I am NOT a baker - if I can make these anyone can!!!
Melissa
Thanks so much for sharing, AJ! Glad you love them as much as we do. I'm totally going to try that lemon switch out this year - sounds fabulous!
Jodie
These are the best sugar cookies I have ever made! I have tried a few different recipes and last year was a disaster, the one I tried was to soft so the cookies just lost there shape when baked, but these were amazing the perfect consistency and they taste delicious (my husband loved them). Thanks for the recipe :)
Kristen
Excellent recipe! Easy to follow for a first time sugar cookie baker and they came out great! Thanks for sharing!
Carol
I need a very good sugar cookie recipe and yours looks great! ! BUT what can I use in place of the egg. Granddaughters are alergic to eggs!!!!!
Melissa
Hi Carol! I'm honestly not sure what the best substitute would be for eggs in this recipe, as I'm not familiar with baking for food allergies. This website may help, but definitely report back if you experiment with this recipe.
Carol
Thank you! I will.
Emily
Hello! Just a couple of questions, I noticed in the recipe it says to refrigerate for 1-2 hours before baking but then someone in the comments asked if you had to refrigerate and you said no, you can roll it straight from the bowl. I just wanted to clarify which one it is? I am guessing you don't have to but refrigerating it will result in less spread, but just want to make sure :) Also, how much will these cookies spread with and without refrigeration? I ordered a cookie cutter online (mickey mouse shaped) and it's a little bit smaller than I expected. I want my cookies to be large enough to fit into a CD envelope for party favors (thank you, Pinterest! lol) so I would say they need to spread at least half an inch larger then the cookie cutter. I'm an amateur baker so sorry if this is a silly question. Thanks so much!
Melissa
Hi Emily! The refrigeration isn't mandatory, but it will definitely help the cookies spread less. A few people were having issues with spreading, so I went back and added the refrigeration notes to the post :) If you want them to spread, I would put a few of them on the baking sheet, and then test bake a 2-3 to see if you like the spreading. If they spread too much, go ahead and pop the trays in the fridge and let them chill before baking. One thing I have found helpful since posting this recipe is that the dough is easier to chill on the baking sheets AFTER cutting out the cookies (rather than chilling the whole ball of dough & rolling after refrigeration). Hope this helps!
Tara
Just found you off a "pin" Yay!! trying for my sons birthday he is autistic and loves octopus and jelly fish. When I asked a local baker if they could make me some if I provided the cookie cutter they said yes for $21.00 a dozen Seriously?!?! So my thought is for friends and the next kiddo b'day next month... can I make the dough and freeze it then roll it out? My mom said a friend of hers used to do that and made a business just selling the dough... cutouts done or the complete cookie. Heck where those ladies today lol.
Melissa
Ahh yikes, that sounds pricey for 12 cookies! I've never frozen them before baking, but I'd imagine it to work just fine. If you just cut them out & carefully lay them on wax paper before freezing, I'd imagine them to fine. The other option could be to bake the cookies & then freeze them unfrosted. We do this a lot around the holidays so that we can quickly thaw them and THEN decorate them afterwards. If you do end up freezing the dough before baking, I'd love to hear how they turn out!
Victoria
Congrats Melissa and thanks for sharing! I tried several recipes without luck and this one is heaven! I baked the perfet cookies for one of my events and now they are a MUST! This is PERFECTION! This is a pic of the cookies:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=787373511273983&set=pb.744876918856976.-2207520000.1405574950.&type=3&theater
Sharing is everything, thank you! Besos desde Mexico.
jenny
Can u find freeze tge diugh u didnt use?
Melissa
I usually bake up the extra dough & freeze them unfrosted. But if you want to freeze the raw dough, I'd suggest cutting out the shapes before freezing so you don't have to thaw a large chunk of dough later on.
Andrea
This is a perfect recipe and great instructions. I have never been able to get a cookie to hold its shape. I was so happy with how they turned out. Thank you for sharing your recipe and tips.
Karla
I started using Almond extract when I ran out of vanilla one time and have switched , but I also like to add butter extract with it to give it a richer flavor. Excited to try this recipe for graduation open house.
Alicia Borden
I use this recipe when I make my fruit pizza for my Pampered Chef recipes. Sometime I make individual cookies and top them, and sometimes I just roll it out as one big one. The toppings I use is strawberry/ banana yogurt mixed with vanilla yogurt. I spread that out evenly over the cookie base, then top it with whatever fruits my hosts want to use. I prefer strawberries, bananas, crushed pineapples. Then I sprinkle crushed walnuts over the top. It is so delicious. I also omit the almond extract when doing this.
If anyone wants pictures I can share them. Also, if anyone close to the kokomo indiana area I would be extremely happy to make for a party you can host.
Melissa
I love using this recipe for fruit pizza, too! One of my favorite desserts :)
Anele from south africa
Hi, i adjusted the recipe by replacing the almond extract with lemon essence. It tastes great and also makes for an awesome alternative. Thanks for the recipe
Melissa
Love that idea! Thanks for sharing, Anele!
Alexandra
I am planning my sister in-laws baby shower and was jJust wandering how far in advance could I make these and have them till be fresh tasting.
Melissa
Hi Alexandra! They are best within 2-3 days of making them. If you want to make them more then 2-3 days in advance, you can bake them and freeze them (unfrosted). Then, when it's time to serve them, you can thaw them and frost!
Ana
Oh thank you! this only website is priceless!! Iยดll bake cookies today for the first time! And I can use all this good information!
thank you, greetings from Chile!
Leilani
Thank you so much for the recipe. Everyone loves them. I made them for Every holiday since Christmas! My co-workers look forward to see how I will make them next and just love the taste. I have made them in Tree shape, Spiral, small
round, and Hearts. I also made them into cups and added strawberries and whipped cream. Those went over so well a friend asked me to make them for her. :) Thank you for the recipe, I don't usually like sugar cookies...but I love these.