Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Cut-Out Sugar Cookies are popular all year round. Favorite with children and adults alike, you can’t go wrong with a classic vanilla cookie.
FEATURED COMMENT “I agree with another commenter – my cut out cookie phobia has finally gone 🙊 amazing recipe, thank you! I love the level of detail you explain everything in, it’s so helpful!“ Ayla
PIN IT for later
CLASSIC CUT OUT SUGAR COOKIES RECIPE
Sugar Cookies require only few ingredients and are super simple to make from scratch. This recipe is a cross between shortbread and sugar cookies. They are little crunchy on the outside and soft inside.
INGREDIENTS
This basic recipe uses simple ingredients. When making the cookie dough it is important that ingredients are at room temperature.
- Unsalted Butter
- White Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract, and other extracts and flavorings can be used. See the notes in the recipe card.
- Flour
- Baking Powder (optional)
- Salt
- Tip : Don’t use sugar with unusually large sugar crystals. Wegmans brand has large crystals.
SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH STEP-BY-STEP
Cream room temperature butter with sugar, scrapping the bowl few times in between. Beat for 3-5minutes till well blended, creamy.
Cream room temperature butter with sugar, scrapping the bowl few times in between. Beat for 3-5minutes till well blended, creamy.
Whisk 1 tablespoon of Vanilla Extract with one room temperature egg. Then beat egg mixture into the creamed butter until well combined, about 30 seconds to a minute. Until fluffy.
Sift flour, salt and baking powder (if using – read the notes in the recipe).
On low speed, in 3 additions beat flour mix into the creamed butter mixture. Beat till all of the flour is absorbed and well blended in. Cookie dough will be in chunks at this stage.
Gather the dough, and knead it gently for 10-20 seconds until it comes together into a ball. Flatten it into a disk.
- Are you planning on making the cookies within 24 hours you made the dough? If you answered yes, you can roll out fresh cookie dough between two parchment sheets or two silicone mats. Slide rolled out dough onto a large cutting board or a flat tray and chill it for at least an hour in the fridge or 20 minutes in the freezer before cutting the cookies. Don’t leave rolled out dough in the fridge for longer than 24 hours. It tends to dry out around the edges.
- If you don’t have time to make the cookies within the 24 hours, wrap the dough in food wrap and refrigerate till you are ready to make the cookies. You can keep dough in the fridge up to 3-4 days. Cookie dough disk tends to get rock hard and here are my tips on how to process once you are ready to roll it out.
HOW TO ROLL OUT COOKIE DOUGH
Cookie dough is placed between 2 rolling guides, and a rolling pin is rolled on top of the rolling guides. The rolling pin pushes the dough down only as far as the rolling guides let it. It ensures even thickness of the rolled cookie dough.
I roll my cookies ¼ inch (0.64cm/little over 6mm) thick and a little thicker when making cookie pops to make the room for a lollipop stick.
CUT OUT COOKIES WITH A COOKIE CUTTER OR TEMPLATE
Cut out as many shapes as possible. Re-roll the scraps.
Carefully lift the cutout and transfer it onto a baking sheet.
BAKE COOKIES
If cutouts become soft chill the cookies for 10 minutes.
I bake my cookies at 375F and 380F (for larger cookies, over 4 inches) for 9-11 minutes. Cookies aresoft when they come out of the oven. Don’t open the oven more than once to rotate the sheet midway. If your oven bakes evenly, you can skip the rotating step.
Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for 2-3 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
MY COOKIE DOUGH DISK IS HARD AS A ROCK, WHAT TO DO NOW?
After cookie dough shaped into a disk is chilled it often becomes firm.
Cut the cookie dough disk into quarters. Microwave one ¼ of cookie dough on high for 5-7 seconds. It should be sufficient to soften the dough so you can roll it out. However, you don’t want it to be super soft. Cut up the remaining quarters into smaller bits.
Place softened/microwaved 1/4 of the cookie dough onto the work surface, between 2 rolling guides. Roll out the dough.
Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack. Be sure to let the cookies cool before decorating them with icing.
BAKING SUCCESS TIPS
- Cookie are spreading – make sure to use a room temperature butter when making the dough. If butter is too soft your dough will be softer than normal. I often experienced spreading when I used very soft butter.
- Properly chill the dough before cutting out shapes. And if the cutout become too soft, chill them again for 10 before baking.
- Don’t place unbaked cookies on a warmbaking sheet.
- You can also try omitting baking powder or use lesser amount
- Use light colored baking sheet to avoid excessive browning.
- Bake cookies until the center of the cookie has risen and is not loner shiny, or until golden brown around the edges if you prefer your cookies this way. If the center is still wet, bake cookies for additional 2 minutes.
- Bake larger cookies on one baking sheet and smaller ones on another. Don’t crowd the cookies on a baking sheet.
- I bake my cookies at 375 – 380F (193C) for 9-11 minutes.
- Bake cookies using a perforated mat. It helps eliminate or reduce the spreading of cut-out cookies and cookies bake with sharp edges.
- Cookies are soft when they come out of the oven, they firm us as they cool.
- Don’t open the oven more than once for rotating the sheet.
- If your oven bakes evenly you don’t need to rotate the baking sheet
- Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully transfer cookies onto a cooling rack.
- Bubbles on the surface indicate too much air in the cookie dough. While cookies are hot, gently press the tops with a large flat cookie spatula to flatten the bubbles. Or us a fork and prick the middle of the cookie before baking.
Ultimate Guide To Cut-Out Cookies – tips, tricks, troubleshooting
COOKIE DECORATING WITHOUT ICING
If you are in a hurry and don’t have time to decorate cookies with icing, you can still make them stand out from the crowd using other decorating tools. You can use impression tools like engraved rolling pins, texture silicone mats, stamps, sprinkles.
IMPRESSION TOOLS – DECORATIVE MATS AND STAMPS
When using impression tools be sure to omit baking powder in the recipe. It will yield better results without. You can
DECORATIVE SILICONE MATS
- To get the best results, I roll out cookie dough slightly thicker.
- Then I replace the thicker rolling guides with the thinner ones – the thickness of cookies I want.
- And after I place a texture mat on top of the rolled out dough, and in one direction I run a rolling pin over it. It’s important to maintain the even pressure so the texture transfers evenly onto the cookie dough.
Bake the cookies a usual. In this cakes you might want to remove cookies from the oven before they get too brown.
STAMPING ON COOKIES
Use Letter Impression set to add personalized or seasonal messages on cookies.
HOW TO DECOREATE COOKIE WITH SPRINKLES
Decorate cookies with festive sprinkles. Mist the cookies with a little bit of water using a small spray bottle. Then sprinkle cookies with decorating sprinkles and bake as usual. Water makes the sprinkles stick better to the cookie dough.
WHAT KIND OF ICING CAN I USE TO DECORATE SUGAR COOKIES?
There are several cookie icing recipes you can use to decorate cookies. The most popular is royal icing; some decorators use glaze icing or buttercream. And if you are in a hurry, fondant is another decorating medium you can use; plus, cookies with fondant are really easy to make
- Fresh Lemon Royal Icing
- Vegan Royal Icing
- Small Batch Royal Icing
- Chocolate lace
- Fondant Cookies
- Crusting buttercream
- American buttercream frosting
- Easy Glaze Icing
TRY THESE COOKIE RECIPES
- Vegan Cookies
- Gluten Free Cookies
- Chocolate Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
Print Pin
4.98 from 44 votes
Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
Use this recipe to make cut-out cookies. This great-tasting cookie recipe is excellent, plain, or decorated with royal icing/glaze chocolate or fondant. It's a cross between sugar and shortbread cookies.
Makes 15 3-inch cookies, 1/4 inch thick.
Course Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cookies, cut out cookies,, sugar cookies
Prep Time 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes minutes
Servings 15
Calories 270kcal
Author Hani. B
Ingredients
SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (430 grams)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup room temperature unsalted butter (2 sticks, 226 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp baking powder (optional – check the notes)
- 1/2 tsp Almond Extract (optional)
- 1/2 tsp Lemon Extract (optional)
Instructions
SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH
Dry Ingredients
Sift together flour (3cups/430grams), baking powder (1 teaspoon) add salt (1/2 teaspoon), set aside.
TIP: If you are experiencing excessive spreading use 1/4tsp baking powder or omit baking powder.
Cream Butter and Sugar
In a mixing bowl cream together room temperature butter (1cup/ 226 grams) and sugar (1cup/200 grams), about 5 minutes, scrape the bowl twice. Butter creamed with sugar should be light and creamy in color.
In a small dish whisk together room-temperature egg (1) and vanilla extract(1 tablespoon). If using, whisk in almond (1/2 teaspoon) and lemon extract(1/2 teaspoon), and set aside.
TIP: Almond and Lemon Extracts are optional.
Gradually add the egg mixture to the butter mixture. Beat well till combined about a minute.
Lower the speed of your mixer to low. Gradually in 3 additions, add the flour mixture. Scrape the bowl well after the last addition and beat slowly until the flour is mixed in. At this stage, you'll see chunks of cookie dough.
Gather dough into a ball, flatten it and shape it into a disk.
TIP: If the dough appears too wet add 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2-4 hours. This is great when you don't have time to make the cookies on the same day.
Or speed up the process by placing it in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour.
Or you can roll out freshly made cookie dough between two sheets of parchment or silicone mats and chill for an hour. I don't recommend leaving rolled cookie dough in the fridge for too long (overnight and longer) as it tends to dry out around the edges.
Preheat oven to 375F.
If you find that the disk of dough is hard as a rock, don’t panic. Quarter the dough. Take one piece and microwave it on high for 5-8 seconds to soften it up a little. It shouldn't be super soft, just soft enough so you can roll it out, you’ll still need to apply a little bit of pressure.
Cut up the remaining dough into smaller pieces, and set aside. Place microwaved piece between your rolling guides, either between 2 pieces of parchment or if you have a large silicone mat you can use it also ( for the rolling guides you can use two painter's sticks glued together on each side, or two pieces of 1/4 inch wood rods will work great, too).
Cut out as many cookies as you can. Gather scraps and to the scraps add a chilled piece of cut-up cookie dough you set aside. Re-roll and repeat until you are done with all the cookies. Place the cookies on a light-colored baking sheet lined with parchment paper or perforated. Chill the cutouts in the fridge for about 10 minutes, or in the freezer for 5.
Bake
Bake for 10-11 minutes, depending on the oven, turn the sheet once half way through the baking.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, and transfer them to a cooling rack.
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or freeze undecorated cookies between pieces of wax paper in a large freeze safe container, for up to 3 months.
Decorate cookies as desired with royal icing or other medium that you use.
Notes
How long can you keep the dough in the fridge? – You can keep the cookie dough in the fridge for up to 3 days. After that, you can either make the cookies or freeze the cookie dough for later—up to 3 months.
How thick do you roll out cookies for decorating?– 1/4 inch thick, and a little thicker when making cookie pops
I don’t have granulated sugar; can I use powdered sugar? Sure, you can use powdered sugar; use about 1 cup and 1/4 cups. A cookie made with powdered sugar has a tender crumb.
How to tell if cookies are baked? -cookies when baked have puffy centers. If you see a spot that appears wet and shiny, usually in the middle of the cookies, continue baking for another minute or 2. A baked, cooled cookie that has a darker spot in the center underbaked.
How to make other flavors?
Lemon / Orange Zest Cookies – use one tablespoon fresh lemon zest and 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon lemon extract
Chocolate Chip Cut-Out Cookies – ¼ cup granulated sugar, ¾ cup brown sugar, micro chocolate chips (add these with flour), 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Almond Sugar Cookies – add one teaspoon vanilla and one teaspoon almond extract. I find the almond flavor to be very strong and 1 teaspoon does the trick for me but if you’d like to add even more extract you definitely can. Almond cookies pair really nicely with my Fresh lemon royal icing.
Spices – you can also add spices to this recipe, try cinnamon, cardamom, or pumpkin spice to make them more seasonal.
Did you make this recipe? Tag @hanielas on Instagram and hashtag it #hanielas
TO MAKE SUGAR COOKIES YOU NEED
- My Favorite Cookie Baking Tools
- Favorite Cookie Cutters
- Sprinkles
- Dough EZ Rolling System
- Cooling Racks – I have 3 sets of these
- Baking Sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Spatulas
- Rolling Guides
- Rolling Pin 20 inch – my favorite
- Joseph Joseph Rolling Pin
- Bench Scrapper
- Oversized Stainless Steel Spatula
- Stand Mixer or use Hand Held Mixer
- Food Grade Mineral Oil
- Dish Towels
This post containsThis post containsAmazon affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no cost to you. I only recommend products that I use and love. Learn more about my affiliate policyhere.
PIN IT for later
This recipe was originally published in 2013. In 2019 I updated this recipe with step-by-step process pictures, written text and a comprehensive guide to cut-out cookies and a video.
