cut out sugar cookie recipe
This Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe makes soft rolled sugar cookies that will not spread! Make the easy dough with melted butter in one bowl with 6 ingredients. These vanilla sugar cookies bake flat making them perfect for icing!
A cut out sugar cookie recipe that stays soft, bakes flat and won’t spread! These cookies make the perfect sugar cookie for icing. Try this lemon royal icing or even this easy cookie icing. They are also delicious when spread with a cream cheese cookie frosting!
A rolled sugar cookie recipe is perfect for Valentine’s Day, decorated for Christmas, or even birthdays! Serve these with chewy sugar cookies, thumbprint cookies, chewy peanut butter cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for an easy dessert spread!
Table of contents
Why This is the Best Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
- Flavorful without icing. These sugar cookies are so flavorful they don’t even need icing. The perfect vanilla flavor combined with a soft, chewy texture makes these cookies the best.
- Bake flat without spreading. These easy cookies bake flat making them ideal for decorating with royal icing, and they do not spread during baking! They will hold whatever shape you desire!
- Stay fresh for over a week. These cookies when iced stay soft and chewy for 10 days at room temperature! This makes them ideal for gifts, care packages, and parties!
Professional Tips for Making Soft Sugar Cookies
- Finish mixing by hand. If I’m mixing these in a bowl, I always finish incorporating the dry ingredients by squeezing the dough with my hands. This ensures that it mixes quickly and without developing too much gluten.
- Roll immediately. Roll the dough between two piece of parchment paper immediately after mixing. This is easiest and produces the softest, most tender sugar cookies.
- Bake one shape on each tray. Baking each shape separately will ensure an even bake, eliminating the need to decide whether you want the reindeer cookie or Santa to be under baked!
- Freeze the rolled & cut dough for longer storage. I do not recommend refrigerating or freezing iced sugar cookies, so for longer storage, freeze the cut cookie dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Simply take out a piece when you’re ready, place on a baking sheet, and bake!
Ingredients Needed
- All-Purpose Flour: Both all-purpose flour or pastry flour would work in these cookies. There is just enough gluten to create structure without making them tough. Don’t even consider looking at bread flour in this recipe. No, ma’am.
- Baking Powder: There is just enough baking powder to leaven these cookies without making them puffy. Too much will create a dome on the top of the cookies.
- Kosher Salt
- Butter: I use unsalted butter for baking, because you want to control the amount of salt you are adding. The melted butter adds fat and moisture and makes these simple cookies chewy and soft.
- Granulated Sugar: There is just enough sugar for the perfect flavor, but not so much that makes the cookies spread. Unlike chewy sugar cookies, which are intended to spread, these soft sugar cookies hold their shape.
- Whole Egg: The eggs are here to add fat, moisture and emulsify the dough. The fat from the yolk adds richness and helps keep the cookies chewy.
- Vanilla Extract
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Sugar Cookie Decorating Ideas
- Decorate for different holidays: I decorated these heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day but you could also make festive Christmas cookies, eggs for Easter, or even American Flags for Independence Day!
- Easy decorating ideas: You don’t need to go all out with 5 different colors of icing. Try using just a simple vanilla buttercream spread on with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Garnish with sprinkles, freeze dried strawberries or shaved chocolate!
- Keep the icing plain: Do not underestimate the power of a pure white icing or even beautiful pastel colors drizzled over the top or completely covering. You don’t have to be a decorating master to make stunning cookies. A simple drizzle or partial dipping can be just as stunning.
How to Make Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Use these instructions to make the perfect soft sugar cookies! I’ve also included my recipe for royal icing and how to make it. A full tutorial is forthcoming, because I cannot possibly cover everything there is to know about making and using royal icing in this post.
Make the cookie dough:
Step 1: In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Set aside.
Step 2: In another large bowl, melt the butter (I used the microwave) just until melted but not hot. Whisk in the sugar followed by the egg and vanilla. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is emulsified. You shouldn’t see any streaks of butter or egg.
Step 3: Slowly stir in the flour mixture. If mixing with a spoon I like to finish by hand, squeezing the dough together. This incorporates the flour faster without developing too much gluten.
Step 4: Roll your dough while it is at room temperature. Roll the dough to approximately ¼ inch. You will have the best results if rolled between two pieces of parchment, but you can also roll out on a lightly floured surface.
Chef Lindsey’s Dough Pressing Technique: To easily smooth and flatten cookie dough between pieces of parchment paper, I like to press the dough away from me with a rolling pin in one hand while the other hand holds both pieces of parchment securely. This is essentially creating a (wo)man-powered dough sheeter!
Step 5: Refrigerate the dough until chilled. This will only take 30 minutes, but I like to give it a full 2 hours or overnight to let the gluten relax.
Cut & bake cookies:
Step 6: When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325° F convection or 350° F conventional, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. If you rolled your dough out between sheets of parchment, you can use those to line your pans.
Step 7: Unstick the parchment from both sides of the dough, then cut shapes with a lightly floured cookie cutter. Chill the cookies before baking. It will only take about 20 minutes.
Step 8: Bake in preheated oven for 7-9 minutes or until the cookies look matte in the center and have a few small cracks. Some of the edges might have begun to brown.
Step 9: Cool completely before icing.
Make Royal Icing:
Step 1: In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the dried egg whites and lemon juice. Whisk until soft peaks form.
Step 2: Add all the powdered sugar and whisk to combine. Separate the icing into different bowls and add food dye. I recommend using gel food coloring for vibrant colors and the best consistency and flavor.
Step 3: For outlining using the ribbon test. The icing should cascade slowly off your spatula and remaining clearly visible on the surface for a few moments (about 5-6 seconds) before slowly disappearing.
Step 4: For flooding using the same ribbon test, the icing should cascade off your spatula and almost disappear instantly into the rest of the icing.
Step 5: Transfer outline and flooding icings to separate bags.
A quick royal icing tutorial:
This is a very quick overview of icing sugar cookies with royal icing.
Step 1: Starting smaller than you think, cut the tip off the outline piping bag. Test a line. If it squiggles when you squeeze it, cut it just a little bigger. Test and repeat until you get a thin straight line. Repeat the same process with the flooding bag but cut it large enough to get a nice flow of icing without squeezing too hard.
Step 2: Working with 1-3 cookies at a time, use the outline bag to trace the outline of the cookie. Leave a 1/16th in border around the edges so it doesn’t run off the cookie!
Step 3: Switch to the flooding bag and squeeze a squiggle of icing inside the outline across the cookie you are icing. Use a cake tester, wooden skewer, or be lazy like me and use the tip of the flooding piping bag, to spread the icing around into one even layer. You should not be able to see the cookie through the icing, but not so thick that it flows over the outline. The outline should blend perfectly with the filling. If it doesn’t and you have a visible line, you can try to blend them or you can just outline fewer cookies before flooding next time.
Step 4: Let the icing set at least 30 minutes before adding another layer of icing, but if adding sprinkles and crushed dehydrated strawberries like I did, you will want to add those on right after flooding. This ensures that they stick. If you want to swirl two or more colors, I ice one cookie at a time, add the dots or lines, then swirl immediately for the cleanest effect. You can see more detailed tutorial on that icing technique in this Valentine’s Day Cookie recipe.
Royal icing needs to dry at room temperature overnight. It can be wrapped but don’t let the plastic wrap touch the tops of the cookies. I always let them dry unwrapped for at least 3 hours before wrapping. I don’t freeze them. Don’t even look at the refrigerator. The moisture will be absorbed by the icing and it will soften and bleed. You didn’t work this hard for that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store decorated sugar cookies well wrapped at room temperature for up to 10 days. Allow the icing to set 24 hours before stacking, and allow it to set 3 hours before wrapping with plastic wrap (not touching the surface).
These sugar cookie are excellent when baked from frozen. You don’t need to adjust the oven temperature but they will bake an additional 1-2 minutes depending on the size of the cookies.
You can stop this recipe at many steps during the process to easily prep in advance. Make the dough, roll, wrap and freeze before cutting, or, even better, prepare through cutting, then freeze the cut cookies between two layers of parchment. Bake from frozen when ready! The baked, un-iced, cookies can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
This cookie recipe is best for rolling and cutting, because it doesn’t spread. Try these lemon cookies or chewy sugar cookies instead for an easy drop-style cookie.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below! I love hearing from you and your comments make my day!
Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
- Prep Time: 20
- Chilling: 30
- Cook Time: 8
- Total Time: 58 minutes
- Yield: 40 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe makes soft rolled sugar cookies that will not spread! Make the easy dough with melted butter in one bowl with 6 ingredients. These vanilla sugar cookies bake flat making them perfect for icing!
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
For royal icing:
- 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 lb
- 6 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, approximately 2 medium lemons
- 1/4 cup dried egg whites, or meringue powder 22g
- 2 tbsp whole milk, as needed
For a simple cookie icing:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3–5 teaspoons milk
Instructions
Make the cookie dough:
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, melt the butter (I used the microwave) just until melted but not hot. Whisk in the sugar followed by the egg and vanilla. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is emulsified. You shouldn’t see any streaks of butter or egg.
- Slowly stir in the flour mixture.
- It does look like a dry dough, so I like to finish by hand, squeezing the dough together. This incorporates the flour faster without developing too much gluten.
- Roll your dough while it is at room temperature. Roll the dough to approximately ¼ inch. You will have the best results if rolled between two pieces of parchment, but you can also roll out on a lightly floured surface.
- Refrigerate the dough until chilled. This will only take 30 minutes, but I like to give it a full 2 hours or overnight to let the gluten relax.
- Cut & bake cookies:
- When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325° F convection or 350° F conventional, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Unstick the parchment from both sides of the dough, then cut shapes with a lightly floured cookie cutter. Chill the cookies before baking. It will only take about 20 minutes.
- Bake in preheated oven for 7-9 minutes or until the cookies look matte in the center and have a few small cracks. Some of the edges might have begun to brown. I bake all the same shapes on one sheet to ensure even baking.
- Cool completely before icing.
Make Royal Icing:
- In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the dried egg whites and lemon juice. Whisk until soft peaks form.
- Add all the powdered sugar and whisk to combine.
- Separate the icing into different bowls and add food dye. Be sure to keep an eye on the consistency and stop adding if it gets too thin.
- For outlining using the ribbon test. The icing should cascade slowly off your spatula and remaining clearly visible on the surface for a few moments (about 5-6 seconds) before slowly disappearing.
- For flooding using the same ribbon test, the icing should cascade off your spatula and almost disappear instantly into the rest of the icing.
For the simple icing:
Simply whisk all the ingredients together, adding a little milk at a time until it flows from the whisk but briefly holds a line on top of the icing in the bowl.
Notes
Yield – 40, 2-inch cookies rolled ¼ inch thick.
Variations – Try using lemon or orange zest in the sugar, different extracts or small mix-ins like mini chocolate chips or sprinkles.
Storage – Store soft sugar cookies with royal icing at room temperature for up to 10 days. Allow the icing to set 24 hours before stacking, and allow it to set 3 hours before wrapping with plastic wrap (not touching the surface).
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this sugar cookie recipe! Check out our other no-fuss dessert recipes!