With crisp edges, thick centers, and room for lots of decorating icing, I know you’ll love these soft cut-out sugar cookies. Use your favorite cookie cutters and try my classic royal icing.
Originally published on my website in 2014, this recipe is a massive fan favorite. You’ll also find the recipe in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
This is my flagship recipe for cut-out sugar cookies. I’ve made them at least 38577 times (imagine all the butter), so I figured it’s time to share new recipe tips, a video tutorial, and more helpful information.
Why You’ll Love These Sugar Cookies
- Soft, thick centers with slightly crisp edges
- Irresistible buttery vanilla flavor
- Leave plain or flavor with extras like maple, cinnamon, and more
- Hold their shape
- Flat surface for decorating
- Stay soft for days
- Freeze beautifully
Sugar Cookies Video Tutorial
Overview: How to Make Sugar Cookies with Icing
- Make cookie dough. You only need 7 or 8 ingredients. With so few ingredients, it’s important that you follow the recipe closely. Creamed butter and sugar provide the base of the cookie dough. Flour and egg give the cookies structure, and vanilla extract adds flavor. I almost always add a touch of almond extract for additional flavor and highly recommend that you try it too! Baking powder adds lift, and salt balances the sweet. So many *little ingredients* doing *big jobs* to create a perfect cookie. By the way, I also have a recipe for chocolate sugar cookies!
- Divide in two pieces. Smaller sections of dough are easier to roll out.
- Roll out cookie dough. Roll it out to 1/4 inch thick. If you have difficulty rolling out dough evenly, try this adjustable rolling pin. Speaking from experience—it’s incredibly handy!
- Chill rolled-out cookie dough. Without chilling, these cookie cutter sugar cookies won’t hold their shapes. Chill the rolled-out cookie dough for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
- Cut into shapes. If you need suggestions for cookie cutters, I love Ann Clark brand. (Not sponsored, just a genuine fan!) Some of my favorites include this heart set, dog bone, snowflake, snowman, leaf, and a pumpkin. I also use and recommend these heart cookie cutters.
- Bake & cool. Depending on size, the cookies take about 11–12 minutes.
- Decorate. See my suggested icings below. I also have a tutorial on how to decorate sugar cookies with even more helpful decorating tips.
Have a little flour nearby when you’re rolling out the cookie dough. Keep your work surface, hands, and rolling pin lightly floured. This is a relatively soft dough.
The Trick Is the Order of Steps
Notice how I roll out the dough BEFORE chilling it in the refrigerator? That’s my trick and you can see me doing it in the video tutorial in this post.
Let me explain why I do this. Just like when you’re making chocolate chip cookies, to prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must chill in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough right after you prepare it, then chill the rolled-out dough. (At this point the dough is too soft to cut into shapes.) If you chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out, it will be too cold and difficult to work with.
I also divide the dough in half before rolling it out, and highly recommend you do the same. Smaller sections of dough are simply more manageable.
Another trick! Roll out the cookie dough directly on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator. (Parchment paper will slide around on your counter, so I always place a piece of parchment paper on top of a silicone baking mat to roll the dough without slippage.)
Pick up the sheet of parchment with the rolled-out dough on top, transfer it to a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. You don’t need to make room for two baking sheets in your refrigerator—simply stack the pieces of rolled-out dough on top of each other, with the parchment paper in between.
How Thick Do I Roll Sugar Cookies?
These sugar cookies remain soft because they’re rolled out pretty thick. Roll out the cookie dough to about 1/4 inch thick or just under 1/4 inch thick. Yes, this is on the thicker side and yes, this produces extra thick and soft cookies. If rolling out cookie dough doesn’t sound appealing, try my drop sugar cookies instead.
Sugar Cookie Icing
I have 3 sugar cookie icing recipes, and you can choose whichever works best for you.
- Favorite Royal Icing: This royal icing is my preferred sugar cookie icing because it’s easy to use, dries within a couple of hours, and doesn’t taste like hardened cement. (It’s on the softer side!) I make it with meringue powder. Meringue powder takes the place of raw egg whites, which is found in traditional royal icing recipes. It eliminates the need for fresh eggs, but still provides the same consistency. You can find meringue powder in some baking aisles, most craft stores with a baking section, and online. The 8-ounce tub always lasts me a good while. The trickiest part is landing on the perfect royal icing consistency, but I provide a video in the royal icing recipe to help you.
- Easy Cookie Icing: This easy cookie icing is ideal for beginners. It’s easier to make than royal icing because you don’t need an electric mixer and the consistency won’t really make or break the outcome. However, it doesn’t provide the same sharp detail that royal icing decorations do. It also takes a good 24 hours to dry.
- Buttercream: This cookie decorating buttercream is also excellent for beginners. You can tint it any color you like, flavor it, and spread it on with a knife or use piping tips. It soft-sets after a few hours, meaning you can carefully stack the cookies for storage.
The pictured heart-shaped cookies are decorated with my royal icing using Wilton piping tip #4. If you’re not into piping tips, you can simply dunk the tops of the cookies into the icing, like we do with these mini animal cracker cookies. 🙂
Sugar Cookie Tips & Tools
Before I leave you with the recipe, let me suggest some useful sugar cookie tools. These are the exact products I use and trust in my own kitchen:
- Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer)
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets
- Rolling Pin or this Adjustable Rolling Pin
- Food Coloring: Liquid food coloring can alter the consistency of the icing, so I recommend gel food coloring. For the pictured cookies, I used a few drops of dusty rose and 1 drop of sky blue. This Americolor Soft Gel Paste Color Kit is great to have if you do a lot of decorating and want to have a variety of colors on hand.
- Piping Tips/Squeeze Bottle: If you’re using royal icing, I recommend Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding. This is a wonderful basic piping tip to have in your collection. If you’re using my easy glaze icing, I recommend using a squeeze bottle.
- Piping Bag: If you’re using royal icing and a piping tip, you need a disposable piping bag or reusable piping bag.
- Couplers: Couplers are handy if you have multiple colors of icing and only 1 tip, and need to move the tip to the other bags of icing.
- Cookie Cutters: I like this heart-shaped cookie cutter, but you can use any shape you desire!
For even more recommendations, see this complete list of my favorite cookie decorating supplies.
Here’s What You Can Do With This Dough
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Striped Fudge Cookie Sandwiches
- Snowman Cookies
- Cinnamon Roll Cookies
- Stained Glass Window Cookies
- Valentine’s Day Cookies
- Maple Cinnamon Cut-Out Cookies
- St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
- Easter Cookies
- Fireworks Cookies
And if you’re craving sugar cookies with a little extra tang, try my cream cheese cut-out cookies with Nutella glaze.
Print
Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours (including chilling)
- Yield: 24 3-4 inch cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
With crisp edges, thick centers, and room for lots of decorating icing, I know you’ll love these soft sugar cookies as much as I do. The number of cookies this recipe yields depends on the size of the cookie cutter you use. If you’d like to make dozens of cookies for a large crowd, double the recipe. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for rolling and work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional, but makes the flavor outstanding)*
For Decorating
- Royal Icing, Easy Glaze Icing, or Cookie Buttercream (royal icing is pictured)
- Assorted sprinkles
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until the mixture is light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract (if using) and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. The dough should be soft. If it seems too soft and sticky for rolling, beat in 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Divide the dough in half. Place each portion on a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use a bit more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4 inch thick.
- Lightly dust one of the rolled-out dough portions with flour. (This prevents sticking.) Place the second rolled-out dough portion, still on the parchment paper, on top of the first. Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Carefully remove the top piece of dough from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Gather the scraps, reroll, and continue cutting until all the dough is used. (Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you reroll.) Repeat with the second piece of dough. Arrange the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 11–12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are very lightly browned and set. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheets halfway through bake time. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Decorate the cooled cookies with royal icing, easy cookie icing, or cookie decorating buttercream. Feel free to tint any of the icings with gel food coloring. See post above for recommended decorating tools. No need to cover the decorated cookies as you wait for the icing to set. If it’s helpful, decorate the cookies directly on a baking sheet so you can place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator to help speed up the icing setting.
- Enjoy cookies right away or wait until the icing sets to serve them. Once the icing has set, these cookies are great for gifting or shipping. Store plain or iced cookies covered tightly at room temperature for up to 5 days. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days. If decorated with cookie buttercream, cover and store decorated cookies at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Plain or decorated sugar cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Wait for the icing to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-safe container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough (before rolling it out) for up to 3 months. Prepare the dough through step 2, divide in half, flatten each half into a disc (like we do with pie crust), wrap each disc in plastic wrap, place both wrapped discs in a freezer-safe container, and freeze. Thaw the wrapped discs in the refrigerator overnight, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill the rolled-out dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour before cutting into shapes and baking.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Wooden Rolling Pin or Adjustable Rolling Pin | Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutter | Americolor Soft Gel Paste Color Kit | Piping Bags (Disposable or Reusable) | Couplers | Wilton Tip #4 | Squeeze Bottle
- Room Temperature: Room-temperature butter is essential. If the dough is too sticky, your butter may have been too soft. Room-temperature butter is actually cool to the touch. Room-temperature egg is preferred so that it mixes quickly and evenly into the cookie dough.
- Flavors: I love flavoring this cookie dough with 1/4 teaspoon almond extract as listed in the ingredients above. For more flavor, use 1/2 teaspoon. Instead of the almond extract, try using 1 teaspoon of maple extract, coconut extract, lemon extract, or peppermint extract. Or add 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon. If using lemon extract, you can also add 1 Tablespoon lemon zest.
- Icing: Use royal icing, easy cookie icing, or cookie decorating buttercream. See post above to read about the differences.
- Can I Double the Recipe? Yes. Double all of the ingredients and divide the dough into 3 or 4 portions in step 3.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
This is absolutely THE best sugar cookie I have made. My family loved them. For the first time ever in my 68 years I even tried decorating them with icing. They turned out pretty good. I will be making them again and will tell my friends about this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
(Note: After mixing the dough, it wasn’t sticking together in the bowl. However, when I “squished” it together with my hands, it did fine when I rolled it out. )
Hello, I just made the dough but for some reason its still sticky! I don’t want to keep adding flour which is all we will taste if I do! Normally after chilling the dough it wont be as sticky, Is this the case with this recipe?
Hi AZ, Yes! The dough is a bit sticky and the most important step is to chill the dough.
This was the best sugar cookie recipe I’ve ever had!! It doesn’t crumble apart like some of those beautiful cookies people make! They were perfect chewiness in the middle and crisp on the edges exactly as described! My family and friends were very impressed and said they tasted better than a lot of local professionals. Love loveee!!
I am wondering if this recipe is able to be doubled.
You can double this recipe, yes.
I just made these cookies and used your royal icing recipe and they were fantastic! They were a big hit with my family. I added 1/2 tsp almond extract. I rolled them out on parchment but they stuck, so I probably didn’t sprinkle enough flour on my parchment.
I added a full tablespoon of vanilla to my royal icing. How much extract do you recommend?
I made these for Halloween with your royal icing and they were a huge it! They looked AND tasted great (which is not always the case with cut out, decorated cookies). This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you!!!
The best, indeed! Love this recipe! ♥️
Not very flavorful and are actually bland. I even added the almond extract. I’ll keep looking for a better recipe
We just made these and they’re great!
I already made a review agreeing with this one. Very bland with little flavor. But I forgot to add, after mixing everything exactly as it said, my “dough” was just crumbles. I had to add 1/4 cup of water, and it thickened up. But still needs lots of icing to even taste like an actual sugar cookie.
Hi Adrianne, a crumbly dough can still be workable (don’t add water!)– try to bring it together with your hands. It will also come together as you roll it out. Sorry it didn’t work out for you.
I’m curious if you iced them? I find that certain sugar cookie recipes absolutely need icing. Then there are recipes that are good with just a little sprinkle of sugar on top but those ones are way too sweet with icing. Personally I prefer classic butter cream icing over royal icing on sugar cookies – it doesn’t look as pretty but the flavour is worth the trade-off. I’m trying to decide if I should try this recipe with butter cream icing as I’m looking for a recipe that isn’t very sweet.
Wow, thank you for the amazing cookie recipe! They were light, flaky and oohhh so delicious. Will be trying more of your recipes, a winner for sure.
I have a dairy allergy and used a salt free Plant based alternative instead of the butter and they turned out great! I can still have eggs so didn’t make any other adjustments to the recipe. My daughter and I doubled the batch and made a bunch of Halloween themed cookies yesterday. We decorated them with a royal icing that used eggs whites because we didn’t have meringue powder. The cookies look and taste great.
It’s been awhile since I’ve made rolled out sugar cookies and I’ve never made royal icing so I studied both of your recipes very carefully. I’m making balloon cookies for a “She’s about to POP!” baby shower theme so I need them to taste and look great.
Cookie dough: Amazing taste (yes I’m a dough tester :)) and easy to work with. Cookie: Yum! The almond extract is the way to go.
Royal icing: While not a great taste on its own, it’s the perfect compliment to the cookies. So easy to work with for this newbie!
Tip: I used 2 plastic hangers as my 1/4” guide when rolling out the dough. They were the perfect thickness.
Question: Have you ever used GF flour in these?
These 2 recipes will be my go to recipes now. Thanks 🙂
I had the hardest time rolling it out. Stuck to everything. Put in fridge and cutters stuck to it all. Free handed and tried baking. Kids said tasted well. Put back in fridge in hopes I can salvage it. I have no idea what I did wrong.
Hi Danielle, Did you make any ingredient substitutions or change the recipe at all? Before refrigerating be sure to lightly flour your parchment paper or silicone baking mat, and also lightly flour your rolling pin. You can watch Sally do this in the video above starting at the 2 minute 20 second mark. Once it’s rolled out you can chill it and the colder the dough is the less your cookie cutters will stick to it.
Hi Sally. This looks like a great recipe! Do you think it could work for ice cream sandwiches?
Yes, definitely! We use them (with sprinkles!) in these Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.
My forever cut out recipe!! They are awesome! THANK YOU
Hi Chloe, We haven’t tested this recipe with either of those substitutions but let us know if you try it!
Thank you, these were very good. No one here really has a big sweet tooth and these were very good, not overly sweet. We did not use the icing. I was thinking of adding a little lemon and lemon zest to the next set.
hi…can you use melted white chocolate chips for the icing?
Hi Tania, You can use melted chocolate to decorate the cookies if you wish – I do however recommend a white chocolate bar instead of chips. The chips don’t melt down evenly.
I’ve been experimenting with a handful of sugar cookie recipes and I always come back to this one. Easy & tasty! Thank you!! 🙂
I made the dough, but instead of “soft” it turned out to be really flaky and almost kind of dry. The dough tasted and smelled SUPER GOOD but the texture was too crumbly.
I come back to this recipe ALL THE TIME. It’s pretty flawless. I use earth balance vegan butter and it works just fine.
Thanks for this recipe!
Hi! I love this recipe but I’m having some trouble with the time in the oven! I rolled my dough 1/4 inch and placed on the middle rack of the oven but it took about 25 minutes for the edges to start to brown. Am I putting it on the wrong rack? Also is the bottom of the cookie supposed to also brown?
Wow, these turned out beautifully! I’m not a big cookie person in general, but I wanted to make some Halloween treats and this recipe is absolutely wonderful. I doubled the recipe and was so pleased with how soft the cookies turned out, and the almond extract gives them such a unique flavor that I love. I think I’ve found my go-to cookie!
HI Sally. will these spread in the oven or does the freezing counteract this problem? thank you
Hi Kylie, As long as you follow the recipe without making any ingredient substitutions, using proper room temperature butter, and follow the order of the steps (roll then chill!) these cookies won’t spread in the oven! The best tip is to make sure your dough is cold going in the oven, if it’s getting to warm just place your cut out shapes back in the refrigerator before baking.
Hi,
I use this recipe and swap a tsp of
vanilla with Princess Cookie and Cake Emulsion and it’s fantastic! Can you turn this into a 9 inch cookie cake? How many would it serve? Thanks!
Hi Jodi, You could!. Or if you want it to be a little softer, you can use the sugar cookie crust from this Fruit Pizza. It would serve between 10-12 depending on the size you cut it.
The dough was easy to work with but these were a miss for our family. The flavor was very plain and the cookie was flaky not soft. It would probably make a nice pie crust? The recipe also only made a dozen cookies using a medium sized pumpkin cookie cutter.
Hi Ashlea, Thank you for trying this recipe. I wonder if there was simply an ingredient mis-measured or skipped? It shouldn’t be flakey like pie crust and there should be plenty of dough for 24 cookies if you continue to re-roll the scraps. If you try it again double check all the measurements 🙂
I made these as part of a fun day with my kids. They turned out great, everybody loved the flavour, but the second batch grew more in the stove than the first (first was perfect). Anyways, the kids loved cutting and decorating the cookies, I think for them it was like play doh, making slime and painting, all together! And my 6yo already asked for more!
Hi Sally! These were the best sugar cookies I have ever made. Rolling the dough and putting it in the refrigerator is definitely the key to making this recipe so easy. I always had such a hard time make sugar cookies I stopped making them. My daughter asked me to make some for my grandson’s birthday and she gave me your recipe. I could believe how good they were and how easy to make. Thank you for sharing!
Do you have any suggestions on how to make these gluten free using almond flour?
Hi Darlene, We are thrilled you enjoyed these cookies so much! We haven’t tested these with a gluten free flour but I don’t suggest almond flour. If you would like to try, then an all purpose gluten free flour would be best. Let us know how they turn out.
Hi Sally! I made these for my grandson’s 3rd birthday and they were the easiest sugar cookie recipe I have ever made. I actually enjoyed making them! Sugar cookies were my least favorite cookie to make when my girls were growing up! Can this recipe be adjusted to make them gluten free?
Hi Darlene, We are so happy you enjoyed this recipe! We haven’t tested these cookies with gluten free flour but let us know if you try.
Best cookies ever!! my whole family loved them
Hi Sally,
Loved working with this recipe. I have tried a few but I always come back to yours! My only question to you is how thick is too thick for the cookies?? I have tried 1/4 inch (6mm) and I have tried 3/8 inch (10mm). So which thickness is best for these kind of cookies? I get mixed results from people (with the thicker dough I make less cookies)
I would love to have your opinion on this
thanks again
Hi Elisabeth, For most cookie cutters 1/4 inch is perfect with this dough. Although if you prefer super thick cookies, 1/2 or 1/3 inch will work also – bake time for thicker cookies will be a little longer–until the edges are lightly browned.
Hi Sally, I just wanted to say that I love all of your recipes and I especially love this one because I made it for my parents anniversary and the guest loved it! Thank you so much!!!