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
I have been searching for the best sugar cookie cut-out recipe and this is it!! I have completely failed with other recipes – the dough usually falls apart or difficult to roll. . .no in between. Not this recipe. This recipe makes me look good. 😉 Secret I have found is with the butter. I use real butter and soften it in the microwave. . .if it’s too hard. . .the dough becomes too hard and you really have to work with it. Soften, not melted. Just my two cents. I have made it three times already as it’s so popular!! We use snowflake, Christmas Tree and Candy cane cutters and they look and taste better than anything you can buy anywhere. Target had some for $1. Even kids who say they don’t like cookies – LOVE these. I have also been using the Cookie Icing from Duncan Hines to create cute designs on the cookies. Alternating red and white lines on the candy canes. Easy little snowflake design on the snowflakes. My Christmas trees – just get a bunch of lights. 😉 My girls love playing with the dough and ask when I’m making my next batch so they can cut them out and decorate.
Hi Stephanie, thanks for your help! The fridge it is. Might need to buy a lock for fridge so I don’t eat them pre-bake.
This looks amazing. If I am going to roll dough tonight, with plans of baking tomorrow night, is the best prep to freeze this evening, put in fridge tomorrow morning, and let thaw in fridge before baking cookies tomorrow night (while also letting thaw for an hour on counter tmrw. night)? Alternatively, I was thinking about freezing for 1-2 hours and then letting them sit in fridge until tmrw night. Thanks for your help!
Hi Craig, The rolled out dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days – so no need to freeze it if you are making it today and baking tomorrow.
Can i use white chocolate for the decoration? May i knw the best way to store the chocolate dipped cookies pls
Hi Ernie, You can use white chocolate. Cookies will stay fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to three months.
I LOVE this recipe. I have used it a bunch of times. I have an odd question though. I am making my friend’s son a batman themed cake this weekend. I’ve never worked with fondant before so I thought I could use this recipe to cut out a large Batman cookie to place on top. If I do that with this recipe it will be one cookie about 6-7” across. How would that affect the bake time? Do you even recommend this or could it be too fragile to work with? Thank you!!!
Hi Jessica, You can use this recipe for one large cookie! The bake time will be longer so just use your oven light to keep an eye on it and be sure to let it cool completely before trying to move it so that it doesn’t break. My one tip is to make more than one incase something happens to the first cookie when placing it on your cake 🙂
Family Recipe!
These are the first sugar cookies I’ve ever made for my baby shower at work and they were a hit! They’re so buttery, soft, and melt in the mouth. I’ve tried store bought sugar cookies before, but they’re hard and dry in the mouth. I used the royal icing recipe. I made lemon and almond flavors. The cookies smelled so good while baking. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
This was the most successful sugar cookie recipe my daughters and I have found! And definitely add the almond extract. Yum!!!
Perfect cookies. The tip about rolling the dough before chilling is brilliant!
This is now my go to recipe. However, I don’t have any meringue powder so I wish you’d post a recipe for royal icing that uses egg whites (maybe you did and I can’t find it). Anyway, thanks for the cookies!
These came out PERFECTLY!!! Thank you so, so much for this holiday cookie recipe. Will be trying the Royal Icing next…
Should I put parchment on or oil my baking sheet or should I just put the cookies right on?
Hi India, I recommend using parchment paper or a baking mat.
Do yourself a favor and skip this recipe. I put this in the fridge to chill overnight because it said it can be chilled up to 2 days. Dough came out hard and when I tried to move it is just crumbled into 1000 pieces. I’m trying to rework it but it absolutely will not stick together. I bake regularly but I never do roll out sugar cookies because they are such a pain. After this, I will never try them again. Even more fun, this was supposed to be for my 3 year old and I to do together. He lost interest in less than 5 minutes because I had still only managed to roll enough dough for 2 cookies in that time.
Hi Amy, we really appreciate your feedback. If you’d like to salvage the dough, you likely can. Let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes and try rolling out again. It sounds like it’s simply too stiff. Sorry you had trouble.
I’ve tried this recipe so many times and nothing went wrong. I had a hard cookie dough because I put it in the freezer for too long. But I let it set out for a few minutes to soften and I was able to cut the cookies into shapes and bake them.
These by far are the best sugar cookies I have ever made! I followed the directions to a tee and wouldn’t change a thing! Almond extract is a must! Delicious.
I don’t know what I did wrong, but after going into the fridge for 24 hours (I’ve been burned before lol) and then the freezer for 15 minutes after I cut them out, these cookies spread like the dickens! they’re completely shapeless and I’m glad I have other cookies to decorate or this royal icing would have gone to waste.
100% DELISH!! I made these yesterday for the Holidays, and we were super impressed.
Make this recipe, you’ll be in awe.
Mine tasted great, but the dough was WAY too sticky to be rolled out or used with cookie cutters—even after ensuring proper butter temp and adding the recommended extra tablespoon of flour, and chilling for almost 2 hours…not sure what I did wrong, but it looks like I’m the only one who had this problem! I ended up just using a cookie dough scoop and making these like traditional cookies. Kind of bummed because I wanted to do fun shapes for the holidays, but at least they tasted good.
Absolute perfection. I love butter! I use Land O Lakes extra creamy butter, and the texture is so satisfying.
Delicious cookies (added a second egg)and used the royal icing recipe. Put the separated dough balls in frig overnight. Worked great, defiantly a keeper!! Thank you
Thank you for posting this recipe using almond extract! I love the flavor! My go to sugar cookie recipe (an old Betty Crocker recipe) used almond extract, but those cookies never held their shape very well. I’ve been baking cookies and pies for most of my life and am always eager to learn new techniques. I love the idea about rolling the dough before chilling. Yes, you do need to make room in the fridge, but it’s worth it. I was making these to send to my Daughter and son in law so that they can decorate them for Christmas. I know they will make the trip! My cookies kept their shape and didn’t puff up at all.
Are there really ads in the middle of the list of ingredients and instructions? I understand you need to make money off of this site but allowing ads to be placed in the middle of the only information we really need, making it harder to to read is off-putting.
Hi Erin, thank you so much for the feedback. Ad placements in recipes are pretty standard for food blogs, but I always take user experience into consideration so your feedback is helpful. We’re strict about ads that block our content, so you should always be able to view the recipe.
Erin I think you should be grateful for a fabulous recipe and not be so critical. Maybe you should take the time and read the whole article before you pass your negative attitude around or just go to another site. Happy Holidays.
Used this recipe at least 4x this season and it’s wonderful. I love almond so I swap the almond and vanilla extract amount! Thanks! This seriously is easy and comes out great! I’m getting compliments about them all the time!
Hi Sally delicious cookies for my grandkids!
Can you tell me why the dough i made was a bit dry!
Also I was not sure if I did put the right amount for the butter…
Do you have a tip for this?
Thanks for the recipe
Hi Nicole! It sounds like you may have added too much flour – did you spoon and level to measure? You can learn more about why that’s important in my How to Properly Measure Baking Ingredients blog post. The correct amount of butter is also crucial. I’m glad to hear your grandkids enjoyed them!
You provide instructions for freezing the dough after step 3. However, can you roll, chill, cut shapes, and then freeze them to bake at a later date?
Hi Michelle, Yes you can freeze the raw shaped dough. No need to thaw before baking – just place on the baking sheet and add an extra minute or two to your bake time. Enjoy!
I’m a total novice and gave these a try. Turned out great! I ended up making 3 batches and my kitchen is a mess, but it was worth it. Thank you Sally
My step grandmother used to make the BEST sugar cookies at Christmas. Honestly, I looked forward to her cookies more than her gifts. She passed away without me ever getting her recipe and I have been looking for a recipe as good as hers for years. I finally found it in your recipe. They are absolutely the best that I have ever had. They are even great naked (no frosting) I used Kerry Irish butter and took the suggestion of one comment to roll them out in powdered sugar instead of flour. I will never use another sugar cookie recipe again!
We love them. I didn’t have almond extract so we doubled the vanilla. Chilled in the freezer while I made the icing about 10 mins. Cooked for 16 mins because the thickeness. My new favorite!!! Next attempt is royal icing. Thanks for the delicious recipes.
I followed the recipe as written and mine is dry and won’t hold it’s shape to roll out. This is the second recipe I’ve tried from this website The other was for gingerbread cookies and I had the exact same problem with it.
This is the best cut out sugar cookie recipe! These cookies were delicious and your easy royal icing made me look like a cookie decorating expert. The chill time was so minimal, my 5 year old was still interested in the cookie making process. We are gearing up to make these for the holidays and I was hoping your could provide tips on doubling the recipe.
Tried these recipes this morning. I think the cookies are average- certainly nowhere close to the best I’ve made. The proportions seem fine to make a nice dough but the steps for rolling out the dough are annoying and seem unnecessary… I’ve made better cookies where you’re simply able to refridgerate the dough and roll them from there.
I made these yesterday for Christmas cut outs. They were terrific. This is a great recipe and really good tasting sugar cookie. I’ve made others that don’t taste this good. Sally, I have never had a bad result with any of your recipes! You are my go to!