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 loved these cookies, I actually used them for a 3D solar system project, overall delicious but I found you have to cook them for closer to 15 minutes not 11-12
These are not sugar cookies. They are more along the lines of a shortbread. No flavor at all. They do hold very well though. But I wouldn’t recommend if you want a true, sweet cookie.
What I love about this recipe…..best sugar cookies I’ve ever had, and friends and family agreed.
What I don’t like about this recipe……I ate so many of these cookies, I gained 3 lbs over Christmas, lol.
loved this recipe, I didn’t have enough butter so I substituted about 50 g with cream cheese, and they turned out delicious!
Also made a batch of chocolate ones by substituting 1/4 cup of cocoa for 1/4 cup flour, definitely a keeper recipe 🙂 Thank you.
Hi,
I make gingerbread houses to sell at Christmas and I had an order for a shortbread one. I used your recipe and the pieces came out beautifully! I wish I could post a picture. The recipient was so happy .
My favorite recipe for cut out sugar cookies. I follow the instructions and it came out perfectly. I read the reviews saying it doesn’t have much flavor. In my opinion they are perfect especially if you are adding royal icing to them. Thanks for the recipe and detailed instructions.
Made these cookies so many times and never disappoints.
Highly recommend adding the almond extract. Takes the flavour to the next level.
This really is the BEST sugar cookie recipe! I typically don’t like sugar cookies, but they are my husband’s favorite to have around the holidays. We made these together on Christmas day and I could not stop eating them! I think I ate 6 cookies that afternoon, a few more that night, and a couple more with a cup of coffee the next morning. We will definitely be making these for years to come!
This cookie recipe was so good! I love the almond extract, it really adds a lot of flavor! They have been out for almost 5 days and still taste soft and chewy. Definitely my favorite sugar cookie recipe.
Perfectly shaped, crisp, cookies that looked laser-cut! I swapped the almond extract for 1/4 tsp rose extract and it was the right amount of floral and not too sweet. I’m planning to ship these to family, and they look sturdy enough to make the journey (fingers crossed!)
I make these cookies for my dad because they are his favorite. Unfortunately for him, my family snatched them up before he could eat them. My family doesn’t even like sugar cookies. They were branded the best cookies. Thanks for sharing this recipe and making me look like a good! I can’t say enough good things about these cookies! Amazing, fantastic!
Pros: This is a simple recipe that comes together quickly with common ingredients. The process tips are golden! The cookies bake well and holds their shape. It made very pretty cookies.
Con: The cookies have a very mild flavor almost bland. I used only vanilla extract, maybe the almond helps build a more complex flavor.
The royal icing recipe was the best I’ve ever made! I’ll never do it any other way!
This is the first sugar cookie recipe for baking that I’ve made that doesn’t spread and look like a blob after baking. These held their shape beautifully! All I have to say is, if they didn’t have frosting of them. The cookie itself does not have a nice flavor, it is kind of bland but perfect for decorating. I will always use this in the future when decorating cookies!
This truest is the best sugar
Cookie recipes! I have tried a few others before this and this turns out the most delicious, most beautiful, less messy. Great tips on rolling out the dough before chilling .
I made these cookies for Christmas and I put 140 grams of sugar and they were overly sweet. Next time, I’ll try to put 100 grams and see how that works out. A bit of a toothache, but had a nice texture.
I was planning to make these for Xmas, but will not be sharing these with anyone and most ended up in the garbage. They are very dry and crispy and don’t have much flavor, even with the added almond extract. 1/4″ thickness is on the thin side, I increased the thickness after the first pan came out way too thin and all the cookies broke apart when I tried to transfer from the pan to the cooling rack. The dough was impossible to reroll right out of the fridge. It needed to be worked with warm hands for a minute to get it to roll again. The cookies do hold their shape as the recipe states.
Fixing to decorate my cookies..do I just leave them out to dry overnight ? Once icing is dry how do I store these? sorry newbie here!. Please help !
I make these all the time and they are literally the best! I would like to make for someone with a nut allergy so instead of almond extract would you use butter extract maybe?
You could use imitation almond extract.
I absolutely loved this recipe every said these were the best cookies they ever ate thank you
These are the best sugar cookies I’ve ever made! I followed the recipe exactly, and put the rolled dough in the fridge overnight. I’m not an experienced baker, and I don’t have a paddle attachment for my hand blender, so I just used the regular whisk attachments. The dough turned out super crumbly and I was worried I had messed it up, but I was able to knead the dough into a rollable consistency. Once baked, the cookies had a fantastic texture. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. I will definitely make these again.
So far the dough is crumbly. According to another review here it looks like I over-measured the flour… not sure how… Unless I didn’t quite use enough butter… not sure what to add now to help… but perhaps I’ll just use your suggestion to begin rolling it and hope it comes together more…
They came out delicious! I don’t know if it was my error or not, but I had to add quite a lot more flour (in small increments) than the recipe called for. I may have measured wrong though, as I tripled the recipe. I added just enough extra flour to make the dough “roll-able” and the cookies came out great. They taste like bakery cookies!
A note, I hate the strong taste of powdered sugar in my frosting. I added some melted butter to my frosting and it didn’t affect the hardening process. They tasted much better with the butter in the frosting.
Anyways, thank you so much! Hopefully these will be a success at the cookie swap 🙂
Very happy with the results of your recipe. I really appreciate all the tips included to get really good results. I have made so many cut out cookie recipes that were disappointing, but this one is wonderful. They are delicious and my granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed making them with me. Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year to all.
It was PERFECT for me! We’ve used a family recipe for the last 9 years, but they were always just a little too crunchy for my liking. So I tried this recipe and it was PERFECT!!! My 11 year old daughter even made a batch from start to finish all on her own. This will definitely be out go-to from now on.
Do I use the almond extract instead of vanilla or do I use both together??
Both together!! So good!
Excellent recipe, as always! And great tip about rolling dough before refrigerating.
This was a huge hit in my household. My wife loved the almond flavor too (used 1/2 tsp) thank you
These cookies were great!
I was surprised they turned out so good on the first try. Very soft but also dangerous because I couldn’t stop eating them.
I chilled the scrap dough in the fridge again until right before they went in the oven so they would keep their shape.
Hello I accidentally added too much butter what do I do? About 2/4 of a cup too much
It worked amazingly for me.
Perfect! Rolled them slightly thinner than suggested so baked them for 8 min, switching halfway through. So soft and the almond is a must!!
These cookies came out great! I love the flavor, and they came out perfect and soft! Adding that almond extract was an excellent idea! My son was so excited to eat these, he is already asking me to make more! Thank you!