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
Crumbly dough that cracked horribly when rolled out. Worse after coming out of the fridge. Flavor and texture were not great either. I’m sure a few tweaks could make this recipe better, but not sure it’s worth it.
Made these for the first time today. I noticed that lots of reviewers were saying that their dough was just dry crumbles. My suggestion is beat the dough longer. I was getting worried for a minute that mine was going to be crumbles too. However, I followed the recipe exactly, kept beating the dough, and the crumbles blended right in and the dough was perfect! Thanks, Sally, for the easy, delicious recipe! My preschoolers will love their heart cookies!
I wish I could attach a photo here! Your sugar cookie recipe has been my go to for years. It’s flavourful and produce the best chewy cookie with slightly crisp edges. There’s no “cakiness” to it at all. It also holds up very well to complex cookie cutters – I recently made some neurology-themed cookies using cookie cutters with intricate anatomical details and the design held up perfectly!
I tried making these a few years ago and it’s all I use now. It always seemed to choice was between crispy flavorless sugar cookies that held their shape and tasty cake but boring round cookies. These have a lovely texture, great flavor (I always use the almond), and hold their shape well. I usually pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes after cutting out to help maintain shape. I always weigh my flour and have had no problems with having a dry dough. Thanks for this recipe!
Made these today. Tried to roll the dough out like the directions ended up with a huge mess. Had to throw out 3 batches. Very disappointing
Hi Kathy, the dough should eventually come together, try to bring it together with your hands next time. Also, be sure to spoon and level the flour (or weigh it)– it’s possible you added too much if you scooped it. Scooping packs down the flour.
Made these to give to the grands and my mom for Valentine’s Day. They are delicious! So much easier to roll the dough before refrigerating than first refrigerating. The only challenge was how to keep the parchment paper from shifting while rolling out the dough.
AMAZING!!! I love sugar cookies and these are perfection. Baked for 8 and a half minutes and turned out incredibly soft and delicious. Totally must do a double batch next time.
These cookies turned out beautifully for Christmas. I want to try adding different flavors like she recommended. Should I use the extracts in the icing and flavor the icing too, or just flavor the batter?
Hi Lauren, you can do either or both. The extracts and amounts listed here would be for the dough, but we also talk about adding extracts to the royal icing here (see recipe notes). We’d love to know if you give any flavors a try!
I love this recipe! For a lemony taste, I added lemon extract to my royal icing. Perfect! Making again to hand out for valentines day 🙂
This recipe is fantastic! Thank you so much for a really easy friendly recipe. Your notes and hints are absolutely great. These are going into the mail today for my 2 daughters and granddaughter knowing they are going to love them.
This is my go to recipe. I am not a fan of the taste of butter so I always use Crisco. They may seem a little brittle, but I dip them in milk, roll them again in flour and they are great.
Hello, I was just wondering, is a single recipe for your royal icing the perfect amount for these 24 sugar cookies? I was going to make a double batch and so was trying to figure out if I needed a double batch of your icing as well! Thanks so much!
Hi Shelby, a single batch of our Royal Icing is enough for about 3 dozen 3 or 4-inch cookies. Hope this helps!
We make these cookies every year for Christmas! Now we are making letter cookies to congratulate my sister in law on her promotion. Any excuse to make/eat these cookies!
The cookies taste so good. But mine spread out like crazy. I followed all the instructions and chilled it for 2 hours. Wondering what went wrong
Hi Brenn, I’m happy to help. Make sure the cookie dough is sufficiently chilled. There is plenty of flour to soak up the butter, so over-spreading shouldn’t be an issue unless the dough is not chilled OR the dough is rolled too thin. Make sure you keep it on the thicker side.
I’ve made this recipe a million times and love it. Could I double it and make two batches at once? Thanks!
Yes, you can double this recipe Maureen. Enjoy!
Newbie here! Tried my first batch of sugar cookies and frosting ever and I’ve got a long ways to go . I tried piping and it wasn’t great. Then I tried dunking and it looked better but I got a bunch of bubbles/holes when they dried. Any recommendations or tips?
Hi Mari! If you see little bubbles come up you can pop them with a toothpick before the icing dries. You can also let the icing sit in the mixing bowl for a few minutes before transferring to your piping bag to allow any air bubbles to come to the surface – then gently stir to pop them. Hope this helps!
Hi Sally, I was wondering if I can add chocolate morsels to this recipe ?
Hi Wendy, You can definitely add mini chocolate chips to this dough before rolling it out. (Do not use regular size as they are too large.) We recommend beating in 3/4 cup after you mix the wet and dry ingredients together. You may need to use a little arm muscle (or very sturdy cookie cutters) to cut through the mini chips. Keep that in mind when shaping. Enjoy!
Another winner recipe from Sally! I made these sugar cookies for Christmas & topped with her Royal Icing recipe – I’ve never received so many compliments about a baked good! Since, I’ve made this recipe three more times & they’ve been consistently delicious. I accidentally added Peppermint Extract vs. Almond Extract for one batch – it turned out tasting amazing & perfect for the holiday season!
Hi. I love love loved the cookies with the added almond extract.
My main question is that:
Now I want to try the lemon ones. The problem is I can only find lemon flavoring, not lemon extract. The flavoring is in either safflower or sunflower oil – I can’t remember. Is this a problem? How much do you recommend I use. I will be adding the 1T grated lemon rind.
My second question is that:
I am in Colorado at about 5500 feet altitude. My habit is to decrease sugar in recipes. These cookies were not sweet enough to decrease the sugar. So I just sprinkled some sifted sugar on the top and bottom a before I cooked them – that was really good. For this next batch, to keep things easy, I figure I should keep the sugar level true to the recipe – 3/4 cup – and not do my typical high-altitude habit of lowering the sugar amount.
Just to add to the story: I did decrease the baking powder per standard high-altitude changes. That worked great.
Thank you for any thoughts, especially related to the lemon flavoring – I hope it will not change the texture of the cookies.
Hi Maria, a lemon oil will be much stronger than an extract so you’ll need to use less. Start with a few drops and see how it tastes. We’re so happy these cookies have worked for you at high altitude. Would love to hear how the lemon cookies go!
Love your recipe and baking method for this cookie!
Do you use convection bake for this cookie?
Thanks!
Hi Martha! If using convection, we recommend you reduce your oven temperature by 10-20 degrees (though all ovens are different). Would love to hear how they go!
Hi Trina—
I tried both convection and regular oven settings. Both were great. The convection batch stayed soft while the other batch was slightly browned on the bottom. I preferred the slightly crisp bottom but purely personal preference.
Also—- I used only one sheet for each batch so result might change if using multiple sheets per batch.
I use a convention oven at the same temperature, but I just watch them for the edges to start and brown. I’ve made them with and without butter and with butter is the easiest way if this is your first time. For those with crumbly dough…. weigh your flour. Kitchen scales are cheap and reliable enough. It’s amazing how measuring cups fail.
hey,I love these cookies,But they were like almost course crumbs when I took them out of the mixer,when they were supposed to come out as dough.I had to squish the crummy dough together. is there a way to prevent that????
Hi Annabelle! Make sure you’re spoon and leveling the flour (or using a kitchen scale) when measuring. Otherwise you can end up with too much flour in your dough making it too dry. Hope you still loved the cookies!
Lol same thing happened to me, I rolled it barely , squished it together, baking now, I think next time less flour two cups only and add 2 tablespoons of honey
The same thing happened to me but I’m using different butter, flour and sugar. I’m thinking about trying your honey suggestion to see if it works. Did it work for you?
I had the same problem, and I was careful to spoon and level …. don’t know if I should just toss and go to bakery … very discouraging
Same thing happened to me. I added a TINY bit of milk to moisten the dough. Seemed to work – was able to roll it out no problem.
Same thing happened to me. I added a tiny bit of water and it quickly fixed the issue!
Delicious cookies! Can’t wait to make more and experiment with different flavorings!
I made a batch of these last night, my husband was impatient and wanted the cookies right then, so I decided to take a small portion of the dough, and make a few cookies to put in the oven without chilling. – the recipe makes it clear that chilling is required- so I was expecting the cookies to lose their shape…they didn’t! I placed them on a cookie sheet with a cookie scoop expecting them to flatten out but nope…they came out as perfect little cookie balls haha
I didn’t wanna risk it with my thinner heart shaped cookies though so I did place them in the freezer for 10 minutes prior to baking and they came out perfectly shaped with golden brown edges, soft and delicious, after 10 minutes. So if you’re hesitant to make these cause you don’t wanna chill the cookies for an hour or two…ya really don’t have to!
These are wonderful! Thank you!
Question: I have to also make them GF. In various baking recipes I just substitute Cup
For Cup. When making pie crust, it has to be refrigerated before rolling and kept cold
the entire time. Would Cup for Cup work in this recipe or do you have other ingredients you’ve used? Thank you
Hi Tracey, we haven’t tested this recipe with GF flour so can’t say for sure. Would love to hear how it goes for you!
Yes these are a cross between a sugar cookie and shortbread, which I really like. Very good! I will definitely make these again! Thank you!
I’ve made the recipe at least a dozen times and each batch is perfect! Hundreds of cookies made and rave reviews everytime.
I’ve made these cookies so many times now, I love them (as do my friends and family). I find it very hard to believe the negative reviews as I just didn’t encounter any problems any time I made them.
Can I dye this dough with a few drops of food coloring? If yes then should I use gel or liquid? Made this recipe once before and it was so easy and delicious!
Sure can! We recommend gel food coloring instead of liquid since you won’t have to add as much for brighter colors. How much you add depends on the shade of the color you wish to achieve. You can add it in step 3. Enjoy!
Last year my sugar cookies were such a sad fail so I wanted to try this recipe. Holy cow! I don’t follow directions very well, but these directions are simply put and super easy to follow. Never was I confused nor lost with the directions. The sugar cookies came out absolutely perfect. I have used this recipe twice and it has become my go-to sugar cookie recipe. Thank you so much for keeping it simple.
Love this!
Thanks Sally! I’ve been searching for a good sugar cookie recipe for ages, and just came across this! Sooo Yummmy!
Hiya,
Just a tip, add more flour…
It won’t really affect the taste. That’s what i do anyway!
How long do these cookies last / store for before they go bad?