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 a great recipe, I’ve never had a problem with it. I guess Karen, I mean Stacy, just isn’t in the holiday spirit and might not know how to leave a critical review of a product or recipe without being mean.
Karen
Love these sugar cookies they have replaced family favorite recipe for sugar cookies, everyone asks for them. Tonight I’m making belguim type cookies for New Years eve with them they just love them and I love the ease of this recipe
Not a great baker, but I made these and loved them. Ended up leaving the dough in the fridge (rolled out) for about 3 days and they still turned out fantastic. Best sugar cookies I’ve ever had!
I’m so surprised at such a negative review of this recipe. I’m pretty critical, but I love this! I I’ve made these cookies 3 different times now using 3 different ovens. As long as you follow the recipe to a T, they should be easy to make beautiful tasty cookies. The butteriness is so lovely when you use the almond extract. If we are lazy, or just want more buttery flavor than icing, we use the dough for raspberry almond thumbprint cookies too!
I used her easy icing too (powdered sugar, water, meringue powder and I added almond extract). Everyone enjoyed decorating them with lots of sprinkles and eating them!
Note: the frosted ones are better once the icing has fully dried. It doesn’t taste great while wet. I actually added a little extra almond extract (a full teaspoon to the dough too!) we love these for sugar cookies!
The one tricky thing: If the dough starts getting closer to room-temp before you’ve rolled and cut them all, it’s difficult to work with if you don’t re-refrigerate the unrolled dough. That’s how we discovered the thumbprint with jam alternative. 😀 I’d rather have the butter-based dough need a 2nd chill than to have the recipe call for shortening. I hate using unnatural ingredients.
Great job Sally and Thank you!
Made these on Christmas Day and they turned out great, shape and taste! I was baking a million other cookies and didn’t have enough sheets to spare so I chilled the dough for about hour or so before I rolled it and cut into snow flake shape cookies. I did chill the cut outs for 10 minutes before baking. (Sheets sat out in the freezing breeze way. Frigid MN winter doing some good.)
Frosted with the royal icing recipe. That was easy to make. We kept it white and sprinkled with blue decorating sugar. The cookie and royal icing recipe are both keepers. (Had no issues with the dough being crumbly as others had mentioned.)
Worked great for me! I measured the ingredients with a scale.
Great recipe! I’ve used it twice this season — once to decorate and leave for Santa/entertain the kids on Christmas Eve, and another batch today for a friend’s present. Turned out great each time! I highly recommend the almond extract. You won’t be missing out without it, but I do think it adds some great flavor complexity.
In past years we’ve had a lot of trouble trying to roll out stiff cookie dough balls, but not this year! Rolling it out first worked great for me. The cookies stayed cool long enough for us to cut them out and bake, so they kept their shape perfectly.
Note: I’m 16 and not a great baker, definitely more of a cook. Anyone can do this! The negative reviews must have screwed up somewhere…
You definitely messed up… I’ve made these twice (once today!) and they’re incredible and fairly easy to work with.
This is a fantastic recipe that turned out wonderful. The cookies tasted great & were easy to make & bake. This will be my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on.
Okay, we finished the cookies and they are super easy to cut when cold. They are also really yummy. This review is a continuation from above and the unanimous opinion is that these cookies are excellent! Thanks Sally
They turned out perfect actually I’ll definitely be making this recipe more often. Thank you!
I thought these were the worst tasting sugar cookies I’ve ever had. Made two batches for grandkids to decorate. Not a one was eaten. The prepackaged dough from the store is better. This is one recipe that went straight to the burn pile.
Mine actually turned out tasting pretty good! That is why I changed my review. I added a small amount of milk. Taste great!
I added a little milk and they are better.
We are embarking on making this recipe now, 7:00pm, Christmas Eve. We have enjoyed reading all the glowing reviews, except Stacey’s. Did Stacey do something wrong or is it the cookie recipe? We will endeavor to uncover the truth. Was she the whistle blower on a flawed recipe or was she, in fact, the flawed baker? I will continue this review after we have made, cooked and eaten this sugar cookie recipe. If we could, we would ask Santa but it is our understanding that Santa will eat any cookie left for him in a house. He’s said to never have disliked a cookie because of his innately giving and loving nature. We, on the other hand, want answers. We have put the dough in the fridge and will resume our cookie making on Christmas Day…until then “to all a goodnight.”
Our cookies turned out perfect, first time we have used this recipe. I use a lot of Sally’s recipes and knew these would be great! Thanks Sally and to all Santa’s cookie makers a Merry Christmas!
Sara
Hands down the best recipe for cutout cookies! And I’ve tried many. Don’t skip the almond extract, it really makes a very delicious difference.
How do you think this dough would work in a cookie press?
Hi Christina, We recommend making these spritz cookies if using a cookie press.
This is the second year making these cookies and they are the best!! Never once have I had an issue. I always forget to buy the almond extract! And I’ve forgotten to take my butter out early but all I did was microwave it in the wrapper for 15 seconds and it’s almost equivalent to room temperature and doesn’t change the recipe! As for the comments who say these are terrible, y’all did something wrong.
Hi Sally! How will the recipe be impacted if I used unbleached all purpose flour vs bleached?
Thank you!
Hi Lauren, We bake with unbleached flour when we can, but either will work!
I am the worst baker ever and my 12 year old son and I made these today. The recipe was easy to follow and the cookies turned out great! I added a splash of water and only popped the dough in the freezer for a short bit. The dough was easy to work.
Do you have to refrigerate them before baking ?
Yes, refrigerating the dough is imperative for this recipe. It should chill for at least 1-2 hours and we usually chill it overnight. Don’t skip this step or the cookies will spread all over the place!
Excellent recipe. Easy to follow, dough was easy to work with…turned out great! Not sure what the negative reviews are about, but seems like probably user error ♀️
Amazing! It was crumbly until we packed and rolled it out. Best sugar cookie recipe ever. Thank you for the tips too!
Wow, third time making these, and they have come out perfect every time! Also, I have my 3 year old daughter helping me (she was still 2 the first time) and so, I wasn’t able to like fully concentrate, lol, and still, these came out practically perfect. I follow your recipe exactly, and bam! Yummy, beautiful cookies, well worth the time and effort. (I’ve never tried another recipe and never will!)
I am not someone who bakes very often and can not bake a chocolate chip cookie for the life of me! I have made this recipe several times now without fail and each time it’s to take them to a party. Everyone always compliments me and just loves them! I will never make another iced sugar cookie recipe! If you are having difficulty there is something you have to be doing wrong. I follow the directions to a T. Thank you for sharing such an amazing recipe!
Perfect recipe for making my sugar Christmas cookies decorated with buttercream. I followed the recipe exactly, and I will never go back to rolling out chilled dough again! Thank you Sally 🙂
I used King Arthur all-purpose flour, Land o’ Lakes unsalted butter and followed the metric measurements. 10/10 highly recommend!
I’ll have to take a peek at other comments…I am wondering if anyone has doubled this with success. I make A LOT of Christmas cookies. And armed with this recipe New Year’s, Valentine’s, birthday…
Double usually. Tripled this year. No issues. Just used a 6 quart mixer. King Arthur flour a difference to me too.
Good morning Sally,
I made your sugar cookies and froze them without Royal icing.
I am planning on decorating them today using your Royal icing recipe and I wanted to know if the Royal icing will stay on the frozen sugar cookies or should I thaw the sugar cookies before icing in order for the icing to stay on?
Hi Jessica, I recommend thawing the frozen cookies first. (Though I’ve frosted frozen cookies before and it’s never usually an issue.)
I made this recipe for the first time today. It worked wonderfully. I used the almond which gave them a nice full flavor. I thought most sugar cookies were hard and dull. Not these! I am sure I will use this recipe every year now.
This is my favorite recipe for sugar cookies. They come out beautifully every time. Just don’t over cook them and they stay soft and delicious. I keep dough frozen in case I need to make cookies for any special occasion. This dough is wonderfully forgiving and excellent for rolling and cutting. I’ve never had the dough become crumbly like some reviewers have mentioned, I imagine if you add a tad more liquid or let the dough warm up some, this would not be a problem.
Been using this recipe for several years and it’s THE best sugar cookie recipe ever! I’m on here checking my ingredients for another batch and came upon the comments…..how rude to post what you did, obviously you did something wrong. Everything I’ve made from Sally’s is awesome! Thanks Sally!