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
The cookies are great!! For the Royal Icing, are you supposed to sift the powdered sugar before you measure it or measure it and then sift it? I can’t find any direction on your videos or any of your links and I’m trying to follow directions!
Hi Virginia, you’ll want to sift after measuring. Enjoy!
I’d love to make these in a chocolate version. Do you have a recipe for that?
Hi Rita, these are our favorite chocolate sugar cookies. Enjoy!
Hi! I’ve been using this recipe for awhile now… but dealing with some spreading- I do cut dough at 1/2 inch- so you think that maybe omitting the baking powder or at least cutting it back some would help? Or maybe cutting some butter back- what are your thoughts?
Hi Sonya! We don’t recommend omitting or reducing the baking powder or butter. Make sure you’re starting with room temperature butter – it’s much cooler than most think and can have a big impact on cookies spreading. The best tip is to make sure your dough is cold going in the oven. If it’s getting warm while cutting out the shapes, just place your cut out cookies back in the refrigerator before baking. Also, if your oven has hot spots, rotate your cookie sheet about half way through bake time to promote more even baking. Hope these tips help for next time!
All time favorite sugar cookie recipe. I use almond extract.
Can this recipe be tripled?
Hi SMN, you can double the recipe, but we find that when attempting to triple (or more) it’s easy to overwhelm your mixer.
I don’t have room in my refrigerator to roll and chill overnight. Can I chill overnight after mixing and then roll the next day?
Hi Robin! The dough will be quite hard after chilling overnight and difficult to roll out. You could let the cold dough sit at room temperature for half an hour or so, roll out the dough, then cut out the cookies. Make sure to chill the cookies again before baking since your dough won’t be as cold.
Loved the recipe! Very easy to follow and the dough made awesome cookies 🙂
Hello! Is there a way to make this egg free? Anything I can substitute?
Hi Sarah, we haven’t tested these cookies with an egg substitute, but there are many out there you could try. Please report back with your results if you try something! You could also try making these shortbread cookies, which are egg free and have a similar flavor.
This is the most amazing soft sugar cookie recipe ever my family and friends eat them as fast as I can make them so if you want the perfect sugar cookies use this recipe.
Delicious cookie!… I’ve made a lot of cookies thru the years but love the flavor of adding the almond extract also…Definitely will be using this recipe again!… Thank you for sharing
This really is 1 of the best recipes I used,I did have to add more flour but it didn’t effect the flavor at all,I make ALOT of cookies and this will be my go to sugar cookie recipe from now on,crunchy edges perfect center,not sickening sweet.I made a small batch last night 8 cookies,I had 1 left this morning,
So do they expand in the fridge well chilling ??? Might be a stupid question but..
No, they don’t expand while chilling. Happy baking!
HI! Can I make these with ghee or a dairy free butter alternative? Dairy allergy
Hi Kat, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but you might try a plant-based butter instead. The results may be different but let us know if you give it a try!
This is the best tasting recipe ever, however my cookies keep spreading. I do roll them out thicker (3/8). Could that be the cause for spreading? Other than that the dough is cold when going in and the butter is too. Any advice to help with spread? Thank you!!
Hi Monica, You mentioned that your butter was cold but just triple that it’s really room temperature which is much cooler than most think and can have a big impact on cookies spreading. Here’s more on room temperature butter. The best tip is to make sure your dough is cold going in the oven, like you mention. If it’s getting warm while cutting out the shapes, just place your cut out cookies back in the refrigerator before baking. Also, if your oven has hot spots, rotate your cookie sheet about half way through bake time to promote more even baking. Hope these tips help for next time!
Do the cookies taste any different or does the texture change if
I freeze them? I am looking to prep as much stuff in advance as possible for my daughter’s birthday.
Hi Sharon, these cookies freeze well! See recipe notes for freezing instructions. Enjoy!
Hello! I’m going to try this recipe tomorrow! How would you store the cookies overnight before decorating?
Hi Liana, you can cover them tightly at room temperature overnight.
The cookies turned out great. We recently have dairy allergies in the family. What can I use instead of butter?
Hi Dianna, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but you might try a plant-based butter instead. The results may be different. Let us know if you give it a try!
My family loved this recipe! Would it be possible to use cookie stamps on this dough or would it not hold the imprint?
Yes! If you stamp the cookie dough, chill the stamped cookie dough shapes right before baking– they’ll definitely hold their shape. We suggest chilling the shaped cookies for 1 hour prior to baking. We’ve used this recipe to make stamped cookies before and they came out beautifully!
Thank you so much! I can’t wait to try that!
I used cookie stamps and they were perfect coming out of the oven
made this cookie dough up last night and put it in the refrigerator over night. Came home today rolled it out and cut my cookies.I didn’t get to many because i used big cutters.They turned out great. I love that they keep their shape so well .my great grands are coming this weekend to decorate them.I know they will have fun. Thanks for the recipe.
Heyy I had a doubt. After cooling the dough(overnight) it became really hard. How am I supposed to use it after that?
Hi Lavanya, did you roll out the dough prior to chilling? That helps so that we’re not trying to roll out cold dough. If the dough is too hard to work with, let it sit at room temperature for a short bit to warm up so that it is workable. If it becomes too soft again during the rolling and cutting process, pop the cut out cookie shapes back in the refrigerator before baking. Hope this helps!
I have been baking cookies for 60 years and these are the best sugar cookies I have ever made.
Finally, I made sugar cookies that didn’t spread. I’ve tried so many recipes that just didn’t work for me and this one did. My pumpkins look like pumpkins, my candy corn looks like candy corn. Everything stayed cohesive. And the cookies are great! I need to work on my rolling thickness and I found that 2 different pans (both light colored but different) has vastly different cook times; some Nordicware from Costco only baked for 8 minutes but my silver cookie sheets needed 10-11. So something to keep in mind. But otherwise, great! I took care to keep the cookies very chilled before baking.
How early can I make these for a child’s birthday I am planning to ice them with fondant.
Hi Bron, Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for about 5 days when covered tightly at room temperature.
Hi! Can I change the granulated sugar for powdered sugar? I do this recipe every year for Halloween and Valentine’s day, and I was wondering if changing the sugar could make the cookies softer.
You can certainly try it, but it may dry out the dough (and the baked cookies).
Pros: -easy to make
-easy to shape
-limited ingredients
Cons: -needs another egg
-followed the recipe exactly(flour measured just right, baked properly) quite dry
I made this recipe two times to make sure it was correct and both times the batches came out dry
-needs more/different flavour maybe
I LOVE this recipe. I made it again but accidentally added 1/4 tsp baking soda. What will happen when I bake them?! Panicking
Baking soda will create spread.
I’ve loved the recipes I’ve made so far! Can this recipe be used to make a gingerbread house? We prefer sugar cookies to gingerbread. Thank you!!
Hi Cassie, absolutely, you can use these sugar cookies with these gingerbread house directions. Have fun!
I’ve been using your recipe for over 3 years now and never have had a problem until recently. For some reason my dough doesn’t want to come together while its in the mixer. I’ve had to knead it by hand and then it stays. I’ve also added a bit more flour and still get the same effect. It then becomes too sticky/greasy. Ive tried different brands of butter, let it sit out no more than 1 hour for room temp. I measure the flour by spoon and level it too. Still get the greasy dough. do you think its the baking powder or something with the butter? I do let the dough sit for 3 hours or overnight before rolling out and again something thing. Any suggestions?
Hi Patty, Be sure that your butter (real butter, not margarine) is room temperature and not too soft. That may be less than an hour depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Here is what room temperature butter means.
These look amazing, I can’t wait to make them for my daughter’s birthday party this weekend! Question: what is the purpose/benefit of rolling out the dough BEFORE chilling? I’ve always chilled dough prior to rolling.
Hi Krista! We like to roll the dough out before chilling since the dough can be very hard to roll out once chilled. That way, we can also cut out the cookies when the dough comes straight from the refrigerator, and colder dough keeps its shape better, too.
I really like this receipe. Not overly sweet and they stayed soft even a few days later. Made them without the almond essence.
I’ve made these several times and they’re soooo yummy!!can I make these GF??
Hi Ashley, we haven’t tested a gluten free version of these cookies, but let us know if you do!
Did you make them GF? Just following up :):)
This recipe is my regular go to so I was hoping I could just swap the flour with almond flour and it did not work. They tasted great but did not hold their shape. Might be okay with other flours, I don’t know. Not the most helpful but at least tells you what not to do.
hi! i love this recipe but whenever I make it the cookies end up becoming hard after cooling. Why is that?
Hi Malia, it sounds like your cookies may be slightly over baked. Try shortening your bake time by just a minute or two for a softer cookie. Be sure to spoon and level your flour as well, so as not to add too much flour which can also dry out/harden the cookie. Hope this helps for next time!
I find that weighing the ingredients on a digital scale brings about the desired results. Digital food scale are very nice, as you can choose U.S. measurements, as well as metric!
I made these for the first time and they are crunchy. Should I try making them thicker?
I made these and they expanded! Is that normal? I followed the recipe to a T and chilled…?
Hi Hann, Make sure you’re starting with room temperature butter – it’s much cooler than most think and can have a big impact on cookies spreading. Here’s more on room temperature butter. The best tip is to make sure your dough is cold going in the oven, like you mention. If it’s getting warm while cutting out the shapes, just place your cut out cookies back in the refrigerator before baking. Also, if your oven has hot spots, rotate your cookie sheet about half way through bake time to promote more even baking. Hope these tips help for next time!
Great cookie next time i make these i might try different flavor essence like lemon.
I just finished making the lemon flavored ones! Oh my gosh! Delish! I definitely recommend lemon flavor….y u m.
The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe!
I have been using this recipe for years and it is a keeper. I follow it 100%, it’s truly perfect. I pair it with Sally’s Royal icing recipe and I get much praise.
Thank you for the amazing recipe. All the happy testers and recipients thank you too!
I did pumpkin spice and they were awesome