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
Great recipe! It was the best tasting recipe I found that worked well making imprint cookies.
I enjoyed the recipe. Would I be able to roll the cookies 5/16 if so what temp and for how long?
We’re sure you could, but we’re unsure of the exact baking time needed. Keep an eye on them in the oven!
Hi! Love this recipe! I wanted to use this recipe to make a slice and bake sugar cookies with hearts for valentines day (like the Pillsbury cookies). Can I just make the dough like normal and roll it into the log shape? I wasn’t sure if it would make a huge difference.
Hi Nima, yes, you can use them for a slice and bake cookie. Enjoy!
So good! Loved them crispy
Perfect! I looked at a bunch of sugar cookie recipes before deciding to go with yours. But everything I’ve made from your site is so good, I knew I’d could trust this recipe. It will be my go to from now on. Thank you!
If I want to make the dough a fee weeks ahead of time before a cookie decorating party, would you recommend freezing in discs like your directions state or going ahead cutting, baking and freezing the baked cookies? I wasn’t sure if one is better.
Hi Mackenzie, either will work perfectly! Totally up to you.
Is it possible to use whole wheat flour with this recipie?
Hi Gosia, we don’t recommend using whole wheat flour in this recipe. It would result in very dry and dense cookies.
For the Royal Icing do you have to use the meringue powder?
Hi Adelaide, yes, you need meringue powder for our royal icing recipe. Our easy cookie icing is a nice alternative!
I have used this AWESOME recipe a few times for myself. this past Christmas, I used it to ship cookies to distant friends, and every single reply commented on the perfect cookie. I used your royal icing recipe as well. thank you, so much! Happy New Year
Hi! Love this recipe, I’ve made it a couple of times now. I know the dough holds the shape well, but have you tried using an embossed stamp on the cookies?
I’m making some for a baby shower and I want to put the bears lines on the cookie with a stamp and then pipe the outlines with royal icing!
Hi Izzy! This recipe should work with a stamp/embosser, as we’ve done something similar with snowflake “stamped” cookie cutters for our sugar plum fairy cupcakes. We recommend chilling the shaped cookies (after cutting them) in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes right before baking. This will help guarantee the faces come out perfectly.
I sifted and leveled my flour. Coukd this have caused my dough to be too soft?
Hi Cynthia, if you sifted the flour, it’s possible you didn’t use enough in the dough. Did your cookies spread too much in the oven?
My dough tastes great, but is way too soft- my butter was too warm. How long should butter set out to be considered room temperature? The dough stuck to my parchment paper and my marble rolling pin, despite how much flour I used. I’m going to chill them overnight. I’m so anxious to get this right. I’m 63 and this is my first batch of sugar cookies and royal icing.
Hi Cynthia, happy to help. It depends on the temperature of your room, but usually we recommend about an hour. The butter should still feel cool to the touch and not be greasy. We have an article on room-temperature butter here that will help.
My dough is crumbly – what should I do
Hi Kerry, How did you measure the flour? Make sure to weigh it with a kitchen scale, or spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. A crumbly dough can still be workable, try to bring it together with your hands, and you could try adding a teaspoon of milk to the dough. It should also come together as you roll it out.
Love this recipe!! I’m making a whole bunch for gifts, would substituting margerine for the butter cause them to spread?
Hi Nikki, we don’t recommend it. Margarine has a different makeup than butter. If you do want to use margarine, we recommend using a recipe that is specifically formulated to do so. Let us know if you give these cookies a try!
Taste is good and they baked very well and held their shape, but despite following the recipe to a T, they aren’t soft in the slightest. I’m unsure where I could have messed up, but they’re very crunchy. Buttery and taste nice, make for a good canvas for icing, but crunchy.
This is the second year I’ve made these and I am very pleased with the results. Thank you.
This cookie recipe will be my favorite cut out sugar cookie recipe! The cookie and frosting were sooo great flavorful! As always, your recipes are wonderful!
This year is used Sally’s Baking Addiction and I will never use another sugar cookie recipe again. My gamy raved about them. So easy and so tasty,a rick buttery cookie. Perfect with Sally’s Royal Icing recipe.
Thanks! Should I default to the weights or measurements? I made these last year and the weights seemed quite different than the measurements using the ingredients I had.
Hi Nathan! Weights are always the most accurate way to measure. You can read more about measuring baking ingredients here.
After baking and loving your butter cookies I decided to try your sugar cookie recipe too. It was another homerun! All of the techniques, tips and tricks that you gave were extremely helpful. Chilling the dough made an easy time of cutting out shapes, and my cookies had almost no spread while baking. The end result was cookie with a crisp, golden bottom that had just the right amount of chewiness throughout. One of the very few sugar cookies I’ve had that didn’t require a glass of milk to wash it down, though enjoying these with a cup of coffee was quite nice.
I decorated my cookies using your recipe for royal icing. The icing was perfect, but I wish I had read your post about decorating cookies beforehand, because I made a beginner’s mistake. I didn’t let my first layer of icing set before adding details so what started out looking great, became not so great in about 30 seconds lol. The details I piped on my snowman settled out into the base layer so that thin lines became fat, dots become blobs etc. They still looked good, just not what I had been aiming for, and as my daughter reminded me looks don’t impact taste lol.
Thanks for the great recipe! I’ve been a big fan of the recipes on your site for quite a while and your cookie recipes are making me quite popular at work and home!
I’m hoping to try this recipe, but any idea if I can use lard instead of butter? I would likely cut out the salt called for in the recipe, but anything else I should consider? I figure it would be a 1:1 ratio, butter to lard.
Hi Michelle, We haven’t tested these cookies with lard, but let us know if you do!
Hi! Is 177c for a fan oven or should I make the temperature lower for a fan oven? 🙂
We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
I’m having a cookie decorating party this weekend and I’m curious if should bake all the cookies now and freeze them until Saturday or bake them a day or two ahead and leave them at room temp?? Thank you!
Hi Jessica, either way should be fine! Here’s our guide to hosting a cookie decorating day if you’re interested.
Hi there ! Love all your recipes !
Quick question , can I coat these with white chocolate ? Thank you in advance
Certainly! So glad you enjoy our recipes.
I have had success with so many of your recipes but I have made these twice and they really need more than 1/4 tsp. of salt. I feel like it may be a mistake.
Loved the flavor of these! However, mine turned out a little more crunchy than soft. Do you know what could have gone wrong? I baked them for about 12 minutes at 350 like the recipe says, the edges were just barely brown.
Hi Karli! There could have been too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
I make these cookies every year for my son’s birthday. I ordered baby shark cutter and hand painted them all. They were an absolute hit! Thank you so much!
I even made a gluten free batch using gluten free flour and they turned out fine. They were just a little bit more delicate when rolling out but tasted lovely.
I have been using this recipe for years, it is so great!! I am hosting a cookie decorating party for my 12 year old daughter and friends, and one of the friends has a nut allergy. What would be the best extract flavor(s) to replace the almond with? Thank you!
Hi Carrie, you can either just leave it out, or add a little more vanilla in its place. Enjoy the cookie decorating party!
If you have the space, certainly!
Can the dough be made ahead of time?
Hi Valerie, yes! See the Notes section below the recipe for all the make-ahead and freezing information.