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.
These are my favorite sugar cookies with icing. I shared the recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction several years ago and published them in my cookbook as well. 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 7-8 ingredients. With so little ingredients, it’s important that you follow the recipe closely. Creamed butter and sugar provide the base of the cookie dough. Egg is the cookie’s 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! Flour is an obvious addition, 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 make chocolate sugar cookies too!
- 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 or just under 1/4 inch thick. If you have difficulty evenly rolling out dough, 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 shape. Chill the rolled out cookie dough for at least 1-2 hours and 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 12 minutes.
- Decorate. See my suggested icings below.
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 above.
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.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and difficult to work with. I 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. Pick it up, put it on a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for two baking sheets in your refrigerator, stack the pieces of rolled out dough on top of each other.
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 TWO 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 1-2 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 awhile. 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.
The pictured hearts 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 I do with my 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 you can see this full 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 Stars
- St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
- Easter Cookies
- Fireworks Cookies
- Watermelon Sugar Cookies
And if you’re craving sugar cookies with a little extra tang, try my cream cheese cut-out cookies with Nutella glaze.
PrintSoft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 45 minutes (includes cooling)
- 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.
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 (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 or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional, but makes the flavor outstanding)*
For Decorating
- Royal Icing or Easy Glaze Icing (royal icing is pictured)
- Assorted sprinkles
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. 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 completely smooth and creamy, about 2 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 up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Dough will be a bit soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use 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 doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it—see me do this in the video below. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. (Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Arrange cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Decorate the cooled cookies with royal icing or easy cookie icing. Feel free to tint either icing 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 stick 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 for sending. Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for about 5 days when covered tightly at room temperature. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Plain or decorated sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Wait for the icing to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 3, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disk as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the disks in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill rolled out dough in the refrigerator for 45 minutes – 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 it’s quickly and evenly mixed into the cookie dough.
- Flavors:Â I love flavoring this cookie dough with 1/2 teaspoon almond extract as listed in the ingredients above. For lighter flavor, use 1/4 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 or my easy cookie icing. See post above to read about the differences.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
I have never. ever. in my whole life. ever. made cookies that didn’t spread like baby food over my sheet pan. These came out PERFECT. Took about 12 minutes per batch in my oven. I ate one when it was still warm and it was delicious. You’ll definitely need a glass of milk to drink, too! I found this blog several months ago and I am continually impressed by how well the recipes turn out. Great job. Highly recommend!
I love that these cookies are not too sweet! Once the icing is added they are perfect! The texture is wonderful and the chilling tip works wonderful!! Keeping this recipe for years to come!
Everyone’s ovens are different. you should never take a recipes time at face value and always check the early.
I’m bummed people have had a hard time with this recipe. I’ve made it 3x in the last week and they have turned out great every time! i haven’t even needed to add the extra flour, just some for rolling. i’m curious how soft everyone’s butter got, i find when the butter is too soft it will affect the dough regardless of chilling prior to baking, but who am I? hahaha anyhoo I don’t know if it’s been asked and I apologize if it’s a redundant question but can the dough be doubled? Thanks for such a great recipe!
My daughter and I just made 4 double batches of this recipe and they all turned out great! We found it even easier than the single recipe batch we started out with. Highly recommend adding the almond for great flavour, can’t wait to try it with lemon. Good luck and Merry Christmas!
The cookies are really wonderful. My issue is with the Royal icing. They are really very pretty and then the next day they have stains here and there. What can that be?
Recipe was too finicky! Followed it exactly. Dough was too soft as someone else commented. The cookies did not keep their shape and spread into blobs. Also was not able to re-roll dough with scraps due to softness. Maybe the recipe needs more flour?? It’s too bad though because the taste was good.
Amazing! Exactly what i was looking for.
Hi Sally! I am looking for a recipe that will make sure my cookies rise! I have used other recipes in the past and when I make the cookies they turn out mushy and don’t rise to the point where I can ice them? I have used your recipes before and LOVE them! Do you have any tips for when I use this recipe?
Hello Sally! I love this recipe. I would like to add a vanilla bean to this recipe for more vanilla flavor. Would I add one vanilla bean? Also, would I have to reduce the amount of vanilla extract? Thank you!
I made these cookies today and they are the best I’ve ever made. I sifted my flour because I wanted to have the exact right amount of flour. The dough was perfect texture, I didn’t have to refrigerate it. In fact I refrigerated half of it while I rolled and worked with the first half and the second half was harder to deal with. I used powdered sugar in place of flour when rolling the dough and rolled it slightly less than 1/4 inch and ended up with sweet lightly crunchy cookies, just the way I like them. I’ll be writing this one on a recipe card and keeping it in my file (tossing the other two I already have in there) for next time. Wish it had a pinterest pin so I could save it on my page.
I was a little disappointed the cookies came out a bit darker then we expected (due to the heat of the oven/ time in the oven 12 mins) I would do 10 minutes on my end to ensure they are perfect. I would also recommend making sure you have everything well floured. Other than that, this is a 3/10! I would do it again, but watch over them like a Hawk!
Agreed, best recipe I have ever made!!! Can this be modified for gingerbread cookie?
We are thrilled you enjoy this recipe, Michael! Here is our Favorite Gingerbread Cookie recipe. Enjoy!
What an incredible recipe for the cookies & royal icing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made cookie dough and thrown half out because I was so sick of working with it! This is the first time in my life that I’ve actually made the dough, cut it and decorated and no waste! Easiest recipe I’ve ever made and rolling before refrigerating…GENIUS. My royal icing seemed to take a lot of water and I still don’t think I had it thin enough but I will play more next batch!
DO NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER! These are the best sugar cookies on the internet! They are pillowy soft, great flavor and they never let me down! They are my go-to recipe!!!!! Save this one for your children’s children! Super Good Cookie!!!!!!
I agree. I have tried many cut out sugar cookie recipes and these held their shape so well! Plus, not to mention there are so many other great recipes on this site!
I usually have great luck with the recipes on this blog but this one was not a winner! The dough was super sticky even after adding additional flour and refrigerating, as instructed. As a result the cookies completely spread in the oven and it was not worth the effort to make these – waste of time and ingredients!
where is your easy glaze icing recipe?
Hi Ava, You can find the easy glaze icing in this post. Enjoy!
Can this recipe be doubled?
Yes it can! Enjoy!
I like chilling the rolled out dough. It made using the cookie cutters much easier but these were not very tasty! I’m sorry! I’ve had much better so I was surprised by the amount of positive reviews. We ended up throwing them out because we didn’t like the taste and were too afraid to give our friends cookies that tasted bad.
I made this sugar cookie dough today and decorated some Hanukkah cookies with my 3 year old. With a little added flour, it was super easy to work with and tasted incredible! I will definitely be using this recipe again! Thanks!
We loved these cookies, they came out delicious and wonderful super soft. I also did an extra step of refrigerating the dough again after cutting them into shapes because I panicked they would spread and they were wonderful!! Was wondering if they could be made with browned butter?
I’m not an expert on sugar cookies by any means, but I find with chocolate chip cookies that browned butter recipes tend to be flatter and spread more than creamed butter recipes. I would think to keep the shape, creamed butter is preferable for these sugar cookies. But if you try browned butter please post! I was thinking that would be delicious too!
Hello! I was wondering if it would be possible to make these sugar cookies coffee-flavored, and if so, how exactly I could do this? I was thinking a little bit of instant coffee dissolved in water, but I’m not sure if that would add too much liquid. If I took out the two teaspoons of vanilla extract, I suppose that would help. I would appreciate any advice! Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Sofia, We haven’t tested it but I don’t recommend adding extra liquid this this cookie dough. You can try adding a bit of espresso powder to the dry ingredients in step 1 for a coffee taste. Let us know if you try it!
I doubled the recipe and triple checked the ingredients and measurements but I just cannot get the 1/4-inch thickness for the amount of cookies listed in the in recipe (24, 4 inch). Any ideas?
Hi Catherine, Are you getting less than the 24 cookies per recipe? If so I wonder if you simply are rolling the dough thicker. Using an adjustable rolling pin helps to get the dough evenly rolled out. We like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091QO3RK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=sallsbakiaddi-20&linkId=9387320d693010db3d35711ac874bac8&language=en_US
Awesome recipe and easy to follow, I added about 3 tablespoons of room temperature cream cheese into my dough as well as some white chocolate chips. I also iced this with a melting chocolate (pinch of coconut oil for smoothness) drizzle. The chocolate hardened and added a delicious flavor. This is a great base cookie recipe to make your own.
I followed this recipe to the letter and my dough never got doughy. It was crumbly. I managed to put the crumbs onto a piece of wax paper and rolled it into one piece of dough. What did I do wrong?
Hi Jena, if you keep the mixer running, the dough should eventually come together. 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.
These are the best sugar cookies!! My daughter and I made them and the dough is perfect for little hands not to delicate. I but my dough in the fridge for 24 hours and it made cutting and retooling so much easier! Thank you
Followed the recipe exactly and added the almond extract. Super tasty. My daughter and I had a blast decorating them. They came out so lovely and perfect.
You can also use almond extract in the icing if you want. It tastes kind of like Marzipan if you know what that is. It’s really good and depending on the recipe, it enhances the flavour.
Awesome recipe. Followed it exactly and everyone LOVES them.
Cant wait for an excuse to make more! Thanks for posting!
Loved this recipe! I paired it with your royal icing recipe. I’m wondering how long the cookies will stay fresh for, I’ll be storing each one in a cellophane bag.
Hi Emily, Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for about 5 days when covered tightly at room temperature. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Sadly, this is not a good recipe. The dough is super, super sticky. DO NOT use parchment paper! By the time I’d managed to scrape off the chilled dough glued to the paper and roll it out again, I had to add so much flour that the cookies were anything but soft. Wax paper, maybe? In any case, a super waste of time and ingredients. Very disappointed.
I noticed that my douhg was sticky UNTIL I make sure my surface and hands were floured well enough that I was able to pull the dough off after cutting. Just sprinkling about a teaspoon or tablespoon of flour on the surface before rolling out the dough made such a huge difference. Hope this helps! I loved this recipe!
This is absolutely THE best sugar cookie I have made. My family loved them. For the first time ever in my 68 years I even tried decorating them with icing. They turned out pretty good. I will be making them again and will tell my friends about this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
(Note: After mixing the dough, it wasn’t sticking together in the bowl. However, when I “squished” it together with my hands, it did fine when I rolled it out. )