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: 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’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!
Same thing happened to me, all I had to do was add some water to make the dough a lot doughier, after that everything worked well
They turned out amazing for me!
I feel ya Stacy, I feel ya….
Merry Christmas