Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies are the best! Soft centers, crispy edges and no chilling needed for this classic sugar cookie recipe! These work with any cookie cutters and can be iced or eaten plain.

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My Gram’s Cut Out Sugar Cookies are one of my all time favorite treats. We’ve made them for every holiday for as long as I can remember and they truly are the best cookie. 

They are soft in the center and crispy on the outside with a rich buttery flavor that balances perfectly with the sweetness of the cookie and the sugar on top!

If you’re looking for an easy sugar cookie to make this holiday season (or just because!) – look no further. You will love these!

Why these are the best sugar cookies?

I’m biased, but I think these are the best sugar cookies. I’ve eaten them for every holiday since I was a kid. Here are few reasons why we love them!

• Buttery and sweet
• Soft in the center and crispy on the edges
• Easy to make. You only need 7 ingredients
• Customizable – Use whatever cookie cutters or sprinkles you like. These cookies are great for any occasion.
• Perfect for royal icing, classic icing or sprinkles!
• Last for weeks/freeze well
• No chill (who wants to wait for cookies?!)

Ingredients for Cut out Sugar Cookies:

To make these cut out sugar cookies you will only need 7 basic ingredients.

• sugar – We use granulated white sugar. We can’t recommend any substitutes.
• softened salted butter – We only bake with salted butter. NEVER margarine! Leave the butter out for 1-2 hours before baking OR pop in the microwave in 10 second increments. DON’T melt your butter! It should be bendy and pliable, not hard.
• an egg
• milk – We have made this recipe with heavy cream, regular milk and lactose free milk – all work!
• vanilla extract -shhhh, don’t tell baking purists.. you can use imitation 😉  Vanilla extract is so expensive!
• all purpose flour 
• baking powder–make sure your baking powder is fresh!

How do you make sugar cookies from scratch?

In a bowl cream softened butter & sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla extract. Stir in flour and baking powder until combined.

If your dough is sticky: You probably over softened your butter. Put your dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes-1 hour and it will be fine to roll out!

Roll the dough to 1/6 inch thickness. It’s super easy to control the thickness of your dough with this rolling pin. You can roll the cookies thicker for softer cookies or thinner for crispier cookies.

Use your favorite cut out shapes and place on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet.

Add sprinkles before baking: If you’re using sprinkles or colored sugar, add it before you bake. 

Gram’s Cookie Baking Tip: Add a piece of scrap dough to your cookie sheet. You can lift this scrap piece to check if the bottom of your cookies is golden brown rather than damaging one of your perfect cut out cookies!

Bake for 5-8 minutes until lightly browned on edges

Once you roll the dough/put your cookies on the sheet – gather your scraps, form into a ball and re roll. 

Cool the cookies on a sheet for 3-4 minutes until they’re firm, then move to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling

Sugar Cookie Toppings:

Years ago my gram would ice every single cooke by hand. She would outline the cookies perfectly, using a different colored icing for each cookie. It would take hours. I’m not as skilled as her so now we just use colored sugar!

• Colored Sugar – We used classic colored sugar on these cookies
• Sprinkles – You can use regular sprinkles on these cookies
• Royal Icing- We don’t use royal icing but you can! Here’s a link to a royal icing recipe.
• Powdered Sugar Icing: My Gram mixes powdered sugar and milk until it’s a thick consistency. You can dye it with food coloring and use a piping bag (or ziploc bag) to ice. 1 cup of powdered sugar to 1-2 tablespoons of milk. Add more milk until it’s thick but only add a TINY bit because it gets thin quickly!

Cut Out Cookie FAQ:

Got questions about cut out sugar cookies? We’ve got answers!

Why are my cut out cookies spreading? Your cookies can be spreading for a number of reasons. Here are some tips to prevent cookies from spreading:

• Put cookies on a COOL baking sheet, never put them on a hot baking sheet
• Use parchment paper instead of a greased baking sheet. Sometimes the grease on the sheet can make them spread more!
• Chill your dough- You can put your dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour before rolling to prevent your cookies from spreading.

Can you cut out cookies after baking? No. Cut your cookies out before baking.

What is the difference between cut out cookies and drop cookies? Drop cookies are made by dropping the dough in balls on a baking sheet. Cut out cookies are made by rolling the dough thin and using cookie cutters. Drop cookies are typically thicker and have add ins while cut out cookies are thin and plain.

How do you cut cookies? Use cookie cutters! These are our favorite Christmas cookie cutters but any cookie cutter will work with this recipe.

Why do my cut out cookies lose their shape? This is likely because of your dough. Scroll up and read our tips for preventing your cookies from spreading!

How long do cut out sugar cookies last? These cookies last up to 2 weeks. See below for storing tips.

Sugar Cookie Tools:

There are a few tools that will help you to make the best sugar cookies ever!

Rolling Pin I HIGHLY recommend this rolling pin. It has little wheels on the side that allow you to control the thickness of the dough. No guessing or rolling some cookies out too thin or too thick. It’s under $20 on amazon. 

Thin Baking Sheets– My gram always bakes her cookies on thin cookie sheets. They conduct heat faster!

Christmas Cookie Cutters – Here’s a link to our favorite Christmas cookie cutters but you can use any cookie cutters for this recipe!

Parchment Paper-I always bake all cookies on parchment paper, while my gram uses greased cookie sheets. It’s up to you!

Colored Sugar– Any sprinkles or colored sugar will work with these cookies. Here’s a link to our favorite.

Piping Bag (only for icing) If you want to ice the edges of these cookies you can use a piping bag or even a plastic ziploc bag with the corner cut very small.

Food Coloring – This is the only food coloring we recommend. This recipe doesn’t require food coloring but you can dye the dough if you’d like!

Substitutions for this Classic Sugar Cookie Recipe:

We usually love to provide you with substitutions for our recipes -but sadly can’t provide many substitutions for this recipe. It only has 7 ingredients and is really intended to be made as is!

Cookie Cutters: You can use this recipe with any cookie cutters you like. We use both big and small ones, and this recipe is great for any holiday.

Food Coloring: You could add a few drops of food coloring to this dough to dye it. We haven’t tried it but I’m sure it would work. This is the food coloring we like.

Sprinkles: Use any sprinkles you like on these cookies!

Butter: We always use salted butter when baking. You can sub unsalted butter but it won’t be as tasty.

Doubling: This recipe can easily be doubled, but it makes 6 dozen as is – so that’s a lot of cookies if you’re doubling it!

Gluten Free: We haven’t tried making these gluten free, but I think it might work with 1:1 flour. If you try it, let us know.

Butter/Sugar – We can’t offer substitutions for butter or sugar in this recipe. I don’t recommend swapping with any ingredients.

Tips for the best cut out cookies:

After making these cookies many times, we have a few tips to ensure you get the best cut out sugar cookies!

Gram’s Cookie Baking Tip: Add a piece of scrap dough to your cookie sheet. You can lift this scrap piece to check if the bottom of your cookies is golden brown rather than damaging one of your perfect cut out cookies!

Watch when baking! These go from perfectly golden brown to burnt quickly!

Measure your ingredients correctly – It is super important to measure your ingredients correctly, specifically the flour! Check out this tutorial on how to measure flour correctly.

Use flour when rolling out the dough. Make sure to flour your work surface and the top of the dough/rolling pin when rolling out the cookie dough. Otherwise the dough will stick/be difficult to transfer the cut out cookies to a baking sheet

Storing Cut Out Cookies:

We recommend storing these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

How long can you keep cut out sugar cookies? Up to 2 weeks if stored correctly. These cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks (if you don’t eat them all before then!)

Can you freeze cut out sugar cookies? Yes you can! Freeze in an airtight container or ziploc bag for up to 3 months for maximum freshness. We recommend freezing without frosting. Colored sugar can bleed into the cookies when frozen – but it won’t affect the taste!

Dough: The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. Leave the dough at room temp for an hour before rolling the dough. I have not tried freezing the dough.

Other delicious recipes:

These are some of our favorite recipes!

• Pizzelle Cookies
• Thumbprint Cookies
• Italian Cream Pie
• Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli

Print Pin

5 from 17 votes

Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies are the best! Soft centers, crispy edges and no chilling needed for this classic sugar cookie recipe! These work with any cookie cutters and can be iced or eaten plain.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cut out sugar cookies, no chill sugar cookies, sugar cookies

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 72 cookies (6 dozen)

Calories 54kcal

WW Freestyle Points Not WW friendly

Author The Clean Eating Couple

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter softened (2 sticks)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400 and prepare a greased or parchment lined baking sheet.
• In a bowl cream softened butter & sugar.
• Add egg, milk and vanilla extract.
• Stir in flour and baking powder until combined.
• On a floured surface, roll the dough to ¼ - ⅙ inch thickness. We recommend this rolling pin for perfectly rolled cookies.
• Use your favorite cut out shapes to cut out the cookies. Use a thin metal spatula to transfer cookies to a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles if you like.
• Bake for 5-8 minutes until browned on edges
• Cookie Baking Tip: Add a piece of scrap dough to your cookie sheet. You can lift this scrap piece to check if the bottom of your cookies is golden brown rather than damaging one of your perfect cut out cookies!
• Cool the cookies on a sheet for 3-4 minutes until they’re firm, then move to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling
• Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks for freshness!
• Note: Once you roll the dough/put your cookies on the sheet - gather your scraps, form into a ball and re roll. Don’t waste!

Video

Notes

Gram's Cookie Baking Tip: Add a piece of scrap dough to your cookie sheet. You can lift this scrap piece to check if the bottom of your cookies is golden brown rather than damaging one of your perfect cut out cookies!

Watch when baking! These go from perfectly golden brown to burnt quickly!

Measure your ingredients correctly - It is super important to measure your ingredients correctly, specifically the flour! Check out this tutorial on how to measure flour correctly.

Use flour when rolling out the dough. Make sure to flour your work surface and the top of the dough/rolling pin when rolling out the cookie dough. Otherwise the dough will stick/be difficult to transfer the cut out cookies to a baking sheet

How long can you keep cut out sugar cookies? Up to 2 weeks if stored correctly. These cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks (if you don't eat them all before then!)

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition Facts

Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Amount Per Serving (1 cookie)

Calories 54 Calories from Fat 27

% Daily Value*

Fat 3g5%

Saturated Fat 2g13%

Cholesterol 9mg3%

Sodium 24mg1%

Potassium 16mg0%

Carbohydrates 7g2%

Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 3g3%

Protein 1g2%

Vitamin A 82IU2%

Calcium 6mg1%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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