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The Best Cut Out Sugar Cookies

By: Cassie Johnston / Updated: October 31, 2024 / Posted: December 6, 2023

Decorated Christmas tree sugar cookies with green frosting and sprinkles rest on a white background.

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featured review

Five yellow stars in a row

“Best sugar cookies I’ve ever made! Not only do they look good, but they taste wonderful, too. Not too sweet or sugary, just the perfect blend of goodness! Thank you for sharing this recipe.”

– Keilee –

I know there are a lot of sugar cookie recipes out there, but I’m telling you, this is the best ever sugar cookie recipe for cut out cookies. I’ve been using this recipe for years, and it has never failed me—and it hasn’t failed you all either! Since I originally shared it a decade ago, thousands of readers have told me how much they love these cookies

This recipe results in soft, tender, fluffy sugar cookies that don’t spread in the oven—making them absolutely perfect for cut-out sugar cookies. And the cookies have the most beautiful mild, buttery flavor! Let’s get baking.

In this post:

Closeup view of a cut-out sugar cookie shaped like a Christmas tree topped with green icing and sprinkles.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Cassie Johnston (a light skinned brunette woman with glasses and a red streak in her hair) smiles toward the camera with a wall of photo frames behind her

Throw out all your other sugar cookie recipes—this is the only one you’ll ever need for cut outs.

The first time I made a batch of these cookies, I brought them into my workplace, and I had no less than a dozen people stop by my office and tell me these were the best sugar cookies they’ve ever had! The next year, I entered them into a Christmas cookie contest, and they took Best in Show! They are THAT good. You can stop looking—you have found your forever sugar cookie recipe.

Here’s why you’ll love this recipe:

  • These cookies are perfect for cut out cookies. The dough is easy to work with and there is no spreading in the oven—so your Christmas trees still look like Christmas trees even after they are baked!
  • The best lightly sweet, buttery flavor. My perfect sugar cookie is not too sweet (our best ever sugar cookie icing balances that out) and packed with buttery richness.
  • The flavor is totally customizable. My go-to is to flavor these cookies with vanilla extract, but I’ve also made these cookies with almond extract, coconut extract, and peppermint extract (perfect for Christmas cookies), and they all taste amazing.
  • This recipe is beloved by tons of folks who bake from it every holiday season. Just read the reviews! This recipe is a keeper.

featured review

Five yellow stars in a row

“Perfect cookies for decorating! Did these with my grandkids and they looked awesome! Taste great too!”

– HEATHER –

Step-by-Step how to Make Cut Out sugar Cookies

1

Mix wet dough ingredients

Cream together the softened butter and sugar, then add in the eggs and the extract of your choice. You can do this using a stand mixer, hand mixer, or in a bowl with a spoon.

2

Add in the dry ingredients

Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until well-combined.

3

Chill the dough

Divide the dough into quarters, then form into discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least two hours, or 20 minutes in the freezer.

4

Roll out the dough

Take one disc out of the fridge or the freezer and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until the dough is between 1/8″ and 1/4″ thick.

5

Cut out the cookies

Grab your favorite cookie cutters and go to town!

6

Bake the cookies

Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes in a 400° oven. Watch the cookies very closely! The cookies are done with the bottoms are just barely brown.

7

Cool on baking rack

Immediately transfer the cookies to a wire baking rack to cool. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.

8

Decorate!

Now the super fun part! After the cookies have completely cooled, decorate them with our best ever sugar cooking icing and your favorite sprinkles.

Cassie’s protips for PERFECT cut out sugar cookies

  • Don’t stress if the wet ingredients look curdled when mixing. I promise the final dough will turn out perfect!
  • Pick your favorite flavor! You can never go wrong with vanilla extract, but almond, coconut, or peppermint extracts are all fun options to experiment with.
  • Don’t overbake. In fact, until you know how your oven operates with this recipe, I recommend watching them at the oven window. They could be done in as little as five minutes! You’re looking for very slight color along the edges. Err on the side of underbaked!
  • Let the cookies cool completely before decorating. If not, the icing will run everywhere. 
  • This recipe makes an absolute ton of cookies! It’s perfect for a cookie decorating party, but if you want less, you can easily half the recipe. Or do as I do, and freeze the extra dough discs for other holidays (this recipe makes perfect Halloween cookies, Easter cookies, and Valentine’s Day cookies!
Sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees are decorated with green icing and sprinkles.

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WATCH Me MAKE CUT OUT SUGAR COOKIES

Yield: 6-7 dozen cookies

Easy Frosted Sugar Cookies

Closeup view of a cut out sugar cookie shaped like a christmas tree topped with green icing and sprinkles.

Looking for the best sugar cookie recipe for cutouts? This is it! Delicious, mildly flavored, and they don't spread in the oven!

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.

Here's our sugar cookie icing recipe for when it is decorating time!

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Additional Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 28 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, almond, peppermint, or coconut extract
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling (see notes)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, using a hand mixer, or mixing with a wooden spoon, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and extract until well-combined.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remainder of cookie ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to wet in batches, until combined.
  3. Divide dough into quarters, form into discs, and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge, or 20 minutes in the freezer.
  4. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  5. Remove one disc from the fridge and roll out on floured surface until dough is 1/8"-1/4" thick.
  6. Cut with cookie cutters and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes, watching closely. Cookies are done when bottoms are just barely golden. Remove immediately from cookie sheet, then let cool completely on wire racks before frosting. Make sure cookie sheets are cool to touch before placing more cookie dough on them.
  7. Decorate with sugar cookie icing and sprinkles, as desired.

Notes

  • The standard way to roll out sugar cookies is to use additional flour, but you can also use powdered sugar. The powdered sugar absorbs into the cookie while it bakes and doesn't leave any flour residue.
  • Here's our sugar cookie icing recipe for when it is decorating time!
  • Make sure the cookies are cooled completely before decorating.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

72

Serving Size:

1 cookie
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 97Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 51mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 0gSugar: 6gProtein: 1g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

© Cassie Johnston
Cuisine: General / Category: Desserts

Frequently Asked Questions about Sugar cookies

Yes! This is a non-negotiable, friends. Chilling the dough makes it so the cookies won’t spread in the oven and will keep your beautifully cut out shapes. Yes, there are sugar cookie recipes that don’t need to be chilled, but most of those use shortening in them to keep their shape. I much prefer the flavor, texture, and natural-ness of an all-butter sugar cookie recipe! 

I like between 1/8″ and 1/4″ thick—you want a cookie that is thick enough to have some chew to it, but thin enough to bake evenly and quickly. Don’t stress too much about it. Just as long as every cookie on the baking sheet is roughly the same thickness, you’ll be good! 

Sure can! Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, you might want to re-chill your dough if it starts to get too soft. If the rolling pin feels more like it’s smooshing softened butter than rolling out cookie dough, you know it’s time to put your dough back in the refrigerator.

This recipe as written makes for perfect cookies straight out of the oven—no spreading, no puffing, no bloated Christmas trees. To make sure it stays this way:

  • Don’t mess with adding more sugar or butter. These cookies have the perfect amount of butter and sugar to balance between having flavor and keeping their shape. 
  • Keep the dough chilled. Cool cookie dough helps keep the cookies from spreading.
  • Try to use cool cookie sheets. If you immediately start to fill your cookie sheet the second you get the baked cookies off of it, you might get more cookie spread. Just let your cookie sheet cool down for a few minutes (or run it under cool water and then dry it, if you’re in a rush).

While I do provide a baking time as a general rule of thumb in the recipe below, I highly recommend that you go by appearance instead of time. Your cookies should be just the tiniest bit brown along the very edge of the cookie (right where it meets the pan). I’m not talking “golden brown,” I’m talking like you have to really squint to see it. And the top of the cookie should look solid, instead of jiggly. In most ovens, this happens between the 6-8 minute mark (yup, that fast!). In my last home, we had an oven that ran hot, no matter how low I turned it down, and my sugar cookies were almost always done at five minutes. Watch ’em like a hawk.

And then, once they are done, you want to get them off the hot baking sheet as quickly as possible, because they’ll keep right on baking on that hot metal. I usually take a large thin spatula (I love using a fish spatula to get hot cookies off of baking sheets) to the cookies almost immediately after they get out of the oven. Then I transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

There are really three kinds of sugar cookie icing you’ll see out there in the baking world. All three have their benefits:

  • Royal icing: This is the hard icing that you see people using to make intricate, super-detailed cookies. While it looks beautiful, I don’t love the flavor, and it is kind of fussy to use. So I generally don’t use royal icing.
  • Buttercream/frosting: I love buttercream on soft-baked Lofthouse style sugar cookies—it is fluffy and buttery and delicious. But it does make it tricky to stack the cookies in a tin or on a cookie plate.
  • Powdered sugar glaze: My favorite sugar cookie icing is a simple powdered sugar glaze. The frosting dries solid enough to stack, but soft enough to bite into. It’s easy to tint, easy to flavor, and easy to use.  

Once the frosting has hardened, I stack them between layers of parchment paper in a glass food storage container and leave them on the counter for up to a week.  If you don’t have glass, another airtight container will work as well.

Yes, you can absolutely freeze both baked (un-iced) sugar cookies and the dough! Here’s how:

  • To freeze the dough: Form into discs, and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped disc in a freezer-safe glass food storage container or zip-top freezer bag. Freeze for up to a year.
  • To freeze the uniced baked cookies: Lay cooled cookies flat on a baking sheet, and freeze until solid—about 3 hours. Then transfer to a freezer-safe glass food storage container or zip-top freezer bag for up to three months.

I don’t recommend freezing sugar cookies frosted with our sugar cookie icing recipe because while the taste is fine, this particular icing recipe tends to crack and lose its luster in the freezer. No worries. That icing recipe is so easy, it will take you no time to frost them once they are out of the freezer!

Want more christmas cookies like these?

Cassie is a holistic nutritionist, cookbook author, and all-around food lover. She grew up cooking dinner with her parents every evening, and her passion for home cooking has been strong ever since. Cassie is the author of two published cookbooks (Cooking with Greek Yogurt and Chia, Quinoa, Kale, Oh My!) and dozens of recipes published in major magazines and newspapers. Cassie has been sharing her award-winning recipes on Wholefully since 2010. She loves dark chocolate, homegrown tomatoes, motorsports, and anything that sparkles. She lives in Indiana with her family on a small homestead.

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33 Comments

    1. Hi Kelley! This dough is great for making ahead! We typically stash it in the freezer if it’s going to be more than a few days before we need it, but if you wrap it up well, you should be able to leave it in the fridge for a few days with no ill effects. Signs of the dough being in the fridge for too long include looking off-color, feeling slimy, or smelling funky. Trust your senses and trash it if it’s suspect! But a day or two should be fine if it’s wrapped up tightly!

      Reply

    1. Hi Kasey! Absolutely—you can use a stand mixer, hand mixer, or a bowl and spoon (along with some elbow grease)!

      Reply

    1. Hi Alexandra! This dough is great for making ahead! We typically stash it in the freezer if it’s going to be more than a few days before we need it, but if you wrap it up well, you should be able to leave it in the fridge for a few days with no ill effects. Signs of the dough being in the fridge for too long include looking off-color, feeling slimy, or smelling funky. Trust your senses and trash it if it’s suspect! But 2-3 days should be fine if it’s wrapped up tightly!

      Reply

    1. Hi Natalie! We like to make ours in a stand mixer, but you can also do it with a hand mixer or with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease! It actually comes together really easily no matter which way you do it. =)

      Reply

    1. Hi Mindy! You could definitely refrigerate the dough overnight, then come back the next day to roll, cut, and bake. If we need to leave it for longer than that, we typically stash the dough in the freezer. But you should be able to leave it in the fridge for a few days with no ill effects. Signs of the dough being in the fridge for too long include looking off-color, feeling slimy, or smelling funky. Trust your senses and trash it if it’s suspect!

      Reply

    1. Hi Sharon! Using parchment paper should be fine. We don’t recommend silicone baking sheets for cut-out cookies because they tend to spread too much on those. Whether you use parchment paper or not, keep an eye on them for doneness, and you should be fine! Please let us know how they turn out for you. =)

      Reply

  8. Cassie, I live at 6000 ft in a dry climate making baking a challenge. Any suggestions or recommendations to preparing or baking the cookie I should take into consideration?

    Reply

  9. I followed this recipe exactly . I measured the flour then sifted . The dough is more like cake than cookie I can’t even roll them . Seems to me that 3 cups of butter is way to much for 5 cups of flour . Very dissapointed

    Reply

    1. Hi Janet! I’m so sorry the cookies didn’t turn out the way you expected. You’re right—3 cups of butter is too much! The recipe only calls for 1 1/2 cups of butter, which is 3 sticks here in the US. I hope that helps clear up any confusion! If you give the recipe another go, please let us know how it works out for you =)

      Reply

    1. Hi Anna! If you’re looking for gluten-free and dairy-free swaps, we recommend giving our Grain-Free Paleo Sugar Cookies with Coconut Butter Frosting a go. They’re gluten-free, grain-free, lactose-free (if you use ghee), refined-sugar free, and paleo—but most of all, they’re super delicious! The best part is that you won’t have to worry about whether or not your subs and swaps will work because this recipe was made to work gluten-free and dairy-free! Let us know how they turn out for you =)

      Reply

    1. Hi, Pd! We like storing these in an airtight container stacked between layers of parchment paper. They’ll keep out on the counter for about a week.

      For future reference, you can find this info in the post under the heading: How do you store iced sugar cookies?
      “Once the frosting has hardened, I stack them between layers of parchment paper in a glass food storage container and leave them on the counter for up to a week.”

      I hope this helps! =)

      Reply

      1. How long will the cookies last without icing? I would like to bake them on Monday and ice them Saturday for my son to take to work. Thanks for all the great recipes and ideas.

        Reply

        1. Hi Rosa! They’ll keep for a week or more in an airtight container on the counter. Baking on Monday and icing on Saturday should be fine!

          Reply

    1. Hi, Merium! Yes, you can freeze cut but unbaked cookies flat on a baking sheet, and once frozen store them in a freezer bag or container for up to three months. Hope this helps!

      Reply

    1. Hiya, Shana! This recipe isn’t formulated for flax eggs, so we can’t say for certain how it would turn out. Typically if there are more than one or two eggs in a recipe, swapping for flax eggs isn’t recommended (unless you’re using a recipe that tested for that swap). When in doubt, always seek out a recipe specifically made to be egg-free! Good luck!

      Reply

  14. OMG this recipe is amazing!! I love that the cookie itself is not overly sweet so there is room for that sweet icing. My boyfriend was even eating them off the cooling rack before I iced them! I ended up using my grandma’s icing recipe because I didn’t have all the ingredients yours called for, and they ended up tasting like I remembered hers tasting as a kid! Brought back memories! I was afraid I would mess them up since it was my first time making cut out cookies so I only made a half batch, but I will definitely be making a bunch more now!

    Reply

  15. I made them for my online Christmas cookie decoration activity with my students, everybody loved it ♥️
    Thank you for sharing this recipe ⭐

    Reply