Soft, chewy, Christmas cut out sugar cookies with their festive shapes and colorful icing, will always be a holiday favorite. I love how this sugar cookie dough comes together so easy. And I especially love how you chill the dough half way through. It gives a nice opportunity to clean up and take a break.

I love how this sugar cookie dough comes together so easy. And I especially love how you chill the dough half way through. It gives a nice opportunity to clean up and take a break.
I have the fondest memories of baking cut out cookies at Christmas with my mom and both of my grandmothers. I definitely had my favorite cookie cutter shapes that I grabbed for first. But still, I swear, our little metal cut outs reproduced on their own every year!
I try to post recipes that can be used all year long, and though these are titled Christmas, use this dough as your go-to recipe for any occasion. I’m so thrilled that nowadays one can find any size and shape of cookie cutters in the store, some having entire walls dedicated to them! I’ve used this recipe for Easter cookies, bridal and baby showers, graduations, and birthdays.
Ingredients for Rolled Sugar Cookies
- Butter: Use a good quality butter at room temperature.
- Sugar: Powdered sugar.
- Egg: Bring your egg to room temperature in a bowl of warm water for five minutes.
- Extracts: This recipe calls for both vanilla and almond extract. Don’t skip either!
- Flour: All-purpose flour gently scooped into a measuring cup.
How To Use Half An Egg
If you have one of these special measuring cups then measuring half an egg is a breeze. An average egg is approximately 3 tablespoons, so half an egg is 1 1/2 tablespoons. If you don’t have this small measuring beaker, then beat the egg in a bowl and use your tablespoon to measure out the 1 1/2 tablespoon that you need. Don’t forget to bring your egg to room temperature by placing it in a bowl orfwarm water for five minutes. This helps the yolk and the egg white to blend together more thoroughly.


How to Make Cut Out Cookies
- Cream butter thoroughly.
- Add powdered sugar and continue to beat 3-4 minutes.
- Beat your egg and add half.
- Add vanilla and almond extract.
- Combine salt and flour in a bowl and mix in.
- Chill covered dough for at least an hour.
- Roll out on board.
- Cut into different shapes with cookie cutters.
- Bake and let cool before decorating.



Important Steps for the Best Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Cream Butter and Sugar Well: Mixing the butter well, then adding the sugar and creaming it again is perhaps one of the most important steps to a successful cookie. Whether you use a hand held or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, you will want to cream the butter and sugar for 5-6 minutes. So why do you need to cream these first two ingredients so long? It’s all about creating little air pockets in the dough. As the cookie bakes, these little pockets of air help the cookie rise. If you didn’t cream the butter and sugar long enough, there wouldn’t be enough air pockets to create the cookie to rise, and you would end up with a very dense cookie.
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients: Once you have creamed the the butter and sugar, add the rest of the wet ingredients (egg and extracts) and beat well before adding the dry ingredients.
- Measuring dry ingredients: When measuring dry ingredients, it’s important you don’t just dig your measuring cut into the flour and scoop it up. If you’ve ever remeasured your “cup of flour” after packing it in like this, you’ll be surprised that you could have an excess of two more tablespoons of flour. Always fluff your flour with a spoon, then use the spoon or a smaller cup and gently place the flour into your measuring cup, then level with a knife. This applies to powdered sugar as well.
- Chill the dough: Wrapping the dough tightly in plastic wrap and chilling it, helps in two ways. If you skip this step and try to roll it out right away, you’ll have to add far too much flour to your board and rolling pin to prevent sticking. This will kick up the ratio of flour in the recipe and give you a harder cookie. Also, chilling the dough for at least an hour helps to firm up the butter and prevents your cookie from spreading too much during baking. When you are trying to make crisp shapes with a cookie cutter, the last thing you want is your star to look like an underwater sea creature.
- Preventing dough from sticking to your cookie cutter: I like to keep a small bowl of powder sugar nearby so I can dip my cookie cutter in it every few cuts. This prevents the dough from sticking to the edges and helps the shape slide right out. Place immediately on your baking sheet to prevent over handling.
- Cool your baking sheet: Let your baking sheet come to room temperature between batches. While that may not apply for small batch baking, it’s something to file away in your mind for when you make double batches.
- Don’t overbake: With this sugar cookie, or any in general, watch closely and take the cookies out just as the edges begin to firm, the center is slightly puffy, and the cookie is still a light color overall. Do not let the edges brown even slightly or you will have a hard cookie.
- Use parchment paper to remove cookies: Ever struggle with trying to remove your cut outs that have points or other delicate features? I have a solution! Rest one side of your cookie sheet on your cooling rack. Tilt your cookie sheet slightly and gently drag your parchment paper off the sheet onto the rack. Allow the cookies to cool before peeling the parchment paper off.
Decorating Christmas Cookies
Once you have baked your cookie dough, cool on a rack. You can decide to decorate the sugar cookies immediately or store them for a day or two in a container. You can also freeze your plain baked cookies for up to a month.
Icing: Simply mix together a cup of powder sugar, teaspoon of vanilla and enough water to make an icing. Icing is thinner than frosting and should readily drip off your cookie.
Dip each cookie upside down in the bowl of icing, then into the colored sprinkles of your choice. Place on a surface to let set before placing in an airtight container.
Frosting: Frosting is made thicker and is spreadable to any thickness. Leave white or use a food coloring or gel to achieve any color your desire.




Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter unsalted, use room temperature
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon salt omit if using salted butter
- 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
Icing
Butter Frosting
- 1½ tablespoons butter softened
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, cream room temperature butter.
- Slowly add powdered sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes. This allows the butter and sugar to get some air in it which helps make your cookies soft.
- Beat a room temperature egg and add half to the butter and powdered sugar bowl. Add vanilla and almond extract and blend.
- Whisk salt and flour in a bowl, add to main ingredients and mix.
- Place on plastic wrap and flatten slightly. Chill for 1 hour or overnight.
Cutting out your dough into shapes
- Dust your surface with flour and roll chilled dough 1/4-1/2 inch. Thicker cookies will be softer.
- Dip each cookie cutter in a small bowl of powdered sugar and cut out your shapes. Pick up extra dough and roll and cut again until all the dough is gone. Transfer each to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake until the edges set and the center is slightly puffy. Do not let the edge get any color or your cookies will be hard.
- Remove sturdier shapes with a spatula. For more delicate shapes, place edge of baking sheet on cooling rack and tilt slightly. Grab your parchment paper and slide off onto rack. Remove once cookies have cooled completely.
- Decorate with butter frosting, sprinkles, icing or colored sugars.
- The quantity of cookies you get will depend on cookie cutter size and thickness of dough.
- Store in an air tight container for up to two weeks.
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