Finding the perfect cut-out cookie recipe for the holidays can be tricky—some call for baking powder, others for cornstarch; some need chilling, others don’t. After reading through a few, I landed on one inspired by Sally’s Baking Addiction that struck the right balance: soft in the center with a light crunch. Best of all, it turned into a fun holiday activity with my kids, baking and decorating together.
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Why you'll love these Easy cut out Cookies?
- They have the right amount of sweetness, keeping in mind the frosting is also sweet.
- They are very easy to make, follow all the instructions to the T
- Bring the Christmas spirit and cheer by baking these beautiful and colorful cookies. Another great cookie for the holidays is the Doubletree Hilton-style chocolate chip cookie and Fudgy chocolate crinkle cookies.
- A fun time if you involve your kids and little ones in the baking and decorating process.
Ingredients that you will need:
- All-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt
- Organic butter and sugar
- Organic egg
- Vanilla essence
- For the frosting, Food coloring, and gel
- Corn syrup, milk, and powdered sugar
- Sprinkles and other decorations
How to Make the Cut-out Sugar Cookies?
Steps 1-4 ) We start with creaming the butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes, and then add the eggs and vanilla and beat for a minute. Next, add the flour in small additions and beat on low speed to form a nice smooth dough. Divide the dough into smaller portions and put in ziploc bags.
Steps 5-8) Roll the dough to about ¼ or ⅛ of an inch and transfer to a baking sheet and cover it with another sheet, and refrigerate. Once cooled, cut into desired shaped using the cookie cutter.
Step 9-12) Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F for 11 to 12 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. Cool on a cooling rack and frost with sugar frosting and sprinkles.
To make icing for Sugar cookies
- The icing is very simple to make. All it needs is powdered sugar, corn starch syrup, vanilla extract, and a few drops of food coloring gel. You can add colors of your choice and make pretty decorations.
- We used mainly red and green as it is Christmas time. Use a narrow and pointed tip attached to the piping bag to draw outlines and fill it with icing.
- Add sugar dust and colorful sprinkles to make it look festive. The cookies have just about the right amount of sweetness and may be a little less sugary for some. But keep in mind that the frosting will have sugar as well.
We were quite happy with the outcome, and indeed, a wonderful result for the first attempt.
Useful Tips
Chilling the dough
- One helpful tip I followed and highly recommend is to roll out the dough before chilling it. It’s much easier to handle when soft, and rolling it out at this stage saves effort later.
- Although the dough is smooth and not sticky, chilling it for 1–2 hours is essential to help it hold its shape during cutting and transferring to the baking tray.
- To make the process even easier, divide the dough into two portions before rolling. This makes it more manageable and saves time.
Rolling the dough
- Place the dough between two parchment papers and roll into about ¼ th or ⅛ th of an inch uniformly. You can place the rolled dough in the refrigerator in the baking tray itself, covered with a cling wrap.
- The chilled and rolled-out dough helps in easily cutting shapes using the cookie cutters. Coat the molds by dipping in all-purpose flour while cutting, to get nice, clean edges.
- The remaining dough from the cookie cutters can then be rolled again and reused to make cookies.
Be sure to take the cookies out exactly at 11 to 12 minutes or just before the edges get browned while baking.
Here are some other cookie recipes that are great for the holiday season chocolate chip cookie, bakery-style chocolate chip cookies, and almond flour chocolate chip cookies. Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake is a great celebration cake to bring out the Christmas Spirit.
Hope you enjoyed reading this post. Wishing you and your loved ones a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, and joyous holiday season!
Related Recipes
If you tried this Easy Cut out Cookies Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and a 📝 comment below. I love hearing from you!
Easy cut out cookies
Ingredients
For Cookies
- 2 ¼ cups All-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
For icing
- 4 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 3 - 4 tbsp milk
- 2 ¼ tbsp corn syrup light
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- few drops food coloring or gel
- 1 bottle sprinkles
Instructions
To make Cookies
- Cream the butter and sugar for about 2 to 3 mins on high speed. Scrape the contents from the sides and mix as necessary.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat on high speed for a minute .
- Next add the flour in small additions on low speed until they are all well combined.
- Take the ball of dough and divide into smaller portions.
- Roll the dough in between two parchment papers .
- Do the same for the other divided portions.
- Transfer to baking tray
- Cover with cling wrap .
- Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours or upto 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
- Take the chilled and rolled out dough and cut into shapes using cookie molds.
- Transfer to the baking tray lined with parchment paper for baking .
- Bake for 11 to 12 mins until the sides are slightly brown.
- Cool on a cooling rack until completely cool.
To make Icing
- Mix all the ingredients in the "for frosting section" in a large bowl using a whisk
- Fill into piping bags with narrow tip.
- Decorate by making borders, filling with frosting and adding sprinkles as desired.
Notes
- Chilling the dough
- One helpful tip I followed and highly recommend is to roll out the dough before chilling it. It’s much easier to handle when soft, and rolling it out at this stage saves effort later.
-
- Although the dough is smooth and not sticky, chilling it for 1–2 hours is essential to help it hold its shape during cutting and transferring to the baking tray.
-
- To make the process even easier, divide the dough into two portions before rolling. This makes it more manageable and saves time.
- Rolling the dough
-
- Place the dough between two parchment papers and roll into about ¼ th or ⅛ th of an inch uniformly. You can place the rolled dough in the refrigerator in the baking tray itself, covered with a cling wrap.
-
- The chilled and rolled-out dough helps in easily cutting shapes using the cookie cutters. Coat the molds by dipping in all-purpose flour while cutting, to get nice, clean edges.
-
- The remaining dough from the cookie cutters can then be rolled again and reused to make cookies.
- Be sure to take the cookies out exactly at 11 to 12 minutes or just before the edges get browned while baking.
The cookies look super tempting 😋
Many Thanks Smitha, they turned out really good.
On Christmas we did a lot of cookies, some of them were to show them to our teachers since my kids do online school!
Oh ! wonderful to hear that . I'm sure the kids would have enjoyed baking and showing them to their teachers .
These are so adorable 😍 👏
Thank you so much!
Wow! These are really cute. We were supposed to make some sugar cookies last Christmas but ran out of time. Thinking of making one for new year instead. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you so much , they will be great for any celebration and new year sounds just perfect ! Happy baking , enjoy!
I LOVE making sugar cookies! Well, I love making all kinds of cookies, but sugar cookies are so much fun to decorate ☺️ You can cover them in royal icing, fondant, even buttercream if you can to get really fancy! Plus, they're so nice and sweet. I personally love dipping them in a cup of tea or hot chocolate - they are perfect for this time of year 😋
Thank you so much ! Yes all those frostig sounds on the sugar cookies sounds delicious . I agree decorating the sugar cookies is the most fun part . Love the plain ones as well , as you mention dipping it in a hot cup of tea .
These sound great! I am a firm believer that a sugar cookie needs to have that soft center. Otherwise, it just tastes overdone to me, as if someone left it baking for too long, drying it out... I know that some recipes give that consistency without overbaking, but that's still where my mind goes when eating them lol
Yes exactly right , it is very important not to overbake and take it out exactly at the right time . Thank you so much for your comments.