This sugar cookie recipe makes the BEST Cut Out Sugar Cookies and is great for decorating! Delicious rolled sugar cookie dough is perfect for using your favorite cookie cutters!

These sugar cookies come from my family recipe we’ve made for generations every holiday! They have a subtle sweet and vanilla flavor that goes perfectly with icing. Are you looking for other easy cookie recipes? You’ll love my Snickerdoodles, Buttery Spritz Cookies, and Gingerbread Cookies.

This Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe has been in my family for years. It is one of those cookie recipes that we pull out each year to make Christmas cookies for decorating. Just as Mama did with my sister and me when we were young, I let Sam choose his favorite cookie cutters for us to use when he was a young boy. Frosted with a quick sugar cookie icing and more sprinkles and decorations, these scrumptious cookies are a part of the holidays in our family. They are still a favorite tradition to bake each year to decorate, share, and enjoy!

Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Taste and Texture. These cookies have a slightly sweet taste that is not overpowered by icing or decorations. Their texture is soft, yet they are sturdy enough for decorating.

Festive. The dough can be cut into any desired shape for holidays and celebrations and decorated as you wish. They are so much fun to make with kids!

Easy to Make Ahead. The sugar cookie dough is perfect to make ahead and keep chilled until ready to cut out the cookies for baking.

How to Make Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

This sugar cookie recipe has been tested over the decades and made hundreds of times. It is truly delicious and a great recipe to use for your cookie traditions. Here’s how you’ll make these scrumptious cookies:

Sugar Cookie Ingredients

For this cookie recipe, you’ll need the following simple ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

I recommend that the butter be softened, and the eggs be at room temperature for better mixing with the sugar and flour.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Make the Sugar Cookie Dough

• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix into the butter mixture. Add in the vanilla.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the butter mixture, making sure to mix until well combined without overmixing the dough.
• Divide the dough in half. If ready to bake, go ahead and roll and cut the dough for baking. If you are making ahead, wrap each half of the dough well with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Roll and Cut Out the Dough

• Roll the dough to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut it with your favorite cookie cutters. If the dough sticks, you can lightly dust the rolling surface and rolling pin with confectioner’s sugar or flour. I prefer to use confectioner’s sugar as I find it doesn’t leave an aftertaste once the cookies are baked.
• Cut sugar cookies with preferred cookie cutters, working dough back together and rolling and cutting until all dough has been used and all the sugar cookies are placed onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake the Cookies

• Place the baking sheets full of cut-out sugar cookies into the freezer for 15 minutes to prevent the dough from spreading while baking. Don’t skip this step, as it helps the cookies hold their shape.
• Preheat oven to 350º F while the baking sheet is in the freezer.
• Transfer baking sheets straight from the freezer to the oven for baking. Bake until lightly golden brown, about 12 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.

Decorate the Sugar Cookies

While the sugar cookies are cooling, I mix up the easy cookie icing that my Mama always made when we were children. Then, the whole family has so much fun decorating them.

While we’ve always loved making these as part of our baking for Christmas cookies, it’s a great sugar cookie recipe to use anytime!

Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions

To store baked and decorated sugar cookies. Prepare the cookies as instructed, allow any decorative frosting to dry completely, and then store them in parchment-lined layers within an airtight container for up to a week.

To make ahead unbaked cookies. Make the sugar cookie dough, wrap it well with plastic wrap, and store it in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. When ready to roll and bake, remove from the refrigerator and follow the recipe.

To freeze cookie dough. Make the sugar cookie dough, wrap it well with plastic wrap, and place it in a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Allow the dough to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. When ready to roll and bake, remove from the refrigerator and follow the recipe.

To freeze unbaked cookies. Place cut-out sugar cookies onto a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and place into the freezer until the unbaked cookies are firmly frozen (about 30 minutes). Transfer to an airtight, freezer-safe container, layering the unbaked frozen cookies between parchment paper. Freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to bake from frozen, add about 2 to 3 minutes to the baking time.

To freeze baked cookies. Allow the baked sugar cookies to cool completely. Transfer to an airtight, freezer-safe container layering between parchment paper. Freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to serve, allow the cookies to reach room temperature and then decorate as you’d like.

Here’s my family’s cut-out sugar cookie recipe. I hope your family loves it as much as mine does! You might also like to try my Chewy Sugar Cookie Recipe. Between the two, you’ll be in sugar cookie bliss!

Happy Baking!
Robyn xo

From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2013.