Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
Buttery and soft cookies with slightly crisp edges. This soft cut-out sugar cookie recipe is the perfect cookie to pair with royal icing because it’s not overly sweet.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Buttery flavor & not overly sweet
- Slightly crisp edges with soft centers
- Perfect cookie recipe to pair with royal icing
- Takes 10 minutes to bake each tray
- Holds their shape
- Perfect surface for decorating with royal icing
- Makes cute gifts
Why This Recipe Works With Royal Icing
This easy sugar cookie recipe is buttery with a hint of vanilla and not too sweet. This makes a perfect pairing with something sweet like royal icing.
Find my easy royal icing with egg whites recipe here! You can also decorate cookies with buttercream frosting.
6 Ingredients in This Recipe
- Unsalted butter
- Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
Watch the Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe Video!
How to Make Sugar Cookies
Make sure the unsalted butter and egg are at room temperature before beginning!
Add the softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand held mixer with the beater attachment. Mix the butter on high speed for 30 seconds until creamy. Then, add the sugar and cream together on high speed for 2 minutes.
Add the egg, vanilla extract, and salt and mix for 30 seconds on medium speed until just incorporated.
Lastly, add half of the flour and mix until just incorporated. Then, add the rest of the flour and mix until the dough just comes together. Be careful, if you over mix the dough then it will be tough.
Next, lay out a piece of plastic wrap and place the dough in the center as shown above. If it looks crumbly, thats ok, knead it softly until it comes together. Wrap up the dough and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes (or overnight).
If you leave the dough in more than 30 minutes or overnight, it will be hard to roll out. Let the dough sit out on the counter for about 30 minutes but still cool to the touch.
Prepare baking sheets by adding parchment paper to protect non stick baking sheet pans. For the best results, bake on the center rack, one sheet at a time.
Once the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge and divide it into two equal halves. Then, preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
Roll out the dough to be 1/4-inch thick. The thicker the dough, the softer the center of the cookie will be. 1/4-inch works perfectly for this recipe because although these cookies have soft centers, the edges stay slightly crisp – the perfect combination.
Cut out your cookies and place onto a baking sheet. If the dough warmed up and is sticky, place in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes.
Put similar size cookies on a baking sheet. If you place small cookies to bake with large ones, then the small cookies will bake much faster and you don’t want them to brown.
Bake cookies that are 2 inches or less for 7-8 minutes. Bake 3-5 inch cookies for 9-10 minutes. It’s important to know your oven and keep an eye out when adding a minute or two. You can even do a test bake by baking one or two cookies before baking a whole tray.
Look for very lightly browned edges and bottoms (see photo below). The cookies will also look soft in the center. They will firm up as they cool.
Transfer the cookies right away to a cooling rack or they will continue to bake on the hot pan.
FAQ’s
Drying Time
The drying time depends on how big your cookies are, how humid the kitchen is, or on how runny your icing was when piping.
It can take between 12-24 hours to fully air dry. To be sure the cookies are fully dry when packaging or serving, I recommend letting the cookies dry overnight.
To speed up drying time, check out this post on How-to Dry Royal Icing in The Oven.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies
Use my easy royal icing recipe with egg whites recipe which was made to pair with these cookies. For troubleshooting, check out this royal icing troubleshooting post.
How to Store Sugar Cookies
Undecorated cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. You can freeze undecorated cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 months. I don’t freeze cookies decorated with royal icing because it can run as it defrosts.
How to Package Sugar Cookies
- To keep in freshness, add one fully dried cookie into a cellophane bag and tie with ribbon. These cellophane bags come in multiple sizes. For cookies that are 4 inches or smaller, I purchase the 5×7 inch bags.
- Use self sealing cellophane bags that also come in handy for shipping cookies. These look professional like the single sold cookies at a bakery. These are my favorite self sealing bags.
- To really take cookie gifting to the next level, place the cookies in a box with crinkle paper. These boxes hold four cookies.
Check out How To Package Cookies Decorated With Royal Icing for holiday ideas and more!
RECIPE CARD
Soft Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand held mixer
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature) (226 g)
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar (228 g)
- 1 egg (room temperature)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (360 g)
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, equip the paddle attachment. If using a hand held mixer, equip beaters. Mix the butter on high speed for 30 seconds until creamy.
- Add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes on high speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt and mix on medium until just combined.
- Add in half of the flour and mix until incorporated, then add the other half. Stop mixing when the flour has incorporated and the dough comes together.
- Spread out a piece of plastic wrap onto the counter. Turn out the dough onto the plastic wrap. If the dough is slightly crumbly, gently knead it together. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350℉ (177℃). Prepare your baking trays with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into two parts. Lightly flour a clean flat surface and place the dough on top. Gently knead the dough and press flat with your palm. Roll out the dough, turning it as you roll for even thickness. If it's sticky, sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut out your shapes and place on a baking tray, 2 inches apart. 3-4 inch shapes should be baked for 9-10 minutes. Shapes smaller than 3 inches should bake for 7-8 minutes. Shapes larger than 4 inches should bake for 10-11 minutes.
- Once the oven goes off, take out the cookies and move to a cooling rack. Don't let them sit on the hot pan or they will keep baking.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.
- Decorate cookies with royal icing. Let the royal icing air dry before covering. For gifting or mailing, let the icing dry for 12 hours or more.
- Plain cookies or decorated cookies can last in an airtight container for 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing: Cookie dough can be frozen up to 2 months. Let the dough thaw before rolling but not all the way until room temperature. Begin from step 7 above with slightly chilled dough. You can freeze undecorated cookies for 2 months. Let the cookies thaw before serving.
- Decorate: Ice cookies with royal icing. See my easy royal icing recipe with egg whites to answer all your royal icing questions. This royal icing recipe was made to pair with these sugar cookies. The cookies are buttery and not overly sweet, so the icing gives it a nice sweetness.
- Tools: The things that help me bake the perfect cookies: Nordic Baking Pans 13 x 18 inches | Stand mixer or Hand held mixer | AmeriColor soft gel paste food coloring | Piping bags | Rubber spatula | Digital scale | Rolling pin
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, and should be used as an approximation.
