Name: Best Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
Prep time: 240 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 248 min
Ingredients: 3/4 cup softened butter; 1 cup white sugar; 2 eggs; 1 tsp vanilla; 2.5 cups white flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 cups powdered sugar; 3 tbsp milk; Food dye

Get into the holiday spirit with the Best Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe! This dough is perfect for flattening and adding your favorite decorative toppings like icing or sprinkles.

A Quick Look

Recipe Name: Best Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ready In: 248 minutes
Serves: 50 cookies
Main Ingredients: Cookies, softened butter, white sugar, eggs, vanilla, white flour, baking powder, salt
Why You'll Love It: Get into the holiday spirit with the Best Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe! This dough is perfect for flattening and adding your favorite decorative toppings like icing or sprinkles.

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us — cookie season! And with cookie season comes the need for a good, classic sugar cookie. Today, I'm showing you how to make some delicious and festive treats with the best cut out sugar cookie recipe.

This recipe uses typical baking ingredients, and the texture of the dough is great for flattening out and using with your cookie cutters. Once baked, they're the perfect canvas for decorating with icing, sprinkles, and the toppings of your choice!

The ingredients needed to make these sugar cookies are divided into two parts: those for the cookies and those for the icing. For the cookies, we'll be using standard baking items like flour, eggs, and sugar to create a delicious dough!

Cookies

Butter: First up for the cookies, you will need ¾ cup of softened butter.
Sugar: Add deliciously sweet flavor with 1 cup of white sugar.
Eggs: Next, add two eggs to help the dough reach the correct texture.
Vanilla: Contribute to the flavor with 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Flour: 2.5 cups of white flour will thicken up the dough.
Baking powder: 1 teaspoon of baking powder will help the cookies bake properly.
Salt: Finally, finish off the dough with ½ teaspoon of salt for extra flavor.

Icing

Powdered sugar: The base of the icing is made with 2 cups of powdered sugar.
Milk: Create the icing texture by adding 3 tablespoon of milk.
Food dye: Last but not least, use food dye colors of your choice.

To make this recipe, you will need a list of kitchen tools including various mixing bowls and stirring utensils. Don't forget the cookie cutters! The following items are listed in the order in which you'll use them:

Large mixing bowl
Hand mixer
Medium mixing bowl
Stirring utensil
Spatula
Baking sheet
Parchment paper (optional)
Dough roller
Cookie cutters
Small mixing bowl

For measuring, you will need ½ tsp, 1 tsp, 1 tbsp, ½ cup, ¾ cup, and 1 cup sized measuring cups.

Preparing the dough and icing for this recipe is quite simple. The recipe itself comes together quickly, but prepare to let the dough sit for at least 4 hours in order to bake properly.

To begin, use a large bowl and a hand mixer to beat together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until creamy. Set aside.

Then, in a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine with the hand mixer. Once all of the flour is mixed into the dough, use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Make sure the dough is completely combined.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours. Overnight is best.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a baking sheet. You can use parchment paper if preferred.

Flour a large surface and a rolling pin liberally. Roll the dough out into ¼-1/2 inch thickness. Then cut it into cookie shapes using cookie cut outs. Re-roll scraps of the dough and cut until there is no more excess dough.

Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until just slightly golden.

Let cool completely before icing.

Mix all of the icing ingredients together, adding differnet amounts of food dye color to the mix to get the desired shade.

Add extra fun with these topping ideas

After adding icing and decorating your cookies, use these ideas if you want to add even more color and flavor!

Sprinkles
Mini M&Ms
Shredded coconut
Crushed oreos
Crushed candy cans
Crushed nuts
Mini chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, or butterscotch chips

Substitution Tip

If you find yourself missing an ingredient or two, here are some easy swaps you can use!

White sugar
White sugar can be replaced with coconut sugar. This swap is a bit healthier and works at a 1:1 ratio! That means to make this swap, you will need 1 cup of coconut sugar.

Eggs
If you're hoping to substitute the eggs, you have a few options.

First, you can use applesauce. Use ¼ cup per egg (or a total of ½ cup for this recipe).

Second, you can use a banana. 1 medium sized banana should be plenty for substituting 2 eggs. Note: Bananas will add a bit of banana flavor to the cookies!

Lastly, you can make eggs with chia seeds. Simply mix 2 tablespoon of chia seeds with 6 tablespoon of water. When it reaches an egg white consistency, add to the dough in place of the eggs.

Powdered sugar
Out of powdered sugar? That's okay! Did you know that you can make powdered sugar by blending up granulated sugar and cornstarch? Add 1 cup of granulated sugar nad 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to a blender or food processer and mix until it reaches the fine texture of powdered sugar.

Milk
Any milk will work for the icing, whether skim, 2%, whole, or almond, cashew, oat, etc.

If you liked this recipe, you'll want to try these!

Cookie Season is nearly here! To help you get into the spirit, here are some more cookie recipes to try.

Photos by Moriah Sawtelle and recipe by Erin Antoniak.

Erin Antoniak