February 1, 2019

Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies

Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies. Sweet and lightly crunchy sugar cookies that hold their shape beautifully for cutouts! Easy and delicious!

Sugar Cookies

My go to sugar cookie recipe is always a hit. They’re delicious, and you don’t have to chill the dough for them to hold their shape – they’re an all around win. Recently though, I’ve made them a lot. Probably for 5 or 6 events over the last couple of months. I wanted to make sugar cookies for my son’s birthday party, but wanted to do something a bit different to spice things up.

Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies

I wanted to use tool shaped cookie cutters which have fine detail, so I needed something that would hold its shape well. My goal was to have a sweet and crunchy cookie that was still a bit soft, with a vanilla-forward flavor. These easy cutout sugar cookies met all my goals!

Recipe Notes

Here are a few tips when making these sugar cookies:

The less you roll the dough, the better. Each time you roll it on a floured surface, you’re going to incorporate more flour. So, you want to try to get as many cookies as you can out of each roll-out.
The dough holds its shape best when it is cold. So when rolling, take about half of the dough out of the fridge at a time to ensure that the last cookies to be cut will stay cold and hold their shape.
Dip the cookie cutters in flour before pressing them down into the dough. I often use a metal spatula (similar to this one) to transfer the cutout dough to the baking sheet as it helps keeps the shape(s) well.
I bake all of my sugar cookies on silicone baking mats on top of AirBake cookie sheets to keep the bottoms from getting overcooked or burned.
I decorated these cookies with the royal icing from this post. I always use Wilton gel food coloring in the icing, and these squeeze bottles to apply it. Two notes about the icing: First, for each color, I start off with the frosting a bit thicker (about the consistency of glue) than you usually might to outline the area that I want colored in. Then, I add just a few drips of water to make the icing consistency just a bit thinner, and use that to fill in the outlined area. Second, when using more than one color on a cookie surface, I let the first color dry for about 24 hours before applying the second color.

Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies

Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies. Sweet and lightly crunch sugar cookies that hold their shape beautifully for cutout cookies! Easy and delicious!

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Course: Dessert

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 8

Servings: cookies

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Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon corn starch

Instructions

Use electric mixer with paddle attachment to beat butter and sugar until lightened in color, about 2 minutes.
Beat in vanilla extract. Then, beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides as needed, until well incorporated.
In a medium sized bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and corn starch. Gradually beat into butter mixture, about 1/2 cup at a time.
Form dough into about a large disc, about 8″ in diameter. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Lightly flour a working surface. Take about half of the chilled dough out of the fridge. Roll to between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thickness (I use a ring to roll to 3/16 inch thickness). Cut out as many cookies as possible out of each roll (the less you roll, the better). Repeat with the rest of the dough until all dough has been used. NOTE: If you have trouble rolling the dough, let it sit for a few minutes to warm just a bit.
Transfer cutout cookies to prepared pan and bake until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes.
Let cool on pans for about 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling.
I decorate these cookies with the royal frosting recipe from my sugar cookie post (link in notes). I have notes above about decorating in post above.