Best Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe

This is the Best Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe that makes soft and chewy cut-out cookies of any shape and size.  Decorate with festive sprinkles and your choice of royal icing or buttercream frosting, or even enjoy plain.

This cookie dough is also great for freezing ahead so that you can defrost and roll out when you have the time.  Or, you can even freeze the baked and decorated finished product and spend the rest of the holiday relaxing!

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

Nothing says holiday baking quite like decorated sugar cookies.  Our Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe is one of those recipes to come back to again and again.  Not only do they hold their shape, but they also taste great, too!

You can decorate these rolled cookies using our easy royal icing recipe below, or buttercream frosting. If you want, use food coloring to dye your frosting any colors that you choose.

Below you will find ideas for decorating rolled sugar cookies as well as tips and tricks. If you’re looking for more “go-to” cookie recipes, be sure to check out my collection of some of the best cookies on the internet and if you’re looking for a great sugar cookie recipe that you don’t plan to roll-out. For another sugar cookie variation, try our Stained Glass Cookies, and our Taylor Swift Sugar Cookies too.

Ingredients You Will Need

• Flour – we use all-purpose flour for these sugar cookies.  You could also try these with all-purpose gluten-free flour if you want!
• Cream of Tartar – this helps to keep your cookies nice and soft.
• Butter – use unsalted room temperature butter.  You can use salted, but you’ll want to add less salt to the dough.
• Sugar – we use regular granulated sugar.
• Eggs – you will need 2 large eggs.  It’s best to use eggs at room temperature which you can do quickly by placing them in a bowl and running under warm water for a couple of minutes.
• Vanilla Extract and Almond Extract – it’s best to use pure extracts, rather than imitation.  The flavor is unmatched.

How to Make The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

1. Make the cookie dough. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, and salt and set aside.  Place room temperature butter, sour cream, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer cream with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, or about 3 minutes.   Slowly add the egg, egg yolk, almond extract, and vanilla extract and mix again until combined.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined.  Scrape the bowl to make sure that all of the butter has mixed in completely.
2. Roll out the dough: Sprinkle the counter and rolling pin lightly with flour. Roll the dough on your floured surface until it is about 1/4″ thick.  
3. Cut out cookie shapes.  Cut cookies out into desired shapes and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat at least 1″ apart.
4. Bake: Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are set and there is just a hint of golden brown color.  Let the cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
5. Decorate: Frost and decorate cookies as desired and enjoy!

How to Make Royal Icing for Decorating

This royal icing hardens fairly quickly and actually tastes good.  Since we use meringue powder, you also don’t need to worry about using raw egg whites.

Royal Icing Ingredients

• 4 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted
• 5 Tablespoons Warm Water
• 3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder

How to Make Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder

1. Make sure all utensils are washed and grease-free.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together meringue powder and warm water with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy.  Slowly add powdered sugar to the meringue mixture and whisk again.  Once all sugar has been added, whip on high for several minutes until stiff peaks form.
3. Separate frosting into several different bowls and color as desired – Gel food coloring works best.
4. Thin the frosting out with 1/2 tsp water at a time (Note: when you pull a spoonful up, it should quickly dissolve back into itself and become smooth on top)
5. Pour frosting into piping bags or squeeze bottles and decorate cookies as desired. To speed up the drying process, place frosted cookies in front of a fan.
6. To freeze, place frosting in a freezer bag or other covered container in the freezer for up to 12 hours. Before reusing, re-whip icing and add small amounts of water until you reach the correct consistency.

Decorating Ideas for Rolled Sugar Cookies

There are a few main ways that you can decorate your sugar cookies, each with varying levels of difficulty.

• Add sprinkles to the dough: The easiest is to skip the icing, and simply brush your unbaked cut-out cookies with milk then add sprinkles.  Bake as directed and cool completely.  Ta da!
• Buttercream Frosting: You’ll want to make sure the cutout cookies are completely cooled before trying to frost and decorate.  You can either put the buttercream frosting into piping bags, or small bowls and let each person spread on with a spatula or butter knife.  Place little containers on the table with different candies for decorating.
• Royal Icing: If you want your cookies to look a little more pro, we recommend using royal icing.  You can color the icing however you would like, then put each color into a separate piping bag.  Squeeze your icing around the edge of your cookie shapes, then fill in the entire surface.  If you want to add little details with other colors, or top with candy decorations, you’ll need to do so while the icing is still wet.  Otherwise, let dry for at least 1-2 hours before displaying and eating.

Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe Tips and Tricks

• Chill your dough – there’s no getting around it.  This way, it will not spread in the oven.
• Roll your sugar cookie dough to ¼ inch thick for softer cookies, or ? inch thick for crisper cookies.  The bake time will be slightly less for the thinner cookies.
• Roll your dough directly onto a piece of parchment, or a Silpat, for an easy to transfer to baking sheets if you want to roll and chill your dough before cutting out shapes.
• You can re-roll dough up to 3 times before it starts to get worked too much and they will shrink, or get misshapen.
• Use disposable piping bags for different colored frostings.

Storage and Freezing Instructions

• Room Temperature: You can store your decorated or undecorated sugar cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature. 
• Refrigerator: You can also store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks as long as they are stored properly in a sealed container.
• Freezing Cookie Dough: You can freeze the dough as a flattened mound or rolled and cut shapes for up to 3 months.  Just be sure and wrap well with plastic, then store in a freezer bag or another airtight container.  To thaw, transfer to the fridge overnight.  If you have frozen cut out shapes, you can transfer to baking sheets and bake immediately.  Otherwise, let the dough come to room temperature for about 30 minutes, then roll, cut and bake as directed.
• Freezing Baked Cookies:  You can also freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months, whether they have been decorated or not.  Be sure to separate them with layers of parchment paper inside an airtight container and store frozen for up to 3 months.  To thaw, you can thaw either in the fridge or at room temperature.

More Of the Best Cookie Recipes

• Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
• Andes Mint Cookies
• Snickerdoodles
• Eggnog Cookies with Eggnog Buttercream Frosting
• Soft Molasses Cookies
• Mint Chocolate Dipped Oreos
• Cranberry Orange Cookies
• Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza Recipe
• More Cookie Recipes
• More Dessert Recipes

Nothing says holiday baking quite like these Rolled Sugar Cookies.  They are soft, chewy and perfect for cut-out cookies of any shape and size.