These are my best and easy recipe for cut-out Christmas sugar cookies! This sugar cookies is also known as Christmas cookies, cut-out cookies or Christmas tree cookies. These are a simple sugar cookie dough which is easy to roll and holds it shape when cut into different shapes and baked. Decorate it with colourful icing and have a fun holiday cookie decoration with your kids. In this detailed recipe post I have sugar cookies made with eggs and eggless, steps to make icing and tips for decorating cookies. If you are not into glazed cookies, then try my chewy sugar cookies which is great for santa.
Sugar Cookies
Many of you have been asking me to share sugar cookies, Christmas cut-out cookies recipe. Finally i made both the eggless and with egg version for this Christmas. Both of them turned out so good. These cookies make a great holiday treat as well as a great Christmas present. You can put them in small plastic cover, tie them with a ribbon and you are good to go.
It is such a cute cookie to try but taste so delicious and pretty easy to make as well. The decorations on these cookies totally depends on your imagination and creativity. it is a great cookie to try with your lil one, because they will love it for sure.
Table of Contents
About Christmas Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are also known as Christmas cut-out cookies. The sugar cookie dough is made from butter, sugar, eggs, plain flour with a bit of baking powder and salt. The cookie dough is chilled in fridge and rolled into sheet like. Different shapes of cookie cutter is used to cut out cute Christmas cookies.
These sugar cookies are baked, left to cool and decorated with multi coloured royal icing and decorated with kids and family during holidays.
These cookies are also called as ornament cookies. Before baking, make small holes on top of the cookies using a metal straw. Once baked, you can pass a thin string into the hole and you can hang it in your Christmas Tree.
Similar Cookie Recipes,
Sugar Cookies Ingredients
Unsalted Butter - The ingredients used in this sugar cookies recipes are very minimal. So use high quality ingredients for making the cookie dough. High quality butter imparts more buttery flavour to the cookies.
Sugar - I like to use caster sugar or super fine sugar for making the cookie dough. I have used confectioners sugar in this recipe as well.
Vanilla Extract - use high quality pure vanilla extract for the cookie dough.
Eggs - eggs helps with the binding of the cookie dough.
All Purpose Flour - If you want you can add whole wheat flour instead of plain flour.
Baking Powder - this acts as raising agent and adds a little lift to the cookies.
Salt - pinch of salt in your baked goods always balance the taste.
Sugar Cookies in 3 Easy Steps
Making Sugar Cookie Dough - Take butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whip till creamy. Now add in one egg at a time and whip till fluffy. Add in flour, baking powder and salt and whip again till it is mixed into a soft dough. Now wrap this in plastic and chill this for couple of hours.
Rolling & Baking Cookies - Now preheat oven to 180 degree C. Once the dough is chilled. Cut it in half. Roll the dough into 1 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Arrange it in a parchment lined baking tray. Bake for 12 to 15 mins. If your cookies are thicker it may take upto 15 mins.
Decorating Cookies - Now remove it from oven and cool it down completely. Now decorate it as you wish and let it set for an hour or so and store this in an air tight container.
Expert Tips
- Make sure the cookie dough is cold before rolling for easy rolling and cutting cookies.
- Cookie dough can be rolled between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap for easy rolling.
- You can use any shaped cookie cutters for cutting shapes.
- The cookie dough can be placed in fridge upto 5 days or in freezer upto a month. x
How to Make Sugar Cookies (Step-wise Pictures)
Sugar Cookie Dough
1)Take butter, sugar in a mixing bowl. I used soft unsalted butter and caster sugar. If you are using salted butter you have to skip adding salt.
Pro-tip: If you don't have caster or super fine sugar, you can take granulated sugar in a blender and powder till fine.
2)Add in vanilla extract and use an electric beater to whip this till creamy and light. It will take around 3 to 4 minutes.
3)Now the butter and sugar looks creamy.
4)Now we are going to add eggs. For this recipe, you need 2 eggs. Add one egg at a time and blend till creamy.
5)Add in the second egg and whip till creamy.
6)Add in plain flour, baking powder and salt.
7)Mix the flour into the butter mixture. Shape it into a soft dough. You can use a spatula, wooden spoon or your hands to knead the dough.
Chilling the dough
8)Place the cookie dough over a sheet of plastic wrap. Cover it completely with the plastic wrap.
9)Place the cookie dough in fridge and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Rolling Cookie Dough
11)Place the chilled cookie dough on a sheet of plastic wrap. Dust with plain flour liberally and start rolling. If you find the dough sticking onto rolling pin, you can place a sheet of plastic wrap or another sheet of parchment paper over the cookie dough and roll. This helps it breaking and sticking.
12)Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch thickness. Don't roll it too thin or too thick.
Cutting Sugar Cookies
13)Dip the cookie cutter in plain flour.
14)Cut out cookies using cookie cutter. I use Christmas cookie cutters for this.
15)You can use whichever shape you like.
16)Now the cookies are cut out. You can gently remove the extra cookie dough, bring it together into a ball, re roll again and cut out more cookies.
Baking Sugar Cookies
17)Place the cut out cookies in a parchment lined baking tray. Pop it into a 180 degree C preheated oven and bake.
18)The cookies will get light golden in colour. It will take around 12 to 15 minutes to bake these cookies.
19)Once baked remove the cookies onto a cooling rack and cool completely. You can enjoy the cookies as it is or you can decorate them as you prefer.
Eggless Sugar Cookies (Step-wise Pictures)
You don't eat eggs, No worries! I got you covered. Here is the recipe for cut-out sugar cookies made without eggs. This eggless sugar cookies taste like the classic sugar cookies but made eggless.
These eggless sugar cookie dough is easy to roll and stays together when you cut out shapes and bake.
Ingredients for Eggless Sugar Cookies
- All Purpose Flour / Maida - 1 ½ cup / 180 grams
- Sugar - ½ cup / 100 grams
- Unsalted Butter - ½ cup / 110 grams
- Salt - ¼ tsp
- Baking Powder - 1 tsp
- Yogurt / Curd - 1 tbsp
- Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
How to make Eggless Sugar Cookies
1)Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Take flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl and mix well. This is your dry ingredients.
2)Take butter, sugar, vanilla in a bowl and whip till creamy. It will take around 3 to 4minutes to mix. Add in yogurt and whip again. Now add in flour in and mix well to form this into a soft dough.
3) Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
4)Now remove the dough from fridge. Roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap till it is 1 inch thickness. Now take your cookie cutter, dip it in flour and cut out shapes.
Remove the cut-out shapes carefully and place it in the baking tray. Now bake this for 10 to 12 mins till the cookies starts to get very very light colour on them. Remove it and let them cool down completely. Now you can decorate them or enjoy as it is.
You can take the scraps of dough and re roll them again and again and make cookies.
Decorating Sugar Cookies
For decorating sugar cookies. You can use a sandwich size ziploc bag for piping over the cookies. If you don't have ziploc cover you can easily make small make shift piping bag using parchment paper.
Use small piece of parchment paper, shape it into cone shape. Use a piece of cellophane tape to stick it together. Now you can pour the icing into the cone and seal it together.
When decorating, snip a small piece in the end of parchment paper piping bag and decorate the cookies using that.
Royal Icing for Sugar Cookies
Traditionally royal icing is made with egg whites, lemon juice and powdered sugar. But I made a eggless version for easy to use. I have a recipe for royal icing.
Here is the recipe for eggless royal icing
- Icing Sugar / Confectioner Sugar - 1 cup
- Cornflour / Cornstarch - 1 tbsp
- Lemon Juice - 2 tsp
- Milk - 2 tbsp or as needed
- Food Colours as needed
Take all the ingredients except milk in a bowl, slowly add milk and mix well to an icing. Now use this for your cookies. If you want thicker icing, use little less milk and if you want a thinner glaze add more milk and lemon juice.
Once the glaze is ready. Add pinch of food colourings into the glaze and mix. You can pour this into our make-shift parchment piping bag and use that to decorate the cookies.
Let the creativity in you bloom and decorate the cookies as you wish. Decorate the cookies with sprinkles, edible glitters, golden stars, pebbles whichever you like.
Enjoy.
Christmas Recipes to try this season
📖 Recipe Card
Sugar Cookies | Christmas Cut-Out Sugar Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Parchment Paper & Cling Wrap
- Baking Tray
- Cookie Cutters preferably Christmas shapes
- OTG or Oven
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- ¾ cup Soft Unsalted Butter 170 grams
- 1 cup Caster Sugar 200 grams
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Eggs
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour 360 grams
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
Eggless Sugar Cookies
- 1½ cup All Purpose Flour | Plain Flour 180 grams
- ½ cup Caster Sugar 100 grams
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter 110 grams
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tbsp Yogurt | Curd
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Eggless Royal Icing
- 1 cup Icing Sugar| Confectioner Sugar
- 1 tbsp Cornstarch
- 2 tsp Lemon Juice
- 2 tbsp Milk
- ¼ tsp Food Colours as needed
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- Take butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whip till creamy. Now add in one egg at a time and whip till fluffy. Add in flour, baking powder and salt and whip again till it is mixed into a soft dough. Now wrap this in plastic and chill this for couple of hours.
- Now preheat oven to 180 degree C. Once the dough is chilled. Cut it in half. Roll the dough into 1 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Arrange it in a parchment lined baking tray. Bake for 12 to 15 mins. If your cookies are thicker it may take upto 15 mins. Now remove it from oven and cool it down completely. Now decorate it as you wish and let it set for an hour or so and store this in an air tight container.
Eggless Sugar Cookies
- Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
- Take flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl and mix well. Take butter, sugar, vanilla in a bowl and whip till creamy.Add in yogurt and whip again. Now add in flour in and mix well. form this into a soft dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill the dough for 1 hours.
- Now remove the dough from fridge. Cut it in half. Roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap till it is 1 inch thickness. Now take your cookie cutter, dip it in flour and cut out shapes. Remove the shapes carefully and place it in the baking tray. Now bake this for 10 to 12 mins till the cookies starts to get very very light colour on them. Remove it and let them cool down completely. Now you can decorate them or enjoy as it is. You can take the scraps of dough and re roll them again and again and make cookies.
Decorating Sugar Cookies
- For decorating sugar cookies. You can use a sandwich size ziploc bag for piping over the cookies. If you don't have ziploc cover you can easily make small make shift piping bag using parchment paper. Use small piece of parchment paper, shape it into cone shape. Use a piece of cellophane tape to stick it together. Now you can pour the icing into the cone and seal it together. When decorating, snip a small piece in the end of parchment paper piping bag and decorate the cookies using that.
- For icing. Take all the ingredients except milk in a bowl, slowly add milk and mix well to an icing. Now use this for your cookies. If you want thicker icing, use little less milk and if you want a thinner glaze add more milk and lemon juice. Once the glaze is ready. Add pinch of food colourings into the glaze and mix. You can pour this into our make-shift parchment piping bag and use that to decorate the cookies.
- Let the creativity in you bloom and decorate the cookies as you wish. Decorate the cookies with sprinkles, edible glitters, golden stars, pebbles whichever you like.
Notes
- Make sure the cookie dough is cold before rolling for easy rolling and cutting cookies.
- Cookie dough can be rolled between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap for easy rolling.
- You can use any shaped cookie cutters for cutting shapes.
- The cookie dough can be placed in fridge upto 5 days or in freezer upto a month. x
Nalini Hadli
Lovely. But I can't try as we don't use eggs at home
sara
i am not having icing sugar can i use normal sugar powder instead of icing
Aarthi
@Nalini Hadliyou can use my eggless sugar cookies
Aarthi
@sarano u need icing sugar for this
Archana Ram
Can you please let me know a substitute for egg...
Aarthi
@Archana Ramno sub in this..check my eggless sugar cookies for eggless https://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/2015/12/eggless-cutout-sugar-cookies-eggless.html