These rollout sugar cookies are soft, thick, and my favorite to decorate for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, or just a Tuesday!
Whether you frost them with buttercream, royal icing, or just add sprinkles, you'll love the light almond flavor in every bite!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Only 6 ingredients and taste better than classic sugar cookies!
- This cookie can stand alone! It's not dependent on frosting for flavor.
- These are not too sweet and not the fall-apart cakey kind of cookie.
- I've made these cut-out sugar cookies for 25 years!!!
- Roll out and cut these cookies for any holiday season, like Christmas, Halloween, or Valentine's Day!
Ingredients Notes
- Butter - do not substitute anything for the butter. Butter is important to the flavor of these cookies. If you were to substitute, say, margarine for the butter, your cookies would taste like margarine, and I'm not gonna lie, it will not taste good. Both unsalted butter and salted butter work fine.
- Powdered Sugar - Please note that this cookie recipe calls for powdered sugar, aka confectioners' sugar, instead of granulated sugar. Granulated sugar makes a crumbly, grainy dough and will not work for this recipe.
- Extracts - Do you need both extracts? If you're out of vanilla, that's fine, but the almond extract is very important to this recipe. It makes these sugar cookies more flavorful.
- Flour - all-purpose flour, never self-rising flour.
- Frosting - I frost my cookies with this Buttercream Frosting, but you can frost them with Royal Frosting as well. If you don't want to frost them, you can sprinkle sanding sugar or coarse sugar on the tops of the dough cutouts before baking. You will need to lightly press the sprinkles down to get them to stick to the cookies.
How to Make Step-by-Step Recipe Instructions
- NOTE - This is an easy cookie dough to mix up. The main difference between this sugar cookie recipe and most others is that I use powdered sugar, aka confectioners' sugar, instead of granulated sugar.
- NOTE - This cookie dough does need to be refrigerated for at least an hour before rolling it out, so make sure you plan for that.
- NOTE - I've had a few people end up with crumbly dough. I've never been able to replicate the problem myself, but thanks to a reader, it's been suggested that perhaps some are firmly packing the flour in the measuring cup instead of scooping without packing. In baking, you NEVER firmly pack flour. See this article for how to properly measure flour for more information.
- Cream the butter and the powdered sugar in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extracts to the butter mixture.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the flour well.
- The dough will be quite sticky at this point.
- Put the cookie dough in a container, cover it with plastic wrap, and chill for an hour in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with non-stick cooking spray.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the cookie dough to about ¼ inch thick.
- Cut out shaped with whatever cookie cutters you like.
- Place them on the prepared cookie sheets with an inch of space in between each.
- Bake in your preheated oven (375 degrees) for 8-10 minutes. Err on the side of less baking time for soft cookies.
- The bottom edges of the cookies should be lightly golden brown, but the tops should not.
- Cool the cookies on a wire rack before frosting.
- Once cool, frost cookies with the desired frosting.
Recipe FAQs and Expert Tips
How long will this cookie dough last in my fridge, and can I freeze it?
I've made my cookie dough up to a week in advance. Just let it warm up just a bit before trying to roll it out. You may also freeze the dough. When you're ready to use it, plan time to allow it to thaw in the fridge for at least a day or on the countertop for a few hours.
How do you get sugar cookie cutouts to keep their shape?
Follow the instructions precisely. Substituting different ingredients changes the dough.
Use the amount of flour called for.
Chill the dough. Don't skip this step. If you're in a hurry, you can chill the dough in the freezer for 15-20 minutes instead of putting it in the fridge for an hour.
Check your cookie cutters for blunt edges. You want your cutouts to have sharp, crisp edges.
Why do I need to chill my sugar cookie dough?
Chilling the dough makes it easier to work with, rolls out nicer, and allows your cutouts to keep their sharp cut edges.
How to store?
Store these cookies in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.
My dough is really crumbly. What should I do?
I'm not sure why the dough ends up being crumbly for some as I've never had that happen myself, but if your dough ends up crumbly after adding all the flour, you can add a couple of tablespoons of water at a time until your dough looks like picture #6.
Related Cookie Recipes
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Favorite Almond Sugar Cookies Recipe
These rollout sugar cookies are soft, thick, and my favorite to decorate for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, or just a Tuesday! Whether you frost them with buttercream, royal icing, or just add sprinkles, you'll love the light almond flavor in every bite!
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Butter room temperature (2 Cups of Butter is 4 sticks)
- 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 teaspoon Almond Extract
- 5 Cups Flour
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and powdered sugar.
- Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and almond extracts.
- Stir in the flour. The dough will still be sticky at this point.
- Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare baking sheets by either lining them with parchment paper or spraying them with non-stick cooking spray.
- Roll the cookie dough out on a floured surface.
- The dough may be a little sticky at first; just sprinkle the top of the dough so the rolling pin doesn't stick.
- If you are going to sprinkle the cookies with sanding sugar instead of frosting, do so before baking, pressing the sanding sugar down onto the dough slightly to make them stick.
- Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Larger cookies may take longer.
- The cookies shouldn't brown except for on the very bottom edges very lightly.
- Cool completely before frosting.
- Store in an airtight container with wax paper in-between the layers of cookies.
Notes
- I've had a few people end up with crumbly dough. I've never been able to replicate the problem myself, but thanks to a reader, it's been suggested that perhaps some are firmly packing the flour in the measuring cup instead of scooping without packing. In baking, you NEVER firmly pack flour.
- These sugar cookies are delicious on the first day but are absolutely perfect after sitting overnight.
- Butter - do not substitute anything for the butter. Butter is important to the flavor of these cookies. If you were to substitute, say, margarine for the butter, your cookies would taste like margarine, and I'm not gonna lie, it will not taste good. Both unsalted butter and salted butter work fine.
- Powdered Sugar - Please note that this cookie recipe calls for powdered sugar aka confectioners' sugar instead of granulated sugar. Granulated sugar makes a crumbly, grainy dough and will not work for this recipe.
- Extracts - Do you need both extracts? If you're out of vanilla, that's fine, but the almond extract is very important to this recipe. It makes these sugar cookies more flavorful.
- Flour - all-purpose flour, never self-rising flour.
- Frosting - I frost my cookies with this Buttercream Frosting but you can frost them with Royal Frosting as well. If you don't want to frost them, you can sprinkle sanding sugar or coarse sugar on the tops of the dough cutouts before baking. You will need to lightly press the sprinkles down to get them to stick to the cookies.
- Nutritional Disclaimer
Nutrition
Calories: 147kcalCarbohydrates: 35gProtein: 1gFat: 0.4gSaturated Fat: 0.2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.03gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.1gTrans Fat: 0.03gCholesterol: 0.01mgSodium: 97mgPotassium: 10mgFiber: 0.5gSugar: 16gVitamin A: 0.1IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 53mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Nicole
Has anyone tried this recipe with 1:1 gluten free flour? I need to make sugar cookies for a group with some gluten allergies.
Mindee
I personally haven't and I'm not quite sure how it would turn out. It might be best to find a recipe that was developed for gluten allergies because I'd hate for these not to turn out for you.
JP
Perfect, just in time for Christmas
Jeff
Delicious
lauren
hello! I followed the recipe to a T, and my cookies are spreading pretty badly. do you recommend keeping them chilled for longer than an hour to keep the crisp edges? or chilling the cutouts before baking? I love the way these taste, but I'm hoping to be able to use royal icing and create professional looking cookies for a friend's party this weekend. also, I rolled them out to 1/4 inch with my and the recipe made 28 cookies as opposed to 3 dozen.
Mindee
I apologize for your trouble. I don't think chilling longer will cause much change. If you didn't substitute any ingredients or anything I wonder if you live in a more humid area. If so, I would try to increase the flour by 1/2 to 3/4 cup.
Letty Fox
I love this recipe. I’ve used it for the past two years. This is the first time my dough turned out crumbly, but then I figured out I only used one cup of butter. Added the second cup of butter and hoping they’ll still turn out. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. Merry Christmas!
Mindee
I am so glad you mentioned this! I wonder if this is a reason others have ended up with crumbly dough! Thank you!
Thomas Wood
I measured the ingredients and this is a mess. It almost burnt out the motor on my kutchenaid!
The dough is delicious, but the recipe just didnt work.
I am going to try to add some water.
Mindee
I'm sorry to hear that. This is not a stiff or tough dough and shouldn't even be a challenge for a kitchenaid. Can I ask how many sticks of butter you added?
Melanie Boyer
I just mixed up this recipe. The dough tastes amazing, but mine is also on the “crumbly side”; but I’m hoping as I roll/cut/bake tomorrow it will be fine. If not, I will remake with slightly less flour. I can tell the cookie and buttercream frosting will compliment each other very well.
Mindee
Thanks for your comment! It reminded me I needed to add a little note to the recipe about this. You can always mix in a little water if the dough is too crumbly and just not coming together.
Melanie
Hey…I just had a thought. When you measure out your flour, are you “firmly packing” it into the measuring cup or just “loose”? I firmly packed. That may have. Even my problem.
I took out of fridge to let soften and will test bake from this batch.
Mindee
Ok, that makes sense now. When baking any recipe flour should never been firmly packed. It's even recommended to whisk or stir up a bag of flour that's been sitting a while because it settles and becomes somewhat packed. The only ingredient that you'll ever want to firmly pack for a recipe is brown sugar. When you measure your flour stir it up so it's light without clumps, scoop it into the measuring cup without packing and slide a butter knife along the top of the measuring cup to push off the excess.
Melanie Boyer
Thank you SOOOOO much for being so present and responsive on this!!!! It is GREATLY appreciated This is AWESOME! Yes, when I saw your photo of the flour in the cup...I had a feeling that's where my mistake was. I will DEFINITELY try this recipe again. I did taste bake four round cookies, and while it was definitely "floury" due to my mistake, I could still taste the almond flavoring which is what I'm wanting -- and that is a SUCCESS!
Mindee
You're very welcome! Happy to help!
Kim Wilbanks
Followed to a T and it’s a crumbly mess. Please add about the water tip in the above recipe tips. I may have missed it, but it seems a very important tip. Only read it after in the comments. I doubled the recipe as I need a bunch for tomorrow. I could cry!!!
Mindee
I'm sorry for the trouble you had. I understand that it's frustrating. I don't include the water tip because I've never tried it. In the 25 years I've made this recipe I've always ended up with a very very sticky dough. I've never been able to replicate the crumbly mess that only a very few end up with.
Patricia
Followed the recipe and these cookies were delicious!! Will definitely make again!!! Thank you for the recipe!!
Mindee
You're welcome!