These Christmas star cookies start with a recipe for no spread, soft vanilla sugar cookies cut in star shapes, frosted with fluffy peppermint buttercream and sprinkled with sparkling sugar. Star sugar cookies are easy to decorate with piped buttercream stars, and they look so beautiful for the holidays!
You might also love these sparkling sugar almond Christmas cookies, buttercream frosted snowflake cookies, and decorated Christmas tree cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Decorate. If you’re looking for decorating ideas for Christmas star cookies, you’ll love the simple but pretty design on today’s cookies. With just a few different star shaped piping tips, you can easily create beautifully decorated star cookies for the holidays. And instead of using peppermint extract in the buttercream, you can use vanilla, orange, lemon or even maple extract to flavor the frosting.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. Today’s no spread vanilla sugar cookies recipe will work at any altitude without adjustments, though.
Bake in Advance, Decorate Later. If you want to make the cookies in advance, you can make the dough, cut and bake the cookies, then freeze them until you’re ready to decorate with buttercream.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ recipe Vanilla Sugar Cookies. This versatile recipe is the perfect starting point for your star shaped cookies. The cookies are soft, flaky, buttery and so delicious. They don’t spread, so they hold their shape perfectly for cutout cookies. You can eat them plain, dust them with powdered sugar, use them for linzer cookies or cookie sandwiches, decorate them with buttercream or royal icing.
Frosting
- Butter. I use unsalted butter, but you can also use salted. For a whiter frosting, replace half the butter with vegetable shortening.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
- Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture.
- Vanilla and Peppermint Extracts. Be sure to use peppermint, not mint extract for the best candy cane flavor.
Instructions
Cookies
- Prepare 1/2 Recipe Vanilla Sugar Cookie Dough, as instructed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to an even thickness, just under 1/4 inch thick.
- Using star shaped cookie cutters, cut as many cookies as you can. Gather up the scraps, roll out the dough again, and continue cutting cookies, until you’ve used up all the dough. Depending on the size of your cutters, you may get 15-20 cookies.
- Line several baking sheets with parchment paper and place the cut cookies on the paper. Refrigerate the pans for 1 hour, or freeze for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, until a very pale golden brown.
- Cool on the pan for several minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and meringue powder, and mix until combined. Add the extracts. Beat the buttercream for about 4-5 minutes on medium speed, until very light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times.
- Fit a piping bag with a coupler, and fill the bag halfway full with the buttercream. Use a variety of small star piping tips to pipe stars all over the cookies. I used tips 18, 32 and 199 to decorate my star shaped sugar cookies.
- Sprinkle the frosting with a little sparkling sugar, if desired.
- Note: Sugar cookies are delicate, and can break easily if picked up by the star points. I advise picking them up by sliding a spatula underneath them to move them.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I store these cookies?
Store leftover frosted cookies in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
Unfrosted cookies can be frozen for up to 3-6 months.
Where did you get your star cookie cutters?
The star with the fluted edges is from a vintage cookie cutter. The rest of the cookies I cut using this 5-Piece Star Cookie Cutters Set.
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Christmas Star Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ recipe Vanilla Sugar Cookies
Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp meringue powder, optional
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp peppermint (not mint) extract, optional
Instructions
Cookies
- Prepare 1/2 Recipe Vanilla Sugar Cookie Dough, as instructed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to an even thickness, just under 1/4 inch thick.
- Using star shaped cookie cutters, cut as many cookies as you can. Gather up the scraps, roll out the dough again, and continue cutting cookies, until you've used up all the dough. Depending on the size of your cutters, you may get 15-20 cookies.
- Line several baking sheets with parchment paper and place the cut cookies on the paper. Refrigerate the pans for 1 hour, or freeze for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, until a very pale golden brown.
- Cool on the pan for several minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and meringue powder, and mix until combined. Add the extracts. Beat the buttercream for about 4-5 minutes on medium speed, until very light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times.
- Fit a piping bag with a coupler, and fill the bag halfway full with the buttercream. Use a variety of small star piping tips to pipe stars all over the cookies. I used tips 18, 32 and 199 to decorate my star shaped sugar cookies.
- Sprinkle the frosting with a little sparkling sugar, if desired.
- Note: Sugar cookies are delicate, and can break easily if picked up by the points. I advise picking them up by sliding a spatula underneath them to move them.
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