A high altitude tested, no spread recipe for soft brown sugar cutout cookies, iced with brown butter vanilla icing. These iced brown sugar cookies are so pretty decorated for Christmas, but can be made for any holiday or season. And you don’t even need to use piping bags to ice the cookies, instead using my easy method for dipping the cookies into the icing.
You might also love these iced chai spice sugar cookies, Christmas tree sugar cookies with buttercream, and iced chocolate gingerbread cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Spread Sugar Cookie Recipe. These brown sugar cutout cookies are based on my popular vanilla sugar cookies, with a simple swap of brown sugar for the powdered sugar. The flavor of the cookies is just wonderful, with a delicious balance of sugar, butter and vanilla that’s not too sweet. They’re soft, flaky and tender, and they hold their shape beautifully when they bake. They are my go to cutout cookie recipe every time I want to make decorated cutout cookies for the holidays. With the higher moisture content of the brown sugar, these do take a few minutes longer to bake than most of my sugar cookie recipes made with just powdered sugar.
Soft, not Crunchy. These brown sugar Christmas cookies stay soft for days after baking. And even though the vanilla royal icing dries and crusts over on the surface, it stays soft underneath for a cookie that everyone will love.
Simplified Decorating Technique. With an easy recipe for brown butter royal icing, you can quickly ice your cookies by simply dipping the cookies in the icing. There are no piping bag skills required to get beautiful results on your iced sugar cookies. These decorated Christmas cookies are so pretty with the white icing, and the pops of color from red and green sprinkles and sparkling sugar.
High Altitude Tested. While I develop everything on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet, today’s sugar cookie recipe will work great at any altitude with no adjustments needed.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. All-purpose flour gives the cookie dough structure and strength.
- Sugar. You’ll need powdered sugar for the icing, as well as both powdered sugar and brown sugar for the cookie dough.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Butter. Makes a rich, tender buttery cookie.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Milk. Moistens the dough to bind it together. While most sugar cookie recipes use an egg for moisture, the egg will make the cookies spread, while the milk will not.
- Meringue Powder. A necessary ingredient in royal icing, to help the icing dry and set.
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar and salt until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness between 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.
- Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 3 dozen cookies.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don’t spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time, keeping the other pan refrigerated until needed. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 15-17 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges. If you very carefully turn a cookie over, the bottom should appear to be baked through, and should not look raw, doughy or damp.
- Baker’s Note: For most of my sugar cookie recipes made with just powdered sugar, the cookies only need to bake for 12 minutes. However, the added moisture in the brown sugar necessitates a longer bake time for this recipe.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Ice the Cookies
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for several minutes until nutty, golden brown solids form at the bottom of the pan. Immediately remove from the heat.
- Add the browned butter, vanilla and water to the powdered sugar mixture, and whisk until smooth and drizzly.
- To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry. If the icing gets too thick to dip the cookies as you’re working, you can add more water, a teaspoon at a time.
- Baker’s Note: After the icing has set for 20-30 seconds, use a toothpick to pop any tiny air bubbles that rise to the surface of the iced cookies. If decorating the cookies with sprinkles or sparkling sugar, add these within 30-60 seconds, before the icing sets and dries.
- For embossed cookies (like the snowflake and gingerbread house in the photographs), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn’t get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
- Let the icing set and dry for about an hour.
Storing and Freezing
- Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
- Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
- Storing the Iced Cookies: Iced chai spice sugar cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
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
If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
You need the meringue powder for your icing to be successful. You can find meringue powder at your local Walmart, Michael’s, Joanne’s and Hobby Lobby, as well as on Amazon.
I’ve had most of these cookie cutters for years, collecting them here and there at various local craft stores like Michael’s, Joanne’s and Hobby Lobby, as well as buying some of them online. For the smaller embossed cookie cutters, look for pie crust cutters or embossed cutters that have a spring loaded plunger. This allows you to press the design onto the cookie, and easily releases it from the cutter. These types of cutters are typically smaller, for mini cookies that are about 1 1/2 inches.
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Iced Brown Sugar Cutout 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 or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin and Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
Cookies
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp whole milk
Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp meringue powder
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 ½ – 4 tbsp water
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar and salt until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness between 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.
- Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 3 dozen cookies.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don't spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time, keeping the other pan refrigerated until needed. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 15-17 minutes for large cookies 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 inches), and 10-12 minutes for small cookies (1 – 1 1/2 inches). The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges. If you very carefully turn a cookie over, the bottom should appear to be baked through, and should not look raw, doughy or damp.Baker's Note: For most of my sugar cookie recipes made with just powdered sugar, the cookies only need to bake for 12 minutes. However, the added moisture in the brown sugar necessitates a longer bake time for this recipe.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Ice the Cookies
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for several minutes until nutty, golden brown solids form at the bottom of the pan. Immediately remove from the heat.
- Add the browned butter, vanilla and water to the powdered sugar mixture, and whisk until smooth and drizzly.
- To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry. If the icing gets too thick to dip the cookies as you're working, you can add more water, a teaspoon at a time.
- Let the icing set and dry for about an hour.
Decorating Tips
- When decorating cookies iced with royal icing, there are a few best practices to follow for the most beautiful results.
- When whisking the icing, try not to beat too much air into it, which will result in air bubbles on your iced cookies.
- For embossed cookies (like the snowflake and gingerbread house in the photographs), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn't get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
- After the icing has set for 20-30 seconds, use a toothpick to pop any tiny air bubbles that rise to the surface of the iced cookies, and to smooth out any uneven areas.
- If decorating the cookies with sprinkles or sparkling sugar, add these within about 30-60 seconds, before the icing sets and dries. If you add sprinkles and sugar immediately, they will sink into the icing. But if you wait too long, and the icing has fully dried, they'll sit on top of the icing and won't stick.
Notes
- Making the Dough without a Food Processor: If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
- Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
- Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
- Storing the Iced Cookies: Iced cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
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