These high altitude tested, perfect chocolate cutout cookies have the most delicious flavors of rich dark chocolate, butter and vanilla. They’re soft, not too sweet, and hold their shape beautifully when they bake. Since they’re not very sweet on their own, they’re perfect for decorating with royal icing or buttercream frosting for any holiday or special occasion.
And don’t miss my perfect vanilla cutout cookies, as well as an easy recipe for royal icing.
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What Makes a Perfect Cutout Cookie?
Cutout cookies shouldn’t spread when they bake.
First, you want to be sure that you’re using a no spread cutout cookie recipe. To accomplish this, your recipe shouldn’t contain any leavening, which includes baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and even eggs. Yes, eggs (especially the white) can cause your cookies to puff and spread, losing their sharp edges and perfect shape that you want to keep for your cutout cookies. Just an egg yolk can add strength and moisture, without causing excessive spreading, though.
Cutout cookies shouldn’t be too sweet.
A cutout cookie or sugar cookie shouldn’t be all about the sugar, and a chocolate cutout cookie is going to be even less sweet than a vanilla cutout cookie. There needs to be a good balance of flavors, so that when you ice your cookies, they don’t end up tooth-achingly sweet. The cocoa powder adds bitterness, of course, so the cookies themselves are not overly sweet. If you like dark chocolate, they’re delicious on their own, or paired with royal icing or buttercream frosting.
Cutout cookies should be soft, not crunchy.
This is a matter of personal preference, of course, but I love soft chocolate sugar cookies, and these deliver. They’re buttery and tender, with delicate flaky edges and the texture of soft chocolate shortbread.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides strength and structure to the sugar cookies.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. Adds rich, dark chocolate flavor. I suggest using a good-quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the sugar cookies, while the fine texture of the powdered sugar makes them soft and tender.
- Salt. Coarse Kosher salt balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the chocolate.
- Unsalted Butter. Adds moisture, flavor and fat. When the cookies bake, the water evaporates from the butter and creates steam. The steam fills the cookie with little pockets of air which creates tiny flaky layers for tender, buttery chocolate sugar cookies.
- Vanilla Extract. Good-quality vanilla extract adds flavor, and enhances the richness of the cocoa powder.
- Milk. A splash of whole milk adds moisture to the chocolate sugar cookie dough and binds it together, without the use of an egg, which would make the cookies puff and spread.
Instructions
Make and Chill the Dough.
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, cocoa powder, 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 dry ingredients. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
Roll the Dough, Cut and Chill the Cookies.
- On a clean work surface lightly dusted with cocoa powder, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with cocoa powder, too. Roll out to an even thickness of about 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.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour – 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 350F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. With chocolate cookies, it’s impossible for their color to be an indicator of doneness. But you shouldn’t see any appearance of raw or wet dough, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Tips and Troubleshooting
Use Cold Butter
Many cutout cookie recipes use room temperature butter for making the dough, which then requires a long chill time for the dough. I use cold butter, which I cut in quickly and easily with a food processor, so the dough only needs a short time to chill and rest before you roll the dough and cut your cookies.
Don’t Use Leavening
Leavening is the enemy of no spread sugar cookies, as it will cause them to puff, spread and lose their shape. You shouldn’t use leavening of any kind, including baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar and eggs.
Keep the Dough Cool
Keeping your dough cool, and handling it as little as possible is key to no spread sugar cookies. After rolling the dough and cutting your cookies, you’ll also be chilling the cut cookies prior to baking, to ensure they don’t lose their shape in the oven.
Bake Cookies on Parchment Paper
You should never use non-stick baking spray or a baking sheet greased with butter when baking your sugar cookies. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (a Silpat baking mat will do, too, although I prefer parchment paper), and your sugar cookies will not spread.
Dealing with Dry, Crumbly Dough
If your dough is too floury or crumbly, then it’s likely you measured too much flour. Be sure you’re measuring your flour correctly, using the “spoon and sweep” method, by first fluffing the flour in the canister, lightly spooning it into your measuring cups, and then sweeping it off the top to level it. You can try adding more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, to moisten your dough if it won’t stick together.
Dealing with Puffed Cookies
While these cookies don’t spread, they can sometimes puff or bubble up on top. This could be the result of overworking the dough, and it can also happen simply because of the butter content. As the moisture in the butter evaporates in the oven, it creates steam, which can cause air pockets to form in the cookies. Your cookies are not ruined, though. When you take them out of the oven, if there are any areas that puffed up, simply use the flat bottom of a spatula to gently pat the tops of the cookies and press out the air. The cookies will flatten right back down. Using a higher quality butter with less water content can also help.
High Altitude
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. However, these cookies will work at any altitude without adjustment, since they don’t contain any leavening.
Decorating Cutout Cookies
Buttercream Frosting
Buttercream icing or frosting is one of my favorite ways to decorate sugar cookies. You can spread it on with an icing spatula, or pipe beautiful buttercream flowers, ruffles and swirls. Since the surface of buttercream crusts over while staying soft underneath, buttercream frosted sugar cookies need to be stored in a single layer, and cannot be stacked for storage.
Royal Icing
With royal icing, you have unlimited options for beautifully decorated sugar cookies, regardless of your skill level. My basic royal icing recipe is easy to use, and perfect for flooding sugar cookies with a smooth, pretty finish. And you don’t even need to use piping bags; instead, use my easy technique for dipping the cookies in the icing.
Sparkling Sugar
Vanilla sugar cookies look gorgeous with decorated with coarse sparkling sugar. Simply brush the unbaked, cut cookies with egg white, then dip them in sparkling sugar (or even sprinkles). Bake as instructed. See more of this technique on these almond sugar cookie Christmas trees.
Stamped Cookies
I’ve made variations of this recipe to make stamped chocolate cookies, which are just stunning when brushed with icing to highlight the details of the stamped design.
Using Black Cocoa Powder
For a striking black color, replace half the cocoa powder with black cocoa powder. It not only deepens the color, but gives it a richer, darker chocolate flavor, too.
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
For the best flavor, and a rich, dark color, use Dutch processed cocoa powder, not natural cocoa powder. A few of my favorites are Drost, Ghirardelli, and Cacao Barry Extra Brute. Note that the flavor of the cocoa powder is very prominent in these cookies, so if you use a cheap cocoa powder that doesn’t have a good flavor, your baked cookies won’t taste good either.
For perfect sugar cookies, it’s best to roll your dough out to 1/4 inch thick, or slightly less. A 1/4 inch thickness is just right for a sugar cookie that’s thick and sturdy enough for decorating, as well as allows the cookie to bake evenly.
When I make sandwich cookies, I will usually roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick, since two cookies will be sandwiched together with buttercream filling. Note that the cookies are quite delicate when they’re this thin, and this is far too thin for a standard sugar cookie.
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.
Sugar cookie dough is fast and easy to make with a food processor. But if you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter.
In the bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and salt. 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.
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.
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Perfect High Altitude Chocolate Sugar Cookies (No Spread Recipe)
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
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for rolling
- 1 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
- ¼ cup whole milk
Instructions
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, cocoa powder, 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 dry ingredients. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a clean work surface lightly dusted with cocoa powder, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with cocoa powder, 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 1 hour – chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don't spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. With chocolate cookies, it's impossible for their color to be an indicator of doneness. But you shouldn't see any appearance of raw or wet dough, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Video
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 flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. 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.
- Yield: Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you should be able to cut about 3 dozen cookies.
- 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.
- Sweeter Cookies. Note that if you want the cookies to taste sweeter on their own, you can increase the flour from 2 1/4 cups to 2 1/2 cups, and decrease the cocoa powder from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup.
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Hi! Can I sub oat milk for whole?
That should work just fine!
Think an embossed rolling pin would work with this recipe?
It should! I use cookie stamps with this recipe all the time.
They look absolutely beautiful!
Loved making these so much I want to try to do matcha flavor instead of coco…. Would I be able to switch out the 3/4 cup of coco for Matcha powder?
That would be far too much matcha powder, in my opinion. You can add a few tablespoons of matcha powder to my vanilla cookie recipe, though:
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/perfect-vanilla-sugar-cookies-no-spread-recipe/
You might also like this recipe, which uses matcha: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/checkerboard-shortbread-cookies/
You live at 5,280 feet, and I live at 11942 (3640m)😁😁😁
And I loved the cookies, thank you