These high altitude tested, perfect vanilla cutout cookies have a delicious balance of sugar, butter and vanilla. They’re soft, not too sweet, and hold their shape beautifully when they bake. These no spread sugar cookies never fail whenever I want to make a perfectly shaped, cutout sugar cookie for the holidays to decorate with buttercream or royal icing.
You’ll also love these recipes for easy royal icing and perfect chocolate cutout cookies.
This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links. This in no way affects my opinion of those products and services. All opinions expressed on this site are my own.
What Makes a Perfect Cutout Cookie?
There’s nothing like a freshly baked batch of perfect vanilla cutout cookies, ready for decorating for the holidays, a birthday party or any other special event. So what are the qualities that make a vanilla cutout cookie recipe simply perfect?
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.
Whether you want to call this a cutout cookie or sugar cookie, it shouldn’t be too sweet on its own, since it’s meant to be decorated with a sweet royal icing or buttercream frosting. So you need a good balance of flour, butter and sugar. In my recipe, I use 3 parts flour to 1 part sugar so that they’re just sweet enough, but not cloyingly so.
Cutout cookies should be soft, not crunchy.
This is a matter of preference, of course, but a cutout cookie with a dark brown crunchy edge just isn’t appealing. If your cookies are perfectly baked, they will still be pale in color, with no browning. The edges will have delicate flaky layers, and the cookies will have a tender, buttery texture, like soft shortbread. Absolutely delicious.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure and strength to the cookie dough.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the cookies, while the fine texture of the powdered sugar makes a softer cookie than granulated sugar.
- Salt. Coarse Kosher salt balances the sweetness.
- Unsalted Butter. Adds flavor, moisture, richness and fat. As the water in the butter evaporates, the steam creates tiny flaky layers for a very tender cookie.
- Vanilla. The vanilla adds flavor, and for my perfect vanilla sugar cookies, I like to use vanilla bean paste or a good quality vanilla extract. Of course, you can also use any other flavor of extract that you like, such as almond extract, lemon or orange extract, or even maple extract.
- Milk. Without any eggs in the dough, I add a splash of milk, which moistens the dough and binds it together without adding any leavening, like an egg would do.
Instructions
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, 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. 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 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.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, 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.
Recipe Variations and 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.
Molded Cookies and Sandwich Cookies
A beautiful wooden cookie mold can create the most gorgeous molded vanilla cookie. In the below photos, I topped one with piped buttercream, and filled the other with jam. Or sandwich two cookies together, like my raspberry cream cookies and anise cookies filled with chocolate ganache.
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) or cinnamon sugar. Bake as instructed. See more of this technique on these almond sugar cookie Christmas cookies. Or dust the cookies simply with powdered sugar, which makes a pretty finish for these raspberry almond linzer cookies.
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 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, 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.
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
Perfect High Altitude Vanilla Cutout 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
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 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 bean paste or the seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- ¼ cup whole milk
Instructions
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, 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.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. With 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. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, 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 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.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/
I’m a little wary of a sugar cookie recipe without eggs. In my experience, they break easily, especially if the cookie is big. Are these cookies strong or break easily?
They’re more delicate than ones made with eggs, but I’ve never broken one, and I’ve used this recipe countless times over the years. More detailed designs like snowflakes will need to be handled very carefully to not break off the points, though.
These are great! I actually live in Colorado Springs at 6,035ft!
I made it once last night and had no issues, then this morning I did the same as before and my dough didn’t getting moist enough to form together. I added a bit more milk and am hoping this next batch comes out as good as the first!
Thanks for doing the math for us high altitude bakers!
Where is the low altitude note?
This recipe will work at all altitudes, but please see my FAQs for general information.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
Hi Heather, I’ve had great results with this cookie recipe in the past and plan to make Halloween cookies tomorrow with my three-year-old grandson. I moved to Fort Collins 2.5 years ago from Methuen, Ma (elevation 115’) and had many baking disasters until I found your website. I’ve made dozens of your recipes and each one has baked up beautifully. Thank you for taking the guesswork out of high-altitude baking for this former New Englander. When I talk to friends and family back home, I refer to you as My Baking Savior. Your knowledge, expertise, and imagination are unparalleled! I’m wondering if you have a chocolate cake recipe that would be suitable for a Yule log, and I’m searching your website in hopes of finding one. Stay well, Heather, and thanks again for all you do.
Tom, thank you so much for your comment, it made my day! I’ve tried rolled cakes in the past, but haven’t been happy enough with the result to publish the recipe. Then I had intended to work on a yule log cake this winter, but I’m honestly not sure if I’ll be able to work it into my schedule. Typically, rolled cakes are made from a type of sponge cake, since it’s more flexible for the rolling process. I do have a vanilla chiffon cake recipe, which is a type of sponge cake, and have also include a chocolate version in that same post, but I have not attempted it in a jelly roll pan or tried rolling it up for a yule log. If you do give it a try, please let me know how it goes!
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/high-altitude-chiffon-cake/
Thanks for replying, Heather, and for the Yule Log suggestion. I’m going to give it a try and will let you know how it turns out!
Hi! I was wondering if you can roll the dough into balls and use a cookie stamp (like the Nordic Ware ones) with this recipe like you do with your shortbread cookies? I wasn’t sure if the dough would be strong enough to hold the design. Also will the glaze for the shortbread cookies work with these sugar cookies or are they too delicate? Thank you!
It should work, although I tend to use darker doughs with cookie stamps and glaze, since the pattern shows up so much better with darker cookies highlighted by the icing.
So happy I came across your website! Living in Castle pines and still trying to figure this altitude out! So excited to try the cut-out sugar cookies!! Thank you!
Where did you get your pretty scalloped cookie cutter?
It came with a mini tartlet pan I have.
I love the sugar cookie recipe. It was delicious, but I was wondering, is it possible for doubling the recipe cause I wanna make a dozens for my cousins birthday party
Yes, this recipe can be doubled.
Your Recipe Website has been a lifesaver for me!
I’m a home baker from Scotland visiting family in SLC and have been so frustrated trying to adapt my very low altitude recipes to high altitude without much success! I’m trying out a few of your recipes over the next few days and feel much more confident about the outcome. Many thanks for sharing your tried and tested recipes, it’s greatly appreciated!!!
I’m so happy to be of help! I’ve never been to Scotland (or any part of the UK), but I’m planning a trip to Edinburgh this fall, and I couldn’t be more excited to visit.
I love all your recipes and am so thankful I discovered your website! I have a silly question. If making cookies ahead of time for Christmas, will the cookies taste better if I freeze the dough, or bake the cookies and freeze the undecorated cookies? Or does it matter? I want them to taste fresh like I just made them.
They will taste fresh either way. I often make ahead the dough and freeze it for later, as well as freeze the baked cookies to decorate later. The thawed cookies taste so soft and fresh.
Do you think this recipe along with the chocolate version would work with the 1 to 1 King Arthur gluten-free flour?
I haven’t tested it, but it may work, although, they may be a bit dry or crumbly with the gluten free flour. I might try adding an egg yolk (no white, which would cause spreading) to the dough for moisture and strength.