Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to cut out cookies? ›

Pull off the top sheet of parchment, then slide the sheet of dough onto a baking sheet, then pop it in the freezer. (You can stack as many sheets of dough onto one baking sheet as you'd like.) Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment, roll, then freeze; it makes cut-out cookies a breeze!

But when you're baking, butter triumphs over margarine every time. For cakes, cookies, and pastries, butter (unsalted, that is) provides richer flavor. (It begins as cream, after all, and margarine is made from vegetable oil.) Butter's high fat content is also what gives baked goods their texture.

It holds its shape, and one major trick is that after you make your dough, you'll roll it out, cut out your cookie shapes, and then put them on a lined baking sheet and only then PUT THEM IN THE FREEZER for 10 minutes, then straight into the oven after. No cooling and then rolling. You roll, cut, and then cool!

Most recipes suggest rolling the dough to ¼-inch thick because it's easy to work with (less breakage) and achieves a soft, tender cookie. Roll out a portion of dough at a time and keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator.

The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender. → Follow this tip: One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they're just incorporated, and not a second longer. Once the dry ingredients are added, less mixing equals more tender cookies.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the sugar cookie dough to ¼-inch thick. Cut out shapes as desired, transfer to prepared baking sheets, and bake cookies until set but still pale, 10 to 12 minutes. Cook for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating.

If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself. If it continues until the end, the air pockets are preserved as the cookie's crumb. Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out.

OverCreaming Butter & Sugar

Y'all are creaming that butter/sugar for FAR too long for cutout cookies. Try creaming your butter for 2 minutes or just until the sides of the mixing bowl are painted with the mixture. That is as long as you need to cream for. Excessive creaming will absolutely lead to cookie spread.

Greenspan points out that if you roll out cookie dough repeatedly and keep flouring the surface, the dough can get tough. But if you roll cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper, it means that you can eliminate the flour mess, as well as neatly transfer the cut-out cookies on the parchment to a sheet pan.

Yes! Country Crock^® is great for cooking and baking. Certain Country Crock^® products can be swapped 1:1 for butter in cooking and baking recipes: Country Crock^® Baking Sticks and Country Crock^® Plant Butter sticks and tubs.

What happens if I use butter instead of margarine in a cookie recipe? ›

Butter yields better results in baking and has qualities that give it a greater depth of flavor, like how you can brown it, giving it a nutty, caramelized flavor, or use it as a thickening agent. It is also made from cream, so it has less ingredients and is minimally processed compared to margarine.

Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.

Q: Why are my cookies so puffy and cakey? Whipping too much air into the dough. That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don't overdo it when you're creaming together the butter and sugar.

Too much flour will make your cookies dry and crumbly. Too much sugar and butter can make sugar cookies spread and lose their shape when baked. This one requires a little patience because once you roll out your dough, you are ready to bake. Be patient and bake your cookies when the dough is really cold.