The Best Recipes for Cut Out Cookies

Thanks for sharing!

It is always fun to have a cookie cut in a pretty shaped and decorated with frosting, but you aren’t limited to sugar cookies. There are lots of flavors and types of cookies you can roll and cut, here are a few of our favorite recipes.

Tis the season for pretty cookies, though they don’t have to be limited to Christmas. Fun cookies are good all year long.  If you think sugar cookies are the only cookies you can cut and decorate, think again!

There are endless flavor combinations and textures you can whip up.  These recipes are sure to make your cookie trays even more delicious this year!

Cookies cut into fun shapes and decorated with royal icing or buttercream are a Christmastime must. We love spending a whole weekend baking and decorating, it is a tradition that Little Dude is looking forward to continuing this year.

We don’t keep the cookies just to Christmas though.  We’ve been known to bake and distribute Valentine’s Day cookies as well.

If you come to a birthday party at our house, there is a decent chance you will leave with a packet of themed cookies. Same with baby showers, bridal showers and more.

Of course sugar cookies are a staple.  We made several batches throughout the year, but it is nice to have some options.

Luckily there are plenty of them out there.  Let’s take a look at some tips to making great roll-out cookies and then we will dive into our favorite recipes.

Tips for Making Great Roll and Cut Cookies

Start with chilled dough.  Making sure the dough has plenty of time in the refrigerator is key to successful rolling and the most tender cookies.

To keep sticking down, make sure your surface and rolling pin are dusted with flour. Use just enough to lightly coat everything.

If you are making chocolate cookies, try dusting your surfaces with cocoa powder or a mix of flour and cocoa powder. That way you won’t have a white dust on your chocolate cookies.

Don’t forget to dust your cookie cutters too.  Coating them with a little flour between cookies will help keep the little bits from sticking.

Roll out smaller pieces of dough.  It is tempting to take a giant chunk and try to make as many cookies at once as possible, but that isn’t ideal.

When you use smaller pieces of dough, the rest can stay in the fridge keeping cool. That chilled dough will be less sticky and require less flour.

Plus a smaller piece of dough makes it easier to roll it out uniformly. That way you have evenly baked cookies. 

If you can, bake your cookies the day before you decorated them.  That gives the butter a chance to full absorb back into the cookie and spreads out the work so you can be inspired and look forward to the frosting!

Be sure to give the icing plenty of time to dry.  Leave your cookies in a single layer until the frosting is completely set before you stack or you will have a big disappointment to deal with!

To decorate our cookies, we almost always use royal icing as it sets hard and makes the cookies easier to stack.  Though sometimes we use a crusting buttercream because we love the way it tastes! 

Do you want more cookie goodness? Check out my great tips on getting perfect cookies every time.

Do you have a favorite cookie to bake and decorate?  I’d love to hear all about them in the comments below!

Thanks for sharing!