If there's one time of year you feel absolutely obliged to make decorated cutout cookies, it's now. It's time to break out the rolling pin and cookie cutters, brush up on rollout sugar cookie tips and recipes, and hunker down for some old-fashioned fun.

Our favorite cookies for decorating are these Holiday Butter Cookies— they roll out nicely and have a beautifully tender/crisp texture. Armed with this recipe and the below handy tips, you'll be ready to make your best roll-out sugar cookies yet. (And if you're baking gluten-free, try our Gluten-Free Holiday Butter Cookies.)

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

First, know your dough

Dough made without leavening will hold its shape better than dough using baking powder or baking soda. To a lesser extent, this is also true for dough made with shortening instead of butter. For intricate cutouts, choose an unleavened, shortening-based dough.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Shape dough into a rectangle before chilling

Most recipes will tell you to shape the dough into a disk, wrap, and place in the fridge to chill. Unless you're planning to cut out simple rounds, rolling dough into a rectangle rather than a circle often yields more usable "real estate." Start with a rectangular slab rather than a round disk, and you're halfway there.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Decide on cookie thickness ahead of time

Plan ahead. Dough rolled 1/4" thick will produce sturdy cookies, best for crumble-free transportation and kids' decorating. Dough rolled 1/8" thick will produce more fragile, delicate cookies — and a greater number of cookies from each batch of dough.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Roll dough between sheets of parchment or waxed paper

Rather than roll dough on a floured surface, roll it between sheets of non-stick parchment or waxed paper. Adding extra flour to the dough while rolling can make cookies tough. And cutout cookies release easily from paper when you move them to the baking sheet, preserving their shape.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Cut efficiently

The more cutouts you can get out of each piece of rolled dough, the fewer times you'll need to re-roll the scraps and cut again.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Create more usable real estate as you go

Make cookie cutting more efficient by mending jagged holes or uneven edges in your rolled dough whenever possible. A simple "push and press" after cutting a cookie can make it possible to cut another cookie where none existed before.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Break out your small spatulas and spreaders

You'll most likely be working with 2" to 3" cookies. A nylon spreader or other small spatula is invaluable for moving cookies from rolling surface to baking sheet.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Preserve the shape of thin cookies

It can be a challenge to move cookies cut from thin-rolled dough without distorting their shape. Cut thin cookies on a sheet of parchment, leaving more space between them than usual. Then peel off the dough scraps in between the cookies, leaving the cookies right on the parchment. Pick up the parchment with cookies and place it right onto the baking sheet, then pop into the oven.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

So you've baked your cookies — now what? (These are actually a bit over-baked, though I prefer to think of them as caramelized, for the sake of my ego.)

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Make icing

We highly recommend this Simple Cookie Glaze, which spreads/flows nicely to cover your cookies' surface, then dries hard and shiny — a plus if you enjoy using a food-safe marker for decorating or writing messages.

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Ice and decorate your cookies

Use your favorite tools and techniques: a knife, spreader, icing bag ... Here's a handy way to ice and decorate cookies:

  1. Dip in icing, scraping off any excess
  2. Let icing flow and settle just a bit, to make sure cookie is sufficiently covered
  3. Dip in decorating sugar
  4. Place on parchment to set

Rollout Sugar Cookie Tips via @kingarthurflour

Rollout sugar cookie tips to the rescue!

Pretty simple, right?

For lots more inspiration and instruction, check out our complete guide to cookie decorating. And for some very special piping techniques, see our blog post, cookie decorating techniques: easy steps for standout cookies.

If you have favorite cookie and icing recipes that work for you, use them; no need to reinvent the wheel. But if you're still looking, try our Holiday Butter Cookies recipe, which makes a light, crisp-yet-sturdy cookie, perfect for icing (and delicious to boot). Our Simple Cookie Glaze is the ideal accompaniment.

Jump to Comments
Holiday Butter Cookies
Holiday Butter Cookies
4.5 out of 5 stars 295 Reviews
Total
2 hrs 42 mins
Yield
5 dozen 2" cookies
Recipe in this post
A headshot of PJ Hamel and her dogs
The Author

About PJ Hamel

PJ Hamel grew up in New England, graduated from Brown University, and was an award-winning Maine journalist (favorite topics: sports and food) before joining King Arthur Flour in 1990. Hired to write the newly launched Baker’s Catalogue, PJ became the small but growing company’s sixth employee.PJ wa...
View all by PJ Hamel