Awwwww! Making these easy little cut-out cookies is one of our favorite traditions no matter the holiday.
My kids love pulling out their cookie cutters, baking and then decorating their creations. My cousin Casey gave me this recipe years ago, and I love it the most because it’s so simple (you only use one bowl!), and they always turn out perfectly.
We’ve been playing around with making these gluten-free and when using Namaste Flour, ours have turned out every single time (other flours may work too, but that’s the brand I used). We also increased the milk to 4 teaspoons instead of two for our g-free version (don’t altar the recipe if you’re using an All-Purpose Flour). If you’re looking for a simple Christmas thing to do AT HOME this year, here you go. Also, my little tip is to use powdered sugar on your counter instead of flour when rolling your dough out…trust me 🙂 . Enjoy! xo
Print
Easy Cut-Out Sugar Cookies (that can be g-free!)
- Prep Time: 40 minutes (including 30 minutes of chill time in the fridge)
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: about a dozen
Description
The easiest cut-out sugar cookies to make! For a gluten-free version, all you need to do is substitute your flour with an all-purpose g-free flour (we use Namaste) and then change the milk to 4 teaspoons in the dough recipe. Easy as that!
Ingredients
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 a cup of butter flavored shortening
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 2¼ cups all purpose flour (or gluten-free!)
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons milk (use 4 tsp if you’re making this g-free)
- Ingredients below for a buttercream frosting:
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- pinch of salt
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- food coloring, optional
- Christmas sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray it with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together your sugar and shortening. Beat in each egg followed by your vanilla and pinch of salt. Slowly beat in your flour. Finally, beat in your baking powder and your milk.
- Cover your mixing bowl and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Dust your counter with just a bit of flour (or powdered sugar!) and place your dough on top. Using a rolling pin, roll out your dough. Take your cookie cutter and cut out your shapes before putting them on your prepared baking sheet.
- When you’re ready to bake, pop your cookies in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.
- Remove and cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, beat your butter, salt, powdered sugar and milk together. Beat in your vanilla. At this point, you can divide your icing between smaller bowls and color them appropriately. Frost cooled cookies and then decorate.
- Store cookies in the fridge when not enjoying if you used buttercream frosting.
Notes
Depending on the size of your cookie cutters depends on how many you’ll yield.
Laura says
Yay! I was looking for a sugar cookie recipe to do with my little boy for next week. This is perfect!! Merry Christmas!
Sheila says
Hi Shay! Could you use regular butter, instead of butter flavored shortening?
Thanks!
Mix and Match Mama says
I haven’t subbed with that before, so I can’t tell you for certain. If you try it, please let me know what you think!
Laura says
We used butter instead of shortening, 1-to-1 replacement. It definitely needed to sit in the fridge longer than 30 minutes (45-60), but other than that it was great!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
These are the cutest! ❤️✨
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Andrea Clark says
Our sugar cookies always seem to puff up and spread in the oven which isn’t ideal for decorating…any tips on how to prevent it?
Mix and Match Mama says
Make sure you’re not putting your dough on a warm cookie sheet. Sometimes, people pull out their cookies and add more dough to the warm pan…that will cause them to puff and spread. Try this recipe! It’s really easy!
Sarah says
Yay! Going to try these!!! Also, just wondering what your go to lunch is these days? And snack? I’m going to try that protein pancake you posted!!!
Mix and Match Mama says
Today, I had chicken salad from Trader Joes with a few crackers and some of their tomato and feta soup!
Erin says
Going to have to try these! On the same trajectory as you with celiac diagnosis for my daughter last fall too and I’ve been making batches of our favorite sugar cookie recipe testing different GF flours and had finally tweaked it to where we got them down, but then your recipe is totally different and so delicious sounding, I’m going to have to try these too! Also, haven’t used namaste at all before. Cup 4 Cup has been my go-to because of you, so I assume you tried it in these but the namaste worked better. Now I have another flour to add to the mix too ha! Do you, like me, have a whole shelf of 20 different GF flours?! ??♀️? Thanks for including all your GF adaptations to your recipes! I’ve been trying so many of them this year.
Mix and Match Mama says
I do have a whole shelf. Bahaha! I love Cup4Cup and used it almost exclusively, but now, I’m pretty much only reaching for namaste!!!
Angela Ellingson says
So fun! Subbing powdered sugar for flour when rolling out the dough is genius! Definitely going to try that!
Gretchen says
Just made these on our beautiful snow day here in Massachusetts!! So easy and so yummy!! Sprinkles on some and some bare waiting for college kids to come home and frost♥️
Mix and Match Mama says
Oh my goodness!!! This made my heart so happy!!!