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These delicious cut or drop sugar cookie ideas are perfect for frosting or icing! Just add some sprinkles, and pour a cold glass of milk.
More Collections: Cookie Bar Recipes, Easy Cookie Recipes, Brownie Recipes
We Love These Classic Cookies!
Whether you are rolling or cutting, these sugar cookie ideas are worth the effort (at least in our book). We wanted to put all of our BEST sugar cookie ideas in one spot!
What’s to love:
- Change it up. These cookies are perfectly decorate-able and can be customized for ANY season or holiday!
- Delicious. They’re my favorite cookie! We’ve been making our Famous Sugar Cookies since I was little.
- Any time of year. I have an entire collection of ideas, ranging from frosted to unfrosted, traditional to holiday-themed.
To Frost or Ice
While similar in sweetness, frosting and icing will produce different results.
Royal Icing. Use to “color” the cookies. You can make different consistencies that will help you draw shapes/features onto the cookie, and then fill them in.
- Royal icing must have time to set before storing. Depending on the environment of the room, this can take 3-8 hours.
Sugar Cookie Frosting. Perfect for simple spreading on the cookie and then adding sprinkles or other candy decorations. It is also a great frosting to use when using piping tips to make different shapes with the frosting.
- Add color. I suggest using gel food coloring as a little goes a long way, and it won’t change the texture.
- Add flavor. Flavor the frosting with different types of extract. My favorite is almond extract, but vanilla extract, and peppermint extract make the list as well.
Rolled + Cut Cookie Tips
For rolled and shaped cookies use these tips!
- Rolling the dough. Many recipes require rolling the dough into disks and then chilling. Dividing the dough before rolling is a great process and one you can do even if the recipe doesn’t specifically call for it.
- Do not overwork the dough for the same reason you don’t want to overmix it (it will get tough).
- Thickness. I like to roll my dough to about ⅜” thick. Any thinner than that and the cookies will be more crisp and crunchy.
- Cutting. If cutting the same shape and size, begin stamping out the cookies. If you are using different sizes and shapes, then I suggest setting the different shapes gently on top of the dough to decide how to best utilize the space. Once done, stamp out the cookies.
- Dip the cookie cutters in flour before stamping the dough.
- Save the scraps to roll out more cookies.
General Cookie Tips
- Mixing tips. These are general tips to apply to more specific instructions found on each post.
- Ingredient temperature. Softened, but still cold butter and room temperature eggs and dairy products will incorporate better.
- Measuring. Measure out dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Once combined, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Do not overmix. Use a stand mixer or a hand mixer, just don’t overmix as you will have a tougher dough.
- Chilled dough. If a recipe calls for chilling the dough, don’t skip that step! Chilling will help give cookies the perfect shape and texture.
- Lined baking sheet. Baking on a sheet lined with parchment paper, or a silicone mat, can help keep the cookies from sticking to the pan.
- Do not let brown. Check cookies 2-3 minutes before the suggested cooking time. In general, baked cookies should not be brown at all. To be safe, under-bake just a bit. The cookies will finish baking to perfection as they cool on the hot pan. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Best Sugar Cookie Recipes
These easy sugar cookies are our go-to recipes. They have simple ingredients and are absolutely delicious!
1 Frosted Sugar Cookie Recipe
2 3 Ingredient Sugar Cookie Recipe
3 Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Recipe
4 Drop Sugar Cookies Recipe
5 Lemon Sugar Cookies Recipe
6 Copycat Swig Cookies Recipe
7 Lofthouse Sugar Cookies Recipe
8 Sugar Cookie Blossoms Recipe
9 Chewy Sugar Cookie Recipe
10 Amish Sugar Cookie Recipe
11 Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe
12 Sugar Cookie Bars
Holiday Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies lend themselves perfectly to the holidays. You can easily turn any of these recipes into Christmas cookies or decorate for whatever occasion you may be celebrating!
13 Valentine Sugar Cookies
14 St. Patrick’s Day Cookies Recipe
15 Easter Sugar Cookies Recipe
16 Halloween Sugar Cookie Recipe
17 Halloween Sugar Cookie Cake Recipe
18 Thanksgiving Sugar Cookie Recipe
19 Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe
20 Peppermint Sugar Cookies Recipe
For Every Occasion
Sugar cookies are the perfect treat for any holiday or occasion and you’ll love the variety of easy recipes on this list!
Be sure to check out all of our Cookie Recipes!
More Collections: Dessert Bar Recipes, Easy Cake Recipes, Cheesecake Recipes
I love your best sugar cookie recipe. It’s the perfect mix of soft and sturdy enough to hold shape and frosting.
Sugar cookies are my hubby’s favorite!! The more icing, the better in his opinion. We use your recipes & they are so good & soft!!
This is such an amazing list! My kids loved all of these!
There is a cookie here for everyone and I love them all. Thanks for gathering them all in one place!
I love all the different sugar cookie ideas. A different version for every occasion!
They all look so yummy! Adding those peppermint trees to my Christmas baking list. I love all things mint this time of year!