These are the best soft, no spread sugar cookies! They are perfect for cut outs (cookie cutters) and hold their shape perfectly. And best of all, they stay soft for days!
Why Make This Recipe
These no spread sugar cookies, sometimes called cut out sugar cookies or roll out sugar cookies is the best sugar cookie recipe! Not only do they hold their shape when cut out with cookie cutters, but they stay soft for days, even if left uncovered.
These no spread cookies use no leavening agents, like baking soda or baking powder, which helps these cookies hold their shape. Leavening agents cause cookies to puff up and spread, but by leaving them out, these cookies hold their shape better Chilling the dough is also crucial to the cooking holding their shape in the oven. The hot oven melts the butter and sugar, which normally will cause cookies to spread. By chilling the dough we help these cookies hold their original shape.
These cookies are perfect for any holiday—we always love making them at Christmas and Valentine’s Day. We love decorating these cookies with buttercream frosting, but they are beautiful with royal icing too!
Ingredient Notes
- Butter. This recipe calls for room temperature butter. Butter adds flavor and tenderness to these cookies. It is important that the butter is room temperature so it can blend well with the other ingredients and have air whipped into it, creating a good texture
- Cream Cheese. The cream cheese is our secret ingredient that keeps the cookies soft and dense. The cream cheese should be room temperature, like the butter, so it blends with the butter smoothly without curdling.
- Sugar. What would sugar cookies be without the sugar? White, granulated sugar is used for the classic sugar cookie taste.
- Vanilla & Almond Extract. We add in vanilla and almond extract to the cookie dough for an extra flavor boost.
How to Make this Recipe
- Start with room temperature cream cheese and butter. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer to mix the two together until smooth.
- Add in the sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Cream together for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. When room temperature butter and sugar are creamed together, it whips air into the mixture making it light and fluffy in texture. The tiny air bubbles that are created lift the cookie and create the perfect texture in these cookies.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the salt and flour. Stir in until the dry ingredients are just barely combined. Do not over mix.
- Pull out a large piece of plastic wrap and spray with cooking spray. Tip the dough onto the plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours.
- After dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly flour the counter top and place the unwrapped dough on top. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and roll out the dough to ⅜-inch thick. You can also place the dough between two sheets of wax or parchment paper to prevent the sugar cookie dough from sticking to your counter or rolling pin.
- Lightly dust your cookie cutters with flour and cut out the cookies. Place the cut out cookie dough onto a lined and greased baking sheet. Leave about 1-inch of space between the cookies. Freeze the cookie dough for 10 minutes.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Sugar cookies, and other cookies, typically spread for a couple reasons—1) leavening agents and 2) too much sugar or too much butter.
Leavening Agents, like baking soda or baking powder, make cookies rise, puff up, and spread. Normally, this is what we want in a cookie recipe. However, with these sugar cookies we want them to hold their shape and not spread. You will notice that this recipe does not contain any leavening agents in it.
Butter and sugar liquify when they are heated, which also makes cookies spread. In this recipe, we make sure there isn’t too much of either ingredients, but also we chill the dough. By chilling the dough before we roll it out and then freezing it again after they are cut out we return the butter back to a solid state, encouraging the dough to hold its shape and not spread.
Yes, absolutely. Sugar cookies freeze super well after being baked. This is a great way to save yourself some time in the future by baking and freezing the cookies for a later date. When stored properly, sugar cookies will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months. See our storage tips section below for more tips on freezing cookies and cookie dough.
There are so many ways to decorate sugar cookies! You can use buttercream frosting, royal icing, fondant, chocolate glaze, and a traditional sugar cookie glaze.
My favorite way to decorate sugar cookies is with a buttercream frosting. I’ve included my favorite buttercream recipe in the recipe below, it’s thick and pipes beautifully on to sugar cookies. Feel free to use your own if you have a favorite recipe.
Expert Tips
- Rolling out the sugar cookie dough. When you are rolling out your dough, be sure not to roll it out too thin! The ideal width is ⅜” thick. This will give your cookies some stability so they don’t break as easy, and keep them soft because of their thickness! If you find your dough is sticking to your rolling pin, dust the sugar cookie dough with a little bit of flour, or your can place your dough between two piece of parchment paper and use the rolling pin on top of the parchment paper!
- Don’t handle the dough too much. When you are rolling out the dough and pushing your cookie dough scraps back together to created a new layer to cut out, it is easy to overhandle the sugar cookie dough. As you handle the dough you’re doing too things—warming up the dough and helping it develop gluten—both of which we don’t want. Too warm of dough and the cookies won’t hold their shape as well. Too much gluten and the cookies will be tough and lose their tender texture.
- Bake similar sized cookies together. Different sized cookies have different bake times. So try to bake similar sized cookies together so you don’t accidentally over bake any smaller cookies on the baking sheet.
- Don’t over bake the cookies. Be careful not to over bake these cookies. Remember that the cookies will continue to cook and set up as they cool. Over baking can affect the soft and tender texture of these no spread sugar cookies.
- How to make your cookies extra flat. If you plan on decorating your cookies with royal icing you may want the tops of your cookies to be extra flat. If this is the case, let your cookies cool for 3-4 minutes. Then, carefully flip the cookies so the top side is down and let them cool that way. This will help flatten them out.
Storage Tips: Freezing and Storing the Cookies and Cookie Dough
Cookie Dough. The cookie dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Make sure the cookie dough is at least double wrapped in plastic wrap before freezing to help maintain freshness and avoid freezer burn. Once frozen, thaw the cookie dough in the fridge overnight before you try to roll it out.
Baked Cookies. These cookies stay soft for days on the counter, even if left uncovered. But to ensure freshness, it’s best to store them covered at room temperature. They are best eaten with in 3-4 days. The unfrosted cookies can be frozen for up to three months. Store them either in an airtight gallon-sized freezer bag or in a Tupperware container. Thaw the cookies completely before eating or frosting.
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Soft, No Spread Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies:
- ¾ cup butter room temperature
- 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) cream cheese room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups of flour measured correctly
Buttercream Frosting;
- 1-2 lb bag about 7 ½ cups of powdered sugar
- ⅔ cup butter room temperature.
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon butter extract
- ¾ teaspoon almond extract
- food coloring optional
- Sprinkles optional
Instructions
Cookies:
- Using either a stand mixer or hand mixer cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add in sugar, egg, and extracts, and cream together for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl; add in salt and flour (make sure your flour is stir in until just barely combined.
- Pull out a large piece of plastic wrap and spray it with cooking spray. Tip dough onto plastic wrap and tightly wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly flour your counter top or work surface and place unwrapped dough on top. Lightly flour the top of the dough and use a rolling pin to roll cookies out to be ⅜” thick. You can also place your dough between 2 sheets of wax paper or parchment paper and then roll the dough out if you are worried about your dough sticking to your rolling pin. You might be tempted to roll the dough out thinner so you can make more cookies, but trust me, ⅜” is the perfect width, you won’t want them thinner.
- Lightly dust your cookie cutters with flour and begin cutting out your different shapes. Place cut out shapes onto a greased and lined baking sheet, leave about 1” between your cookies and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- I like to stick any of my dough that has already been cut out, but is not baked yet into the freezer or fridge while it waits for its turn to go in the oven. This will make sure that your dough does not get too warm. Chilled dough is what helps these cookies to not spread and to hold their shape.
- Leave cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:
- Using a hand mixer whip butter until light and fluffy, about 1 minutes. Alternate adding powdered sugar and milk, beating in between.
- Add in extracts, salt, and food coloring (if desired), and beat until frosting is smooth and equally colored throughout the batch.
- Make sure cookies are completely cool before frosting. I used a piping bag, but you can also use a knife to spread frosting on. Top with sprinkles (if desired).
Nutrition
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originally posted 2/11/19
I love this recipe! I use it for all of my holiday baking- especially for Halloween! We have a huge cousin gathering and I make several batches of this amazing recipe and, as advertised, no spreading, perfectly soft and SO tasty!
Hands down the best sugar cookies I've ever had! they hold their shape perfectly and taste wonderful on their own.
Gorgeous cookies, would love to share all over but can't find any sharing buttons?
Thanks so much Camilla! I just added some share buttons at the bottom of the recipe card, thanks so much for taking the time to comment 🙂
- Alyssa
Alyssa,
This looks like just what I am looking for in a sugar cookie. If I might make A suggestion, the instructions look as though you need 4 ounces and 8 tablespoons of cream cheese because the 8 tablespoons are not in parentheses. I questioned it as I measured out the 8 tablespoons it equaled exactly Half of a block, Which did not make sense but you just didn’t say a full 8oz block. So I decided to look in the comments to see if any clarification has been made, and you had made one. Just a suggestion. I’m making these cookies now and I’m looking forward to the perfect soft sugar cookies. Thank you
Hi Bonnie, I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe! You're right, it is a little confusing the way it shows up on the recipe. I've gone in and edited it so it's in parantheses to avoid any confusion in the future!
- Alyssa
Just wanted to let you know that the cookies were wonderful. My grandchildren could not stop eating them. I took some to work and they were gone before the day was over. Thank you for a great recipe. And I think the change you made is perfect, totally makes sense now. Thank you
So glad to hear that Bonnie! Thanks for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it 🙂
- Alyssa
Love the recipe! Your method and ingredient ratios are spot on. The cookies turned out incredible! Thanks for posting!
The only thing I altered —and I strongly encourage everyone to give this a try, as well —were the extracts! The PERFECT sugar cookie flavor comes from 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon extract. I use this combination of extracts in any sugar cookie recipe I try, whether for rolled and shaped dough or drop dough. Give it a try! The flavor is incredible!
Hi Alyssa, I'm looking for the pipeable buttercream recipe you refer to and can't locate it. Can you please let me know where I can find it?
Thanks!
Haha - tired brain. I see it at the bottom.
How much cream cheese do I use?
Hi Sandra, you will need 4 ounces of cream cheese for this recipe. 4 ounces = 8 tablespoons OR 1/2 a brick (they’re typically 8 ounces)cream cheese.
- Alyssa
Thank you so much
Hello,
What do you mean by flour “measured correctly”?
If I do not have almond extract, should I double up on the vanilla or just omit? Thank you!
Hi Alexis, you can just omit the almond extract if you don't have any.
- Alyssa
Can this dough be left in the refrigerator over nite?
Hi Suzy, yes you can refrigerate the dough overnight!
- Alyssa
These always turn out perfect !
Can these be left out or do they require refrigeration because of the cream cheese?
They should be fine out of the refrigerator!
- Alyssa
THE BEST CUT OUT COOKIES!!!!!!!
These cookies were amazing! No cardboard cookies with this recipe. I was not the biggest fan of the frosting but the important part was the cookies and they are outstanding!
The cookies look amazing! Thanks for including my cookies on your list.☺️
How much cream does this recipe call for? It is not specified in the ingredients.
Hi Heather, this recipe doesn't use any cream in it! The cookies call for cream cheese, and the buttercream frosting uses butter and milk. Hope that helps!
- Alyssa
I’ve used a good amount of sugar cookie recipes, and this has become mine and my family’s favorite! They are perfectly soft, with a delicious almond flavor, and the buttercream crusts beautifully (a must for a good sugar cookie). Thanks for sharing!
Thank u for sharing these recipes, I'm excited to try them! Would it b ok to freeze unbaked dough for use later? Or would it b better to freeze unfrosted, baked cookies? Thank u!
Hi Rebecca,
You can definitely freeze the dough or the cookies! If you do freeze the dough just remember you'll have to thaw the dough out before rolling it out. I hope you like them!
- Alyssa
Can't wait to make these and turn them into our newest family tradition!
These would be perfect for any holiday using different shapes!!
Love a cookie dough recipe that can be used for different holidays. We really love the Christmas shapes.
How many cups of flour in the cookies?
It’s 3 cups of flour! I just updated the recipe ❤️
I noticed there was not any baking powder or baking soda in this recipe, is this correct.
Sorry for the late response, that is correct! By not adding a leavening agent to the recipe it helps the cookies hold their shape.
- Alyssa
Is it all purpose or self rising flour?
It is all purpose!
-Alyssa