These soft, no spread sugar cookies are the perfect sugar cookie! They are buttery and soft and hold their shape beautifully! AND they stay soft for days! I mean, I left mine on the counter for 2 days uncovered and they were still perfect.
How do these sugar cookies stay so soft?
The secret to these cookies is the cream cheese in the dough. The cream cheese is what keeps them soft! You’ll notice that there isn’t any baking powder or baking soda in these, that’s because we don’t want them to rise or spread like normal cookies, you want them to keep their shape.
How do they keep their shape so well?
With butter and cream cheese in the dough the chilling process is super important for these soft, no spread sugar cookies. When you make the dough its super soft and sticky. Once you chill the dough is going to make it not so sticky, easier to roll out without sticking to every surface, and keep the cookie’s perfect shape. If your dough still seems a touch sticky after its chilled, sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough ball, and place a piece of parchment paper on top and use that to roll it out.
Make these no spread sugar cookies for any Holiday or occasion!
Of course these cookies are essential to make around Christmas! But that doesn't stop me from making these cookies for EVERY occasion!I make these cookies for Valentine's Day, Halloween, Fourth of July, or just a random spring day!
Rolling Out these No Spread 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!
You can use any cookie cutters you have, but my favorite cookie cutters are always the metal ones like these!
Our Delicious & Pipeable Buttercream Frosting
Now I know everyone always thinks their buttercream frosting is the best, so I won’t be offended if you decide to use your own. But this one is delicious! I would eat it with a spoon if my husband didn’t raise his eyebrows at me when I do. It's my all time favorite buttercream frosting and it pipes beautifully!
Enjoy!
Alyssa
Looking for Some Great Cookie Recipes to Bake? Check these out!
- Better-than-Swig Sugar Cookie Bars
- Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Festive Marbled Sugar Cookies
- M&Ms White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Chai Sugar Cookies with Eggnog Icing
- Biscoff Linzer Cookies
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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
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