My Christmas sugar cookies with royal icing are crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, and they keep their cut-out shapes in the oven. I roll the dough between parchment before it chills overnight, so there’s no extra flour and no sticky re-rolling. Then I pipe red, white and green royal icing and let it set hard.
Cut out sugar cookies with clean edges
I like a thin, crisp sugar cookie under royal icing, sturdy enough to pipe on and stack in a tin. This is a plain butter, sugar and vanilla dough that I roll out first and chill second.
Rolling before chilling makes the difference. The soft dough goes between two sheets of parchment, then into the fridge for at least 5 hours, ideally overnight. Cold, already-flat dough cuts cleanly, needs no flour on the counter, and goes into the oven firm, so the edges stay sharp instead of spreading.
The icing is classic royal icing, powdered sugar, egg whites and lemon juice beaten to firm peaks so the piped lines hold.
Plan on two days. The dough chills the first night, you bake and decorate the next day, and the icing sets overnight before the cookies go into bags or a tin.
What goes into the dough and the icing
Full ingredient list and detailed instructions in the recipe card.
- Unsalted butter at room temperature creams into the sugar and carries the flavor. Butter softened in the microwave goes greasy and makes a sticky dough that spreads.
- Baking powder is the only leavening, and 1 teaspoon gives a little lift without puffing the shapes. There’s nothing acidic in this dough, so baking soda would make the cookies spread and taste soapy.
- Powdered sugar, sifted, keeps the icing smooth enough to pipe. The small amount of cornstarch in it helps the icing grip the cookie.
- Egg whites and lemon juice turn the powdered sugar into an icing that dries hard. The icing uses 2 whites, and the 2 leftover yolks go straight into my who pudding.
- Gel food coloring tints the icing without thinning it. Liquid coloring adds water, and runny icing won’t hold a line.
Shruthi’s Top Tips
Tips for Christmas royal icing cookies
Almost everything that goes wrong here comes down to butter temperature or icing thickness.
- If the dough is crumbly, too much flour went in. Add the flour about ¼ cup at a time and stop as soon as the dough comes together.
- If the dough is sticky or wet, the butter was too warm. Chill it longer, or work in more flour a tablespoon at a time.
- If the dough softens while you cut, put it back in the fridge for 5 minutes, and dip the cutters in flour.
- Get the icing thickness right before you add color. It should flow slowly off a spoon and still hold its edge on the cookie. Thin it with a few drops of water, or thicken it with more powdered sugar.
- Ice only completely cool cookies, or the icing melts and runs.
- Squeeze bottles are easier to handle than piping bags, and kids can manage them too.
How to make sugar cookies with royal icing
- Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Beat on medium until soft and creamy, about 4 minutes.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder, then add it to the butter mixture about ¼ cup at a time.
- Mix just until the dough is smooth.
- Split the dough in half, roll each half between sheets of parchment.
- Chill for at least 5 hours or overnight.
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Cut out shapes and bake on parchment-lined sheets for about 8 minutes, until the edges are just golden. Cool for 10 minutes on the sheet, then move to a rack.
- Mix the sifted powdered sugar with the egg whites.
- Add the lemon juice.
- Beat on low for 5 minutes to firm peaks.
- Divide into bowls and tint each with a drop of gel coloring.
- Keep the bowls covered.
- Pipe the icing onto completely cool cookies.
- Let it dry for at least 3 hours, and overnight before stacking or bagging.
How to serve sugar cookies with royal icing
Once the icing has set hard, these stack well in a tin or a cookie box. They pack well with my crisp butter cookies for a Christmas tin, Linzer cookies, gingerbread man cookies and white chocolate peppermint cookies, so every box has a few shapes and flavors.
For a kids’ decorating afternoon, bake the cookies a day ahead and set out the icing in squeeze bottles with bowls of sprinkles. Add sprinkles while the icing is still wet so they stick. More ideas are in my Christmas baking and party recipes.
Variations
Skip the icing and press colored sugar onto the cookies while they’re still warm. Add almond extract to the dough along with the vanilla. Tint the dough itself with gel coloring for colored cut-outs.
Storage and reheating
The rolled dough freezes, so you can roll it, wrap it and freeze it until baking day. Royal icing keeps in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to a week. Once the icing is completely dry, store the cookies in an airtight tin at room temperature.
Christmas Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Equipment
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoons table salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Royal Icing
- 4 cups powdered sugar , sifted finely
- 2 egg whites
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- water , as needed, to thin the icing
- 1 pack gel food coloring, as many colors as you wish
Instructions
Make Cookies
- Add butter and sugar to a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer). Beat until it's soft and creamy, about 4 minutes to medium speed. You can go as long as 8 minutes here, since the creamier the mixture, the better. Add egg and vanilla and mix until just combined.
- In another bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients: flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Slowly add the flour to the creamed butter-sugar mix (~1/4 cup at a time) and beat until it's completely incorporated, but don't overmix the dough. The dough should be smooth and sticky (similar to play doh).
- Split the dough into two parts. Transfer both parts to a flat surface, cover it with plastic wrap or place them between two large sheets of parchment paper and flatten the dough using your hands and a kitchen dough roller.
- Refrigerate for at least 5 hours and up to 2 days. I typically like to chill it overnight. This allows the cookies to not spread too much and keep crisp edges when you bake them.
- Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F and line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove the paper wrap and use Christmas themed cookie cutters to cut the dough (If the dough is too sticky to work with, take the dough to the fridge five minutes before cutting it). Dip the cookie cutters in some flour to make this process easier.
- Bake for about 8 minutes or just until the edges are golden brown. You don't want to overbake the cookies!
- Let them cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. (they could break when still warm).
Make Icing
- In a medium bowl, combine the sifted powdered sugar with 2 egg whites and mix with a fork until incorporated. The egg whites add flavor and help ensure consistency.
- Add lemon juice and mix on low speed with a stand mixer for five minutes until firm peaks are formed. Add a few drops of water if the icing is too thick to pipe.
- Separate the mixture into different small bowls for each color. Add 1 drop of coloring gel to each bowl and mix until the desired color is uniform. I used red, white and green to keep up with Christmas colors, but the sky is your limit!
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to avoid the icing dries out.
Decorate the cookies
- After ensuring that the cookies are completely cool, place the icing in a piping bag, ziplock bag, or squeeze bottle. If using a bag (like shown in the pictures in my post), make a small hole in the edge. Using a squeeze bottle will likely be much easier!
- Decorate the cookies as you desire.
- Allow the icing to dry completely (about 3 hours minimum, ideally overnight again) before serving. This is especially important if you plan to wrap the cookies or create treat bags!
Notes
- Use room-temperature butter and stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together.
- Roll the dough between sheets of parchment before chilling (or on a non-stick sheet, like this one) so you never need to flour the counter.
- The colder the dough goes into the oven, the cleaner the shapes and crisper the edges.
- Use gel food coloring; liquid coloring thins royal icing too much to pipe.
- Adjust the icing with a little water or powdered sugar before coloring it. It should flow slowly and still hold its edge.
- Add sprinkles while the icing is still wet.
- Ice only completely cool cookies, or the icing melts.
- Let the icing set for 24 hours before stacking or bagging the cookies. Store them airtight at room temperature.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The cookie texture was perfect—crispy on the edges and soft in the middle. Overall, it was delicious! Thanks for sharing!