Hey Besties! The BIG holiday baking season is upon us! And while many of us bake beautiful, delicious cookies year-round, many just want to make easy Christmas cookies for the season! I get it and I’m here to help! Family gatherings, cookie platters and parties are abundant! And if you’re anything like me, you want YOUR cookies to stand out from the rest but also taste just as good as they look. But you also don’t have tons of time to agonize over baking and decorating! Which is why I specialize in no-chill cookie recipes and the easiest ways to achieve stunning cookies everyone will rave over! Let’s jump in to get baking for the holidays!
No-Chill Cutout Cookie Recipes for the WIN!
Years ago, I went on a quest to find the best sugar cookie recipe that was easy, delicious and perfectly kept their shapes. I tried MANY different recipes but could never find the perfect combo of being able to make amazing cookies quickly that also gave me the flavor, texture and shapes I wanted. So I made my own recipes and have never looked back. Now these recipes are used by thousands of bakers all over the world. Many, in their bakeries year-round. And while vanilla cookies are delish, why stop at vanilla? There are so many amazing flavors to enjoy and delight those you bake for! And it’s the easiest way to set your cookies apart from all the rest!
All of my recipes are NO-CHILL. We make hundreds of cutout cookies every week, year-round and not one gets chilled. They come out of the oven in perfect shapes and incredible flavor. So if you want to make delicious cutout cookies easily and quickly, you’ve come to the right place. You’ll find my favorite vanilla cutout cookie recipe below, but you can also find many other delicious flavors HERE!
Year-round, our top sellers are salted caramel, lemon, red velvet, peanut butter, funfetti, chocolate chip and chocolate, in addition to vanilla you’ll find below. And other flavors are popular more seasonally, such as gingerbread, chocolate mint, and pumpkin spice. And I dare you to try to not eat all the dough while making the M&M cutout cookies! You’ve got options, so have fun!
Cutout Cookies That Hold Their Shape!
If you have a recipe that you love, that requires chilling, I love that for you! But if you want to be able to make cutout cookies quickly and skip the chilling, you can do that too! For far too long, bakers have dreaded making cutout cookies because they take forever. But fortunately, that’s not the case any longer! Any one of my recipes can be mixed, cut, baked and cooling in under 40 minutes. All in your favorite shapes!
If you want to ensure your cookies have zero growth or expansion, or if you have experienced any growth, THIS post will teach you the easy fixes! There are three common reasons for cookie expansion and there are super simple fixes for them. This is how our cookies look, with no chilling involved!
I bake all of my cutout cookies on perforated baking mats, which ensure even baking and zero expansion. THESE are the mats I use every day and make baking so easy! You can see how these compare to other baking surfaces in the cookie research HERE too!
Cutout Cookie Baking Video
If you’d like to see exactly how I make the recipe below, for my vanilla cookies, you can see it HERE! Sometimes it’s helpful for you to see exactly how long I cream my butter and sugar and other tips, so you can be successful in your baking too!
No-Chill Vanilla Cutout Cookie Recipe
Here is the recipe our bakery uses every day for delicious results. The secret ingredient is THIS baking emulsion that takes the vanilla flavor to the next level! While you can simply use vanilla extract in this recipe, that emulsion really sets our cookies apart from the rest. These cookies are delicious plain or read on for different icing options for your easy Christmas cookies!
The Best No-Chill Cutout Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227g) Unsalted Butter Chilled, Cubed
- 1 cup (200g) Granulated White Sugar
- 1 Large Egg Chilled
- 1 tsp (5g) Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp (2.5g) Butter Vanilla Emulsion LorAnn Brand
- 3 cups (420g) All-Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp (9.5g) Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp (3g) Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- I bake on my favorite perforated baking mats to eliminate any chance of spread, for even baking and pretty undersides of our cookies!
- Cream butter and sugar until smooth, about 2 minutes. No need to excessively cream as it can lead to cookie spread.
- Beat in Butter Vanilla baking emulsion, vanilla extract and egg, until combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, salt, and flour. Add to wet ingredient mixing bowl a little at a time.
- Mix until thoroughly blended. Dough should be pulling away from the bowl. If it's not pulling away from the bowl on its own, add more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time until it is. It should not take much!
- Chilling the dough is not necessary! I have tried many different ways of rolling out dough and always come back to the old-fashioned way; a sheet of wax paper that has been floured.
- I usually divide the dough into 3 chunks and roll out each onto a floured surface and cut. In my experience, this dough works best for cookies at 1/4" thick. I use my Joseph Joseph rolling pin which does the measuring for me – genius! If you prefer thicker cookies, you'll just want to adjust your baking time.
- Bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes, depending on size of cookie. I also suggest baking similar-sized cookies together.
- Cool cookies on cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to cooling rack.
Notes
How To Decorate Sugar Cookies! You’ve got options!
About this time every year, we have a surge of bakers who want to up their cookie decorating game! Which is so fun, because that’s my language year-round! And whether you want to just keep it simple, or dive in to create amazing designs, you’ve got options!
Royal Icing
I personally decorate all of my cookies with royal icing. And just like cookie recipes have evolved, so has royal icing. It can have a reputation for being rock hard and flavorless, due to how it was made years ago. But thankfully, recipes and methods have evolved, and we can now decorate stunning cookies that taste just as good as they look. It’s not enough for a cookie to be pretty, it needs to taste even better!
You’ll find the soft bite royal icing recipe we use every day, HERE. The magic is in the method of HOW your royal icing is made. It’s super simple to make, but just follow the few steps for beautiful icing every time. And you can see how I make this icing HERE in this quick video.
Once you’ve made your icing, you can then thin to your desired consistencies for decorating. My royal icing consistency guide will teach you everything you need to know. Consistencies are arguably the hardest part of cookie decorating, but you don’t need to figure it all out on your own. I do this every day, year-round and help fellow home bakers do the same.
Want to learn how to flood your cookies beautifully? THIS tutorial will help.
How about piping? I’ve got you! THIS tutorial is here for you.
You may even want to pop over to my Step-By-Step Cookies to see, in real-time, with guidance, HOW each design is created. I’m always here to help fellow home bakers, so don’t hesitate to browse all the tutorials I have available or connect in our group with myself and fellow Besties!
Glaze
Looking for an egg-free option? Glaze could be right for you! While your icing colors won’t be as opaque as royal icing, many decorators like glaze! It’s more of a translucent look and the icing can be a little more fragile but is really easy to make too! If you want a simple glaze recipe, THIS is one I recommend!
Buttercream
And some bakers simply love the flavor of buttercream on their cookies! I’ll never deny that buttercream is incredibly delish! It’s just a completely different look and not the same kind of decorating styles as royal icing or glaze. You also can’t bag or stack buttercream cookies since it doesn’t dry hard enough for that without damaging the icing. Just something to consider when weighing your decorating options! HERE is a vanilla buttercream recipe I recommend!
Rolled Buttercream
This is a newer option that many love! The flavor of buttercream but gives a little more flexibility in being able to decorate more intricately. It combines the flavor of buttercream, but is rolled out, similar to fondant, so can use stamps and other design techniques too! I highly recommend THIS video to learn how to make rolled buttercream!
Ready to Make Easy Christmas Cookies?!
I hope this was helpful for you to bake and decorate delicious and beautiful cookies this holiday season! You’ve got MANY options for delicious no-chill cutout cookies as well as several delicious decorating options! Regardless of which options you pursue, they will ALL be delicious! And more than anything, I hope you enjoy your holiday baking this season! Get ready for the compliments to start rolling in once those you bake for see and taste your cookies!
And if this was helpful, I hope you’ll subscribe to receive my weekly newsletter! Never miss out on a new recipe, tutorial, tips, product recommendation and all kinds of free printables! Happy Baking, Bestie!
Are these cookies soft or a little crisp?
Hi! Bake as directed for a soft cookie or longer for a crispier cookie. We love soft cookies around here!
Do you have to use Butter Emulsion? Can it be replaced with Almond Extract?
Hi! You can use a different flavor…for a different flavor result! When we make almond flavor, we use almond emulsion which gives a much fuller flavor!