Learn to make easy small batch of sugar cookies recipe with simple ingredients, sour cream or cream cheese. No chilling necessary. No spreading during baking. These cut out cookies hold their shape perfectly and taste great. Great for cookie decorating, especially during Christmas holiday season.
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from CakeWhiz
This was one of the first recipes I shared on my site many years ago. Over time, I have received a lot of wonderful comments and some feedback as well. Based on that and some more experiments in the kitchen, I have updated this recipe to make it even better. My husband ate the whole batch in two sittings, which means this recipe is a winner! It's totally dummy proof and never fails. Depending on the size of your cookie cutter, you can make 1 dozen small cookies or about 6-8 large cookies. If you are fond of small batch baking, be sure to also check out my recipe for Small Batch Peanut Butter Cookies With Chocolate Chips.
Jump to:
Key ingredients
- Butter
- Eggs- Only an egg yolk is required. Please don't use the whole egg or else you will end up with a very sticky dough.
- Sugar
- Sour cream
- Flour
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Vanilla extract
Why is this cut out cookie recipe perfect for you?
- These cookies hold their shape. There is no spreading during baking, which makes them perfect for cookie decorating.
- Unlike most classic cut out cookies, which become hard as rock in a few hours after baking, these remain crispy on the outside and slightly soft on the inside.
- There is no chilling required! You just mix all the ingredients, roll out the dough, cut out shapes and bake.
- You can easily change the flavor through the use of various spices and different extracts.
- Great for days when you suddenly have cravings but only want a small number of cookies to munch on.
How to make easy small batch of sugar cookies from scratch?
1. Add butter, sugar, egg yolk, sour cream, vanilla- In large mixing bowl.
2. Mix- Until light and fluffy.
3. add flour and mix until you have a crumbled dough.
go in with your hands and knead to form a ball of dough.
roll between two sheets of parchment paper or wax paper.
remove the top sheet
cut out cookies with cutters.
bake until golden brown and firm along the edges.
Variations
- You can decorate them with Royal Icing or Glace Icing. Both will dry hard.
- For soft frosted cookies, try my Best Sugar Cookie Frosting.
- Another option is to decorate them with my Homemade Marshmallow Fondant.
- Tint dough with gel food coloring to make colorful cookies. I did that here with these Rainbow Cookies.
- For orange favor, replace vanilla extract with ½ tablespoon orange extract and also add ½ tablespoon orange zest. You can add more or less zest depending on your preference.
- For almond flavor, add ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon almond extract.
- To make spiced flavor, add ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder.
Tips and techniques
- Don't ice or decorate your cookies until they have cooled fully to room temperature.
- You are only using an egg yolk. If you use the whole egg, the dough will be very sticky.
- If your dough is too crumbly, mix in some water. Only add 1 teaspoon at a time because a small amount goes a long way.
- Line your pans with parchment paper to ensure the cookies don't stick to the pan.
- Don't over bake because that will dry out the cookies and make them as hard as a rock.
- The number of cookies you get from this recipe will depend on the size of your cutter (big or small) and how thick or thin you roll it. You can easily get 1 dozen small cookies that have a diameter of 2 inches. If you use a large cutter with a diameter of 3 inches, you can get 6-8 cookies.
- Sour cream substitute- This will always be my first preference but two other options that work well are full fat cream cheese and full fat Green yogurt.
- Make sure to use unsalted butter to prevent these cookies from becoming too salty.
- Use room temperature ingredients to ensure the dough comes together evenly and smoothly.
Recipe FAQs
- Why did my cookies spread?
- What is a good substitute for sour cream?
- Can butter be replaced with oil? No because...
Storage
- Refrigerate- up to 1 week....
- Freeze- Unfrosted and non decorated cookies can be stored in a sealed container for up to 1 month.
- Room temperature- cookie jar for 3 days....
- Make ahead- 1-2 days in advance.....
More easy cookies
- Easy Funfetti Cookies (Cut Out)
- Coconut Sugar Cookies (Cut Out)
- Vanilla Crackle Cookies (Sugar Crinkle Cookies)
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies (Cut Out)
- Christmas Pinwheel Cookies (Spiral)
Recipe
Small Batch of Sugar Cookies (Cut Out)
Video
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from CakeWhiz
Ingredients
- ¼ cup Butter Unsalted, Room temperature
- ⅓ cup Granulated sugar
- 1 Egg yolk From large egg
- 1 tablespoon Full fat sour cream OR greek yogurt OR cream cheese
- ½ tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 1 cup All-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
- ⅛ teaspoon Baking powder
Instructions
- Cream sugar and butter in a deep bowl.
- Add sour cream and mix again. I think sour cream added some moisture to these cookies and prevented them from becoming very hard.
- Add flour, baking powder and salt.
- Mix everything. The dough will look odd and crumbly. That’s perfectly normal. You haven’t done anything wrong.
- Now it’s time to use your hands and knead this mixture into a ball of dough.
- Roll this dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
- Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
- Bake these cookies on a cookie tray, lined with parchment paper at 350 degrees F for 6 minutes. Then rotate your tray and bake for another 3 minutes. Your baking times may vary depending on the thickness of your cookies. Cookies are done when they are light golden brown along the edges and slightly soft in the center.
- Allow the cookies to cool down completely in the tray before removing them from the parchment paper. Enjoy!
Notes
- The number of cookies you get from this recipe will depend on the size of your cutter (big or small) and how thick or thin you roll it. You can easily get 1 dozen small cookies that have a diameter of 2 inches. If you use a large cutter with a diameter of 3 inches, you can get 6-8 cookies.
- Line your pans with parchment paper to ensure the cookies don't stick to the pan.
- Don't over bake because that will dry out the cookies and make them as hard as a rock.
- Don't ice or decorate your cookies until they have cooled fully to room temperature.
- You are only using an egg yolk. NOT the whole egg!
- For orange favor, replace vanilla extract with ½ tablespoon orange extract and also add ½ tablespoon orange zest. You can add more or less zest depending on your preference.
- For almond flavor, add ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon almond extract.
- To make spiced flavor, add ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a cookie jar at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
Linda
Grandson and I made for Christmas- perfect !
Kitty ONeal
This recipe is exactly what I was looking for in terms of size and flavor. Cookies turned out great. I added a little more salt because I used unsalted butter.