Like a cross between classic sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, these brown sugar cut-out cookies are made with butter, dark brown sugar, and a touch of cozy spices. Perfect for the holidays or anytime you crave sugar cookies with a little extra flavor! Make them any shape you like and have fun decorating with your choice of icing.
Call them a compromise cookie. Maybe you want to decorate Christmas cookies, but you can’t decide between making sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, and only have the time/energy/ingredients to make just one…
…or maybe you love the festive spiced flavor of gingerbread cookies but can’t find molasses where you live…
…or maybe you love sugar cookies, but crave something with a little more flavor…
Meet the solution that’s sure to please everyone: brown sugar cut-out cookies.
(Now, deciding whether to top them with royal icing, easy glaze icing, or cookie decorating buttercream… you’re on your own for that one!)
Brown Sugar Cut-Out Cookies Recipe Snapshot
- Texture: These cookies have soft, thick centers with slightly crisp edges, just like classic sugar cookies and Christmas sugar cookies.
- Flavor: Buttery and sweet with comforting brown sugar and cozy spice flavors. If you prefer a plain brown sugar cookie, you can omit the spices.
- Ease: If you have an electric mixer and a rolling pin, you can definitely make these cookies.
- Time: This dough needs to chill for at least 1–2 hours, but the time it takes to make the dough and bake the cookies is pretty short. How you decide to decorate the cookies will account for adding more or less time.
Key Ingredients You Need
- Brown Sugar: Like these pecan sugar cookies, using all brown sugar in place of white sugar gives these cookies a deeper, more complex flavor. I recommend dark brown sugar here for the most flavor, but light brown sugar is fine if that’s all you have.
- Spice: Cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg are the flavor power players here. If you want to keep these cookies as plain brown sugar cookies, you can simply leave out the spices.
- Everything Nice: You also need flour, baking powder, butter, an egg, salt, and vanilla extract. Cookie baking basics!
Here’s the lineup:
How to Keep Brown Sugar Moist
To keep brown sugar soft, store it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, like a pantry, drawer, or cupboard. I store my flours and sugars in these containers, and have done so for years.
If your brown sugar becomes hard and crumbly, all is not lost! You can soften it up again by adding something that absorbs moisture, such as a slice of bread or a marshmallow, to the container and letting it sit overnight. Just remember to remove the (now-stale) bread the next day, before it turns moldy.
For a more permanent solution, use a terracotta sugar saver. Terracotta absorbs moisture (and doesn’t go bad), and you can buy a brown sugar-saver bear or disc that’s specifically designed for this purpose. You can even buy brown sugar storage containers that include a terracotta piece right in the lid, like this one. They’re really handy.
This brown sugar cookie dough comes together quickly with an electric mixer. Once all your ingredients are combined, it’s time to roll out and chill the dough.
My #1 Tip for Making Cut-Out Cookies
Roll the dough out before chilling. I’ll explain why this is so successful. Divide the dough in half, roll out each portion, and then chill:
Most sugar cookie doughs require chilling so the cookies hold their cookie cutter shape in the oven. But if you’ve ever tried rolling out chilled sugar cookie dough, you may remember how difficult it is to flatten cold, stiff dough. So, roll out the dough while it’s still soft (right after making it), and then chill the rolled-out dough. Here’s my exact method, and it works for chocolate sugar cookies, too:
- Divide the dough in half because smaller sections are easier to roll out.
- Roll out the cookie dough directly on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator.
- Pick the whole thing up, set it on a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. Remember, you have 2 slabs of dough. If you don’t have enough room for 2 baking sheets in your refrigerator, simply stack the pieces of rolled-out dough on top of each other, with parchment paper or silicone baking mat in between.
After the rolled-out dough chills for at least 1–2 hours, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Be sure to re-roll the dough scraps as needed.
The cookies are done when the edges are set and the middles still look slightly soft. These cookies hold their shape nicely in the oven, and bake up with a nice flat surface that’s perfect for decorating.
Now, for everyone’s favorite part!
Decorating Brown Sugar Cut-Out Cookies
For the cookies you see pictured here, my team and I used royal icing to decorate the cookies shaped like reindeer, trees, candy canes, and gingerbread people. And we used cookie decorating buttercream to decorate the snowflake cookies.
If you’re new to decorating with royal icing, it may help to watch my video tutorial on how to decorate sugar cookies. I’ll walk you through 4 simple and approachable techniques that are a great place to start if you’re new to cookie decorating. For the pictured cookies, I used Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding with icing. This is a wonderful basic piping tip to have in your collection.
I also have an easy cookie icing glaze you could try instead. It takes longer to dry than royal icing, but it’s quick and easy to make, it doesn’t require piping bags/tips. I use squeeze bottles for it! It’s wonderful if you have young bakers eager to help decorate.
And, of course, don’t forget the sprinkles. If you plan to dedicate a whole day to cookie-baking, here’s how How to Host a Cookie Decorating Day guide. 😉
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
Brown Sugar Cut-Out Cookies
Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
Yield: 24 3-inch cookies
Category: Cookies
Method: Baking
Cuisine: American
Description
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Dough will be a bit soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add more flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Divide the dough in half. Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.
- Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 1–2 hours, or up to 2 days.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Re-roll the dough scraps and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. (Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Arrange cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 11–12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5–10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Decorate the cooled cookies with royal icing, cookie buttercream, or easy cookie icing; top with sprinkles, if using. Feel free to tint any of these icings with gel food coloring. For decorating inspiration, my How to Decorate Sugar Cookies tutorial is helpful.
- Enjoy cookies right away or wait until the icing sets to serve them. Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for about 5 days when covered tightly at room temperature. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days. If decorated with cookie buttercream, cover and store decorated cookies at room temperature for 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Plain or decorated sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Wait for the icing to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 3, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disc as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the discs in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill rolled-out dough in the refrigerator for 45 minutes–1 hour before cutting into shapes and baking. See this post on how to freeze cookie dough for a video tutorial.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Wooden Rolling Pin or Adjustable Rolling Pin | Holiday Cookie Cutter Set | Cooling Rack | Piping Bags (Disposable or Reusable) | Couplers | Piping Tips Set | Assorted Sprinkles (Like These or These)
- Can I Skip the Spices? Yes. If you want a plain brown sugar cookie, you can omit the spices with no other changes to the recipe.
- Room Temperature: Room temperature butter is essential. If the dough is too sticky, your butter may have been too soft. Room temperature butter is actually cool to the touch. Room temperature egg is preferred so it’s quickly and evenly mixed into the cookie dough.
- Icing: Use royal icing, easy cookie icing, or cookie decorating buttercream. See post above to read about the differences.
- Can I Double the Recipe? Yes. Double all of the ingredients and divide the dough into 3 or 4 sections in step 4.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.