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Home Baking

Christmas Cookies! (Vanilla Biscuits/Sugar Cookies)

By:Nagi
Published:18 Dec '21Updated:3 Dec '22
252 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

Take a break from the Christmas madness to make Christmas Cookies! These sugar cookies are classic vanilla biscuits that are made for cutting out shapes because they hold their shape perfectly when baked.

NO CHILL time, make them soft OR crispy. Ice them my EASY way, dip in chocolate, dust with icing sugar or serve them plain!

Close up of colourful Christmas Cookies

 Christmas Cookies

What I call “Christmas Cookies” are simply vanilla biscuits cut out in Christmas shapes and iced with colourful festive frosting. They taste like shortbread cookies, but not quite as buttery or crumbly. They are as classic as vanilla biscuits can be.

This particular biscuit recipe is made for cutting out shapes – in this case, Christmas shapes. Most cookies spread snd puff up so they bear little resemblance to the shape you expected!

But these hold their shape perfectly – as you can see by the sharp ridges and corners in the photo below.

Photo of plain sugar cookies with no frosting

What you need for Christmas Cookies

The nice thing about these Christmas Cookies is that they’re made with pantry staples – so there’s no need to add to your ever growing Christmas grocery shopping list!!!

What you need for Christmas Cookies

How to make Christmas Cookies

Unlike most cookie doughs suitable for cutting out shape, there’s no chill time required for this recipe. Ain’t nobody got time for chilling during Christmas madness – right??!

Bonus: the dough is easy to handle and can be scrunched up and rolled up again over and over until you’ve used up every scrap.

How to make Christmas Cookies - Cut out Sugar Cookies

Because these are sweet vanilla biscuits, they are flavoured enough and sweet enough to serve plain. But if you are inclined to ice them, pop over to my Icing for Christmas Cookies (PS I also share my quick ‘n easy way to ice them!)

Photo of tray filled with Christmas sugar cookies

So. Many. Cookies.

A sight that will catapult anyone into serious Christmas spirit!!

Make these for Santa, your family, or (if you’re really feeling the holiday spirit) maybe even to gift to someone.

And don’t worry. This is a big batch recipe. Nibble away, no one will miss one or two or five!! 😉 – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

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Close up of colourful Christmas Cookies

Christmas Cookies (Vanilla Biscuits / Sugar Cookies)

Author: Nagi
Prep: 25 minutes mins
Cook: 10 minutes mins
Sweet Baking
Western
4.99 from 65 votes
Servings40 cookies
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. These cookies are made for cutting out into shapes because they hold their shape when baking! They are plain, sweet vanilla biscuits that are perfect for icing and decorating as you please – and wonderful served plain too. NO CHILL!

Ingredients

  • 225g / 1 cup unsalted butter , softened (or use salted, skip salt)
  • 1 cup caster/superfine sugar (granulated/ordinary white sugar ok too)
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg (55-60g / 1.9-2oz)
  • 3 cups flour , plain / all purpose
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt

Icing for Sugar Cookies

  • Icing for Sugar Cookies

Instructions

  • Preheat Oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy (1 minute on speed 5)
  • Add egg and vanilla, beat until completely combined.
  • Add flour, baking powder, and salt.
  • Start mixing slowly, then beat until the flour is incorporated – it will be clumpy.
  • Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Pat together then cut in half, then shape into 2 discs.
  • Roll out to 0.3cm / 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 0.6cm / 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies), sprinkling with flour under and over the dough so it doesn't stick.
  • Use cookie cutters to press out shapes and use a knife or spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheets. (Keep dough that doesn’t fit in the oven in the fridge).
  • Bake for 10 minutes, swapping trays halfway (Note 2), until the surface is pale golden and the edges are just beginning to turn light golden.
  • Allow cookies to cool completely on trays (they will finish cooking on the trays).

Decorating options:

  • Icing – see Icing for Christmas Cookies recipe.
  • Melt chocolate then dip the surface into chocolate.
  • Dot with icing sugar and decorated with silver balls
  • Dust with icing sugar
  • Serve plain! They are sweet vanilla biscuits so they are wonderful eaten just as they are!

Recipe Notes:

1. Number of cookies will depend on cut out size and how thick you roll your dough. It fills 3 baking trays.
2. Swapping trays halfway – this means that you put both trays in the oven with one in the middle of the oven and the other underneath. Halfway through the bake time, switch them around so the one underneath moves to the top shelf, and the tray on top moves to the shelf underneath. This ensures they both bake evenly because the top shelf bakes faster than the shelf underneath.
3. Source – adapted from this Sugar Cookies recipe by Sugar, Spun, Run. 
4. Storage – Keeps in an airtight container for a week. After this, they are still edible and totally delicious but they do start to dry out a touch (I think….I may be a bit too picky when I’m estimating shelf life of food for recipes I share!!). I would never describe them as stale, but they are better in Week 1.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 96cal (5%)Carbohydrates: 12g (4%)Protein: 1g (2%)Fat: 5g (8%)Saturated Fat: 3g (19%)Cholesterol: 16mg (5%)Sodium: 46mg (2%)Potassium: 20mg (1%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 5g (6%)Vitamin A: 147IU (3%)Calcium: 7mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: christmas biscuits, christmas cookies, vanilla biscuits
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Originally published 2019. Reviewed and refreshed as needed every year or so. No change to recipe, it’s a classic!

Life of Dozer

When Dozer got his very own personalised Christmas cookie!!

Dozer personalised Christmas Cookie
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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252 Comments

  1. Lola says

    December 9, 2023 at 9:25 pm

    5 stars
    Made these today and turned out great! Easy dough to work with.
    Wondering CAN THEY BE FROZEN – either raw dough or cooked??? Thanks

    Reply
  2. Mardi Maurovic says

    December 5, 2023 at 11:27 pm

    5 stars
    Another absolute winner! Had fun baking these with my toddler today. My new go to Christmas treat. Thanks Nagi!

    Reply
  3. Bella says

    December 5, 2023 at 3:14 am

    5 stars
    Amazing cookies. Didn’t know they were going tospread a bit but its okay. Defenitly an easy and good recepie to make.

    Reply
  4. Deborah Varty says

    December 3, 2023 at 4:36 pm

    5 stars
    Made the Christmas cookies today, another winner. Thanks Nagi 🎄

    Reply
  5. Marty says

    November 19, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    Are these cookies suitable to freeze and then thaw and ice later?

    Reply
    • Lucy says

      December 9, 2023 at 7:30 pm

      I have frozen them before and they were perfect

      Reply
  6. Julie says

    April 2, 2023 at 2:29 pm

    5 stars
    In a word yum. Quick and easy. Making these but in a heart shape for Mother’s Day fundraiser. Thank you.

    Reply
  7. WendyS says

    February 17, 2023 at 5:24 am

    5 stars
    Been looking for a good cutout recipe. This is it. Doubled it with no problems at all. Never had dough so easy to handle and roll with no chilling! The castor sugar is key, and ensure it’s whipped in the butter until light pale yellow and you’ll have gorgeous texture bikkies!

    Reply
  8. Glenna says

    February 13, 2023 at 11:23 am

    5 stars
    This is the BEST cookie recipe with Royal Icing! Cookies hold their shape while baking and the Royal Icing makes them delicious and decorative! Great for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc. Thanks for sharing Nagi!!

    Reply
  9. Michelle says

    December 23, 2022 at 1:12 pm

    5 stars
    Love them!

    Can I keep the dough in the fridge for a day if I make extra dough?

    Thanks Nagi!!

    Reply
    • Heather Knapp says

      December 2, 2023 at 9:45 am

      5 stars
      Making 100s of these cookies as gifts this year ❤️❤️🤤

      Reply
  10. Crissy says

    December 21, 2022 at 8:33 am

    5 stars
    These cookies are honestly delicious, I almost smashed the whole batch myself 🤣. I love to cook and bake, and cookies never work out for me, but this recipe is fool proof! I would 100000% make these again and again, and alter decorations and shapes for various occasions. Love, love, love them!

    Reply
  11. Katharine says

    December 18, 2022 at 11:50 am

    5 stars
    Made a batch of these biscuits for my daughter and her friends to decorate. The dough came together beautifully and rolled well and the finished biscuits tasted good. Thanks for a simple, tasty recipe!

    Reply
  12. Fab says

    December 17, 2022 at 1:51 pm

    Love this christmas cookies, quick and asy recepie. But will like to knowhowtostore the icing if you dont use it all in one go and have left over its a shame to go to waste. Does anyone know ?? Thank you & Merry Christmas everyone.

    Reply
  13. Lynmarie L Christy says

    December 13, 2022 at 11:22 am

    5 stars
    LOVE these. I’ve made many different recipes, but these will now be my new “go to” for cut outs. Really like the subtly, light flavor. Haven’t even tried icing them yet!

    Reply
  14. Rhonda says

    December 12, 2022 at 10:31 am

    5 stars
    No Chilling and they’re still perfect! I used these as cookie crusts in my mini muffin pans. They were absolute perfect! Also made the recipe for sugar cookies to decorate. ( I had to use an extra TB of butter becuz dough was crumbly. (A bit weird becuz I didn’t have to add extra for the mini-muffin cookies.). Also, I did 1 tsp almond extract + 1 tsp vanilla. Next time I will do 1/2 tsp vanilla + 1 1/2tsp almond extract as I didn’t really taste the almond flavor. The cookie dough was so easy to work with. Super time saver not having to chill. I will add, knowing that everyone’s oven is different-mine is especially old & and uneven cooker- I had to pull my cookies out at 6-7 mins@365*F. They almost looked uncooked. If I baked until all edges were golden brown, the cookies came out pretty dry. Good flavor & great for decorating, but I like a chewier/softer cookie. Good luck everyone. Hope everyone loves this recipe as much as I do. This is one I will be handing down! It’s a permanent addition to the holidays! Thank you Nagi!!

    Reply
  15. Sneha says

    December 12, 2022 at 4:53 am

    What can we replace the egg with.?

    Reply
  16. Rosalie Neil says

    December 10, 2022 at 4:27 am

    Is the nutrition facts based on one cookie or two ?

    Reply
  17. Val Mahoney says

    December 9, 2022 at 10:50 pm

    Made these today, very pleased with them. Going to freeze them when iced.
    Thank you for the recipe.🍪🍪

    Reply
  18. jen says

    December 9, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    5 stars
    Great simple recipe for biscuits to decorate. I add lemon and ime rind. Also if you roll them out between two pieces of baking paper then its quick and you dont dry the mixture out so much and get flour everyhwhere ( but maybe thats just me 😉

    Reply
  19. Lucia says

    December 6, 2022 at 10:28 pm

    5 stars
    Lovely biscuits, as all your recipes. They are all fantastic.
    Lots of love from Spain.

    Reply
    • Lisa says

      December 19, 2022 at 11:33 am

      5 stars
      I haven’t made sugar cookies in years because I just couldn’t get them right until now. These are so good and fairly easy. Haven’t iced them yet, but assume that should be as easy and good as the cookies!

      Reply
  20. Kristy says

    December 6, 2022 at 10:13 am

    I made these yesterday with my son. They were delicious. Tasted just like Danish butter cookies. I didn’t even need to put the icing. They were great as is. I used granulated sugar and I even used 3/4 cups and they were still sweet and crumbly and just delicious.

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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