Easter Sugar Cookies (Cut Out Cookies)

For a fun spring and/or holiday treat, make Easter Sugar Cookies! This easy cut out cookie recipe creates decorated Easter cookies that are adorable and delicious.

Pink bunnies, yellow chicks, and yellow egg Easter sugar cookie cut outs.

Table of Contents

If you're looking for a fun cookie idea for Spring, you've found it! This recipe has received multiple 5 star reviews!

Decorating sugar cookies with royal icing, buttercream, or colored sugar is so simple, and it's a great activity for kids.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

The perfect texture. Crunchy on the outside and super soft in the middle.
Freezer friendly. Save time by making a double (or triple!) batch of dough for Easter cookies at one time. It freezes well for up to 4 months! The baked sugar cookies can also be frozen.
Adorable and easy to decorate.

A close up of a yellow Spring cookie shaped like a chick, on a silicone baking sheet

These Easter Sugar Cookies are seriously our favorite holiday dessert. We have them every year alongside Italian Cream Pie and Cadbury Egg Cookies. They're so delicious!

Ingredients

See ingredient substitutions in the next section. ⬇️

To make this easy cookie recipe, you'll need:

unsalted butter: If you can afford it, I recommend using European butter rather than American-made. The extra butterfat gives the cookies a fantastic buttery flavor.

Do not use margarine. It has a lot of water in it, which can cause the dough to spread too much.
white granulated sugar
large egg
milk: I use whole milk, but any type of dairy milk or dairy-free nut milk will be fine.
vanilla extract
all-purpose flour: I prefer to use unbleached flour, but bleached flour is fine.
baking powder: If it hasn't been used in the past 3 months, it's best to test it before baking with it. When leaveners are too old, they don't produce the gas bubbles needed for baked goods to rise in the oven.

Small bowls of all-purpose flour, butter, granulated sugar, milk, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract. An egg sits on the counter next to the bowls.

Substitutions and Recipe Variations

all-purpose flour: If you'd like to make gluten free Easter cookies, swap the AP flour for a 1:1 brand of gluten-free all-purpose flour. Two popular brands are Bob's Red Mill and King Arthur Flour.
baking powder: If you happen to be out of baking powder, but you have baking soda and cream of tarter on hand, you can make a baking powder substitute.

To use baking soda as a substitute for baking powder, mix ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar with ¼ teaspoon of baking soda for every 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
white granulated sugar: To cut down on the calories of your cookies, feel free to use any cup-for-cup granulated sugar substitute. Monkfruit sugar is a good option.
butter: If you need or want to use salted butter, just omit the salt noted in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. I do not recommend using margarine or other butter substitutes that have a lot of water in them.
egg: Egg yolks are important for creating moisture and structure in cookies, so I haven't tested any egg substitutes with this recipe. If you want to do some testing on your own, feel free! For tips and suggestions, read my article, Egg Substitutions for Baking.
vanilla extract: If you need an alcohol-free flavoring, you can use vanilla essence. Feel free to substitute with almond extract.

Variations

You can add a few drops of food coloring to the dough to dye it. Use any sprinkles you like!

Doubling: This recipe can easily be doubled, but as written, it makes 6 dozen!

Here are a few tools that will help you to make this recipe:

Rolling Pin: I HIGHLY recommend this rolling pin! It has little wheels on the side that allow you to control the thickness of the dough. No guessing or rolling some cookies out too thin or too thick

Parchment Paper -I always bake all cookies on parchment paper, while my gram uses greased cookie sheets. It's up to you!

Best Spring and Easter Cookie Cutters

There are many different options on Amazon, and at craft stores like Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I think metal cookie cutters work best. Here are some of my favorites:

9 Piece Metal Cookie Cutters- super cute! Includes a bunny, egg, butterfly + more
3 Piece Metal Cookie Cutters - this set has a carrot, egg and bunny. They're a little larger
18 Piece Metal Cookie Cutters - for less than $10 this set has a lot of cookie cutters!

If you want a festive Easter dessert without cookie cutters, try our Sugar Cookie Bars with festive sprinkles on top!

How to Bake Spring or Easter Sugar Cookies

Summary only. The complete recipe instructions are in the card at the bottom of this post ⬇️

Overhead of smooth dough in a mixing bowl.

Make the dough. If desired, mix food coloring into the dough.

Easter sugar cookies on a silicone baking sheet.

Cut out shapes on a lightly floured surface, decorate, then bake.

How to Cut Out Cookies

Divide the dough into quarters and form each section into a ball.
Sprinkle flour on the ball of cookie dough.
Lightly flour your work surface. You want to roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, but if you use too much flour, it can cause the cookies to be dry and crumbly.
Roll the cookie dough out to desired thickness. A thickness between ⅙-inch and ¼-inch is ideal.
Press your cookie cutters down and through the dough, then lift straight up. Do not twist the cutters to remove them because it will distort the shape you're cutting.

Liz's Tips for the Best Cookies

Use butter that is soft, but not melted. Leave the butter out for 1-2 hours before baking, or soften in the microwave in 10 second increments. You want the butter to be bendable and pliable, not melted, and not too hard.
Sugar cookie dough should not be super soft or mushy. It should have a thick texture, and be able to be formed into a ball.
If the dough seems too soft to work with, wrap the ball in plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.
Avoid over mixing the cookie dough. When mixing in the flour, use low speed, and stop mixing as soon as there are no visible streaks of flour.

Decorating Sugar Cookies

I don't typically frost my cookies, but you can if you want to! Use royal icing or butter cream. I find it's easiest to just color the dye with food coloring, then sprinkle the tops with colored sugar before baking.

You can also decorate the cut out cookies with a powdered sugar glaze or icing.

Powdered Sugar Icing Recipe

1 cup of powdered sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of milk usually makes enough for decorating a batch of 12 sugar cookies, but this recipe can be doubled if needed.

Stir sugar and milk together in a small bowl, until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
If desired, dye it with liquid or gel food coloring, then pour or spoon the icing into a piping bag (or Ziploc bag) to decorate the cookies.

If the icing is too thin, add more milk to thicken it, but only add a TINY bit at a time, because it thins out quickly! To thicken the icing, add more powdered sugar.

A platter of Easter sugar cookies in pink and yellow colors.

Storing and Freezing Instructions

These cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for about 2 weeks (if you don't eat them all before then!)

Freeze the dough and/or the baked sugar cookies in an airtight container or zip top food storage bag for up to 3 months. It's best to freeze them undecorated. Colored sugar can bleed into the cookies when frozen, but it doesn't affect the taste.

Easter Sugar Cookies Recipe FAQs

Should sugar cookie dough be room temperature before baking?

Yes, sugar cookie dough should be room temperature before baking unless your recipe calls for it to be chilled.

Can you roll out sugar cookie dough before chilling?

You can roll out sugar cookie dough before chilling, but we don't recommend it. It's a lot harder to store a bunch of chilled baking sheets than one small bowl of sugar cookie dough.

Other Spring Cookie Ideas