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!
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.
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!!!
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.
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!)
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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Christmas Cookies (Vanilla Biscuits / Sugar Cookies)
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
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:
Nutrition Information:
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!!
Another absolute winner! Had fun baking these with my toddler today. My new go to Christmas treat. Thanks Nagi!
Amazing cookies. Didn’t know they were going tospread a bit but its okay. Defenitly an easy and good recepie to make.
If you do chill the cut out cookies on the tray for 10-15 minutes they don’t spread as much. A step worth doing I think if you’re making for others ☺️
Hi Nagi,
Would substituting butter for Nutalex and GF flour work?
Greetings from Portugal!
These cookies are adorable, perfect for the Christmas table.
https://www.receitasfaceisrapidasesaborosas.pt/
Made the Christmas cookies today, another winner. Thanks Nagi 🎄
These biscuits are delicious and I have to say what I love about your recipes is that they always work and I really enjoy making them.I am a Food Tech teacher in a special needs school so your website is wonderful.Thank you Melody
These worked perfectly with my new Embossed rolling pin, so quick and easy and tasted fabulous too! Didn’t have any vanilla essence and it was a test run so I subbed with lemon essence and they were delish! Will be making again very soon
Just whipped up a batch of these Christmas Cookies, and they’re an absolute delight! No chilling time is a game-changer during the holiday rush, and the dough was a dream to work with. The cookies held their shape perfectly. We used marshmallow fondant as our decorations. They taste like a festive version of shortbread—so delicious! Thanks for this stress-free and delicious recipe, Nagi! 🎄🍪
Are these cookies suitable to freeze and then thaw and ice later?
I have frozen them before and they were perfect
Did you freeze them when raw or after they were cooked? Thanks
I just made over 100 cookies with 3 different classes at school and we froze them once completely cool between baking paper and they were still perfect when we got them out to decorate with fondant
I am making Christmas cookies for the business I work for customers.. do you think these would freeze/ unthaw ok if I flash froze so they don’t stick together?
Could i use coconut sugar with these?
Did these biscuits with the kids very crumbly but we had a great time. Worked perfectly.
How long will the raw dough store intge fridge please? Can the raw dough be frozen?
Thanks
In a word yum. Quick and easy. Making these but in a heart shape for Mother’s Day fundraiser. Thank you.
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!
Mine spread a bit. What did I do wrong. 🤷♀️
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!!
Excellent recipe!! Soooo tasty and easy to make, thank you 🙂
Love them!
Can I keep the dough in the fridge for a day if I make extra dough?
Thanks Nagi!!
Making 100s of these cookies as gifts this year ❤️❤️🤤
Yes i did
Hi! I was going to make this cookie recipe and I was wondering if I could split the ingredients in half? Since that is a bit too much for me!