Old Fashion Sour Cream Cut-Out Cookies are the BEST frosted sugar cookie with a cake-like softness, finished off with the most decadent and delicious buttercream!
The Best Cut-Out Cookies
These Old Fashion Sour Cream Cut-Out Cookies are EPIC, like seriously the best cut-out sugar cookie I have every had, in my entire life! You know how you see those gorgeous cookies on Pinterest or Instagram that have the most intricate icing designs and the cookies look like they were laser cut to perfection because they don’t spread at all?
Yup, those cookies look spectacular…but guess what, they don’t taste all that great. That isn’t the case with these soft cut out cookies that are perfect for holiday cookie decorations!
Cut Out Cookie Recipe that tastes good!
Those “perfect” looking cookies are usually dense and bland. These Old Fashion Sour Cream Cut-Out Cookies are neither of those things. The buttercream is laced with vanilla and almond flavoring and the cookies themselves have a hint of nutmeg for flavor and sour cream to keep their soft cake-like texture nice and moist.
Together, the cookies and buttercream have the perfect balance of sweetness with a soft and scrumptious bite. The buttercream also keeps the cookies nice and soft for many days stored in an airtight container.
Holiday Cookie Baking
I always enlist the help of my mother when I am making these Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cut Out Cookies, because to be completely honest, she is way better at rolling out dough than me.
Whether it is a perfect pie crust or these cookies, her years of experience serve her well in this department. So why not let the expert do her thing and let’s real, more hands make quicker work!
We typically double this recipe, because if I am going to go through all of the work of making these beauties, I may as well have a good amount of cookies to show for it.
This is the same recipe that my mother grew up making with my grandma and I grew up making with my mom. My grandmother perfected the cookie recipe and my mom and I have perfected the buttercream for the perfect piping consistency and flavor. It is the first cookie to fly off our Christmas cookie platter during the holidays. For me, it has nudged out Walnut Thumbprints as my all-time favorite cookie, Christmas or not!
Can I freeze cut out cookies?
These cookies freeze so well unfrosted, and you truly can’t tell the difference as they maintain their light cake-like texture after thawing. Pull them out of the freezer right before the holiday and let the whole family join in the fun frosting and decorating!
Just be sure to wait to frost these cookies until they are fully defrosted. The buttercream won’t freeze well on the cookies and you will miss out on the amazing texture of these sour cream cookies.
Frosted Sugar Cookies
You don’t have to pipe your buttercream onto the cookies. You can do it the old fashioned way and just slather it on there to make quick work of it all.
Either way, as the men in my family tell me EVERY.SINGLE.HOLIDAY, it tastes the same no matter how pretty you decorate them! #NoAppreciation
Tips and Tricks for rolling out the best cut-out cookies
When it comes to successfully rolling out cookie dough, it isn’t the easiest of tasks the first time you try it. Much like a pie crust, it takes some practice and patience. There are a few things you want to keep in mind that will help achieve the best possible result!
- Before you ever get started rolling out cookie dough, you need to let the dough CHILL! We always make our dough the night before and let it really get chilled. If you are in a pinch for time, I suggest letting it refrigerate for at least two hours. If you don’t chill the dough, it is going to be a big sticky mess.
- The first important thing to remember when it comes to rolling out dough, is that no matter what surface you are working on, it should be generously floured. You don’t want a pile of flour on the table, but it should be a healthy coating. I like to use a sifter or mesh strainer to coat the surface evenly and thoroughly.
- Coat everything that is touching the dough with flour!
- Your hands should be floured before pressing out the dough.
- The rolling pin should get dusted before touching the dough.
- Cookie cutters should get dunked in flour before each cookie is cut out.
- The spatula turner should get dipped in flour before picking up any cut out cookie from the work surface.
- FLOUR, FLOUR, FLOUR! I really can’t stress this point enough. If you skip the flour, you will need something for the headache later.
- Remove the pieces of dough around the cut out shapes with a butter knife before lifting the cookies off the floured surface. This helps prevent the cookies from becoming disfigured when you lift them if they aren’t perfectly released from the surrounding dough.
- After you have cut out all the cookie shapes you can from the dough, ball all of the scraps up with your hands and roll it out. You can get quite a few more cookies this way. Just keep in mind, this round of cookies isn’t quite as spectacular as the first rounds. The texture is usually a tiny bit dry and not as cake like. They are still amazing right out of the oven or slathered with buttercream. Just save these ones for your least favorite family members! 🙂
- When baking sour cream cut out cookies, you need to keep a very close eye on them. The cookies should not get golden brown overall. You just want the slightest golden color on the edges, but the tops will still be very light. You may even think they aren’t done yet, but I promise, if you pull them out at the right time, you will have the most amazing cake like cut out cookies. Take a peak at the photo above, for what your baked cookies should look like. See that Santa on the bottom right corner. That got overbaked… woops!
Favorite Old Fashioned Christmas Cookie Recipes
Slap on your apron, tune into your favorite Christmas music and get ready to get messy. These cookies may take an afternoon to make, but I promise you with everything I have, they are totally and completely worth it!
If you are looking for more amazing Christmas cookie recipes, be sure to check out some of our family’s favorite recipes for the holidays.
- Walnut Thumbprint Cookies – The combination of sweet and salty in these classic thumbprints is one of my favorites!
- Toasted Coconut Straw Hat Cookies – We grew up with these cookies as a staple on our cookie platter, but I’ve come to find out they seem to be unique to our family. If you are looking for something different this holiday season, I beg you to give these a try. You won’t be disappointed!
- Soft Molasses Cookies – These classic molasses cookies are a great addition to any cookie platter.
Old Fashion Sour Cream Cut-Out Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- Buttercream for frosting
Instructions
Sour Cream Cookie Dough
- In a large bowl beat the shortening and sugar until smooth. Blend in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.
- Blend in the dry ingredients into the eggs alternately with the sour cream, being sure not to overwork the dough.
- IMPORTANT: Refrigerate the dough covered with cling wrap overnight, or at least a couple of hours.
Baking Cut Out Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Place half of the dough on floured surface. Press the dough out with your floured hands. Use a flour coated rolling pin to roll the dough out evenly to about 1/8 inch thickness.
- Coat your cookie cutters with flour and cut out as many shapes as you can. Using a flour coated spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to parchment lined or non-stick baking sheets.
- Repeat steps 2 & 3 with the other half of dough. Don't waste the scraps of dough! Ball them up with your hands and roll them out for more cookies. (These cookies won't have quite as soft of texture as they get slightly overworked, but are still very good.)
- Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes at 350°F or until just very slightly golden brown on the edges. Keep a close eye on the cookies, because you want them a beautiful light color for the best texture.
- Allow the cookies to completely cool on cooling wracks before frosting. Store in an air-tight container.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Tiffany says
Could I substitute gluten-free flour? It’s the King Arthur 1-1 GF flour, thanks!
Carole says
Could I use 1/4 butter and 1/4 shortening?
Danielle Green says
I would stick to shortening for the soft texture of these cookies.
Connie says
Delicious!!
Suzanne says
I tried these with the nutmeg in them and they were horrible. Guess I’ve learned my lesson not to do that again. I love that it’s a small batch cookie recipe. I do use regular butter in it but don’t add any salt. I figure the butter has enough for the flavor. Like the texture, with them being soft.
Kathy H says
Is it possible to substitute Greek nonfat yogurt for the sour cream?
Danielle Green says
Yes, I just did that yesterday because I didn’t have Sour cream!
Julie says
These held their shape great after cutting them out and tasted amazing!
Malinda says
I loved the flavor of these so much! My new go to for sugar cookies!
Autumn says
Made these with the kids and they had so much fun and loved them!
Alison LaFortune says
I’ve never made sour cream cut-outs before and these were delish! Made an extra batch to have around.
Kalani K. says
Hi…I really love your Santa Claus! Is it possible you could blog on how you created him?
Danielle Green says
I just free hand all my designs with piping tips. I use a grass tip for the santa beard if that helps!
Danielle Green says
Hi Kalani, I actually just uploaded a video to this post and it shows me decorating the Santa. Hope this helps!
Bri says
Have you tried making these as bars? I love this recipe so much, but sometimes need a faster version. I was curious how long to bake them if I try it. i would love to hear of anyone has done it. Thanks!
Susan says
Hi, I am wondering how these cookies are a day or 2 later? I am looking for a cookie that does not dry out or get crumbly, but remains mostly the same up to a day or 2 after preparing. Just curious if you had any insight for this question?
Danielle Green says
So that is actually one of the things I love most about these cookies. They stay very moist for days! Nothing crumbly about this cookie ever.
Jessy Pomplun says
I have been using this recipe for several years now to make holiday cookies for Halloween and Christmas and our friends LOVE them! My husband’s coworkers start asking for them WEEKS before the holidays, and I love decorating them with my kids. Sometimes I even substitute a little of the vanilla extract with some almond extract for a unique flavor. I’ve had lots of people ask me for the recipe as well. I’ve tried other ‘sugar cookie’ recipes but we just keep coming back to this one. Thank you for sharing!
Christine says
The nutmeg was flavourful, and the texture was soft and tender as promised. However, these really don’t work as cutout cookies. They spread and puffed up considerably, despite thorough chilling and use of butter, resulting in not-sharp edges and uneven tops that didn’t really lend themselves to decorating. I think these would work well rolled into balls, but I wouldn’t make again as cutouts.
Amanda says
I don’t have shortening on hand. Would I be able to use butter instead?
Danielle Green says
In a pinch you can, but it will produce a slightly different texture.
Jane says
I live at 5200 feet. Do I need to alter the receipe to account for the altitude? Thank you!
Danielle Green says
I cant speak to altitude differences as I only make it at thr same altitude. Just keep a close eye on thrm and pull thrm from the oven as soon as thr edges are the slightest golden brown.
Kelly says
Hi! I’m excited to try this recipe… I don’t usually make cutout cookies but decided to try them with my kiddos this year. Question though – tonight when I made the dough, my shortening+sugar would not smooth out… they were super crumbly. And then when I incorporated all the other ingredients, it was still crumbly. I ended up using my hands to mix and knead the dough until it was all incorporated into an actual dough. Is this typical? Any idea what might have caused it? I double-checked the ingredients about 20 times! 🙂 Thank you!
Danielle Green says
It shouldn’t be that dry. It will be difficult to roll out with that dry of dough. Did you perhaps pack your flour in the measuring cup or not smooth it off with a butter knife for an accurate measurement?
Melinda L Stednitz says
You mentioned almond extract in the description where you talked about the cookies, but there is no mention or measurement for it in the actual recipe…help please.
Danielle Green says
The almond extract goes in the buttercream.
Britt says
I guess I shouldn’t have just skipped straight to the recipe. I wanted to use up sour cream I had in excess. It’s holiday time so I figured this would be perfect. Did not realize they would be cakey 🙁 if you’re into cakey texture cut outs these are perfect! Not too sweet either! I wanted to state, these SPREAD. I mean my cookies grew almost three times as big so I was happy I spaced them out pretty far 🙂
Valarie says
I used room temp butter because it was all I had, and now that I read your comment about the difference … I am scared for my life, lol. They have been in the fridge for at least an hour now, will they at all hold shape or am I screwed ):
Danielle Green says
Haha, I’m guessing they turned out fine seeing you refrigerated them!
Sharon Short says
I grew up eating these cookies. My Mom (92 yrs old) got this recipe off the back of a bag of flour in the 1950’s. The recipe we use makes a larger batch. For years she didn’t use sour cream and substituted the same amount of milk (the cookie taste the same with either). She does not use a rolling pin; she flattens the dough out with her hands to approx 1/4″. They come out large and fluffy! I loved them frosted, but my Dad and grandkids do not. This recipe has been passed down to my oldest daughter and she now makes them for her family. It is a year around staple in our family, and is her go to recipe to take to a family dinner, or potluck.
Danielle Green says
I might need to steal your Mom’s trick for pressing the dough out when my Mom isn’t willing to roll it out for me anymore!