These Christmas Polka Dot Cookies use the best ever no-chill sugar cut-out cookie recipe, making them soft, tender, and buttery. In this post, I’ll show you how to add patterns, from simple polka dots to more complex designs like flowers. These festive cookies taste great and are perfect for the holiday season!
Sugar cookie cut-outs are a must every Christmas, bringing fun and festivity to our holiday baking. We make them every year, often adding a chocolate version using chocolate buttercream recipe. Decorating is a highlight, whether with easy cookie icing, delicious buttercream, chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache, or royal icing. Sometimes, we keep it simple and make cute patterns like these Christmas Polka Dot Cookies. They are so fun to make and decorate, and kids love making them too!
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Quick and Easy: This Christmas Polka Dot Cookies recipe skips the chilling step, so you can immediately start cutting out shapes and bake. Perfect for when you’re short on time!
- Easy to Roll Out: The dough rolls out smoothly and transfers easily to your baking sheets. There is no need for rolling between silicone mats or parchment paper, making the whole process much simpler and quicker.
- Holds Its Shape: These cookies keep their shape beautifully while baking, so your polka dot designs stay as you intended. No more worrying about spread-out cookies!
- Soft and Buttery: These cookies are soft, tender, and buttery, making them as delicious as they are pretty. They’re sure to be a hit with everyone who tries them.
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients with quantities and instructions is located in the recipe card below
- Butter: Use unsalted butter for a rich flavor and better control over the salt. Ensure it’s at room temperature for easy creaming with sugar.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the dough and provides structure. Cream it with the butter until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Vanilla: High-quality pure vanilla extract enhances the buttery flavor. For a twist, try almond, cinnamon, peppermint, or lemon extracts.
- Egg: Adds moisture and binds the ingredients. Use a room-temperature egg to ensure it mixes well.
- Flour: All-purpose flour gives structure to the cookies. Measure carefully to avoid dry, crumbly cookies.
- Baking Powder: Helps the cookies rise and stay light and fluffy. Check the expiration date to ensure effectiveness.
- Salt: Fine salt balances sweetness and enhances flavors.
- Gel Food Coloring: Use red and green gel food coloring for vibrant, festive polka dots without altering the dough’s consistency.
How To Make Polka Dot Sugar Cookies
Flower Pattern Sugar Cookies
To make a flower pattern, follow the same technique by creating small dots of dough, but lay them out in a flower pattern with 5 petals. To make the leaves, roll out oval shapes of dough and press them outside of the petals. After you roll out the dough and the pattern is pressed, use a butter knife or the edge of a spatula to create more details on the petals and leaves. Cut out cookies using a cookie cutter, and bake.
Top Tips
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature so they mix well with the sugar.
- Don’t Overmix: Mix the cookie dough until just combined; excessive mixing can make the cookies tough.
- Roll Dough Evenly: Using an adjustable rolling pin ensures consistent thickness, which helps cookies bake evenly.
- Avoid Overbaking: To keep cookies soft and chewy, watch them closely in the oven. Remove when the edges are slightly golden; they’ll continue to firm up as they cool.
- Enhance Flavor: Add a splash of high-quality pure vanilla extract or experiment with other extracts like coconut, cinnamon, almond, lemon, or peppermint for delicious variations.
Sugar Cookie Storing Tips
- To Store: Undecorated cookies will stay fresh for up to 1 week if you’d like to make the cookies one day and then decorate them later.
- To Freeze Baked Cookies: Seal the cookies in an airtight container with a layer of parchment or wax paper between layers. Decorated and undecorated sugar cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Freezing Sugar Cookie Dough: Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then place it in a zip-top bag. It can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight, then allow to soften to room temperature for 15 minutes before you roll, cut, and bake.
If you follow this recipe, you will make the best ever sugar cookies with a fun festive twist! Don’t forget to rate and review this recipe, and share pictures with our cookie baking community on Facebook! Enjoy!
Christmas Pattern Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Cutter
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- gel food coloring red and green
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, or 160°C fan oven. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper or silicone mat and set aside.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar until smooth, light in color and creamy (2-3 minutes).
- Add vanilla and egg and mix again until the egg is incorporated but don’t over whip (the longer you whip the egg, it can souffle up and the cookies will rise and you don’t want that).
- Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix again until just combined. Scrape the sides with a spatula so no dry flour is left. The cookie should pull away from the sides of the bowl (if it doesn’t add ½ cup of flour).
- Divide the dough into 6 portions setting 1 part aside, and roll out each of the remaining portions using a rolling pin into ¼ inch thickness.
- Take the part that you set aside, and divide it into 2 bowls. Add red food coloring to one, and green to the other. Mix until the color is uniform.
- Roll out the colored cookie dough. Pinch out small pieces of each colored dough and roll them into small balls.
- Place the dots on top of the rolled-out dough and roll it out to flatten with a rolling pin.
- Cut out using a cookie cutter and with the help of a offset spatula transfer to the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes rotating at 6 minutes for even browning (one sheet at a time). Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before icing the cookies.
Notes
- This cookie recipe will make approximately 36 cookies using a 4 inch (10cm) cookie cutter. You may get more or fewer cookies depending on the shapes that you make.
- To Store: Undecorated cookies will stay fresh for up to 1 week if you’d like to make the cookies one day and then decorate them later.
- To Freeze: Seal the cookies in an airtight container with a layer of parchment or wax paper between layers. Decorated and undecorated sugar cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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