Best Cut Out Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Butterscotch Frosting. Valentine’s Day heart shaped cookies.
My favorite recipe for cut out or roll out sugar cookies. Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner I made heart shaped cookies with cookie cutters.
The frosting is a buttercream with a secret ingredient of butterscotch sauce added. You can also add caramel sauce if you prefer, either will work. Making the homemade butterscotch sauce is an added step but I love the way it makes the frosting taste.
Above photo shows cookies before baking.
Above photo shows cookies after baking. It is tricky to tell when they are done because they don’t start browning until they are crispy. So once cookies look set I take them out which is usually about 9-10 minutes with my oven.
I have tried many many roll out cut out sugar cookie dough recipes over the years and I’ve never found one that I really thought was a keeper until now. I have been making this recipe for a couple years and it is my go to.
- Cookie Dough:
- 1½ sticks (3/4 cup) salted butter, softened
- ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2¼ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- (1/4 teaspoon salt** if using unsalted butter)
- Frosting:
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- about 2 Tablespoons butterscotch sauce (I used homemade with recipe below for it, you can also use caramel sauce)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 Tablespoons whipping cream/heavy whipping cream
- sprinkles (optional)
- Homemade butterscotch sauce:
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 Tablespoons whipping cream/heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon salted butter
- For the cookie dough: Add butter and sugar to a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to mix the butter and sugar together. Mix in vanilla and egg.
- Add flour and baking soda and mix until dough forms.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- When ready to roll out Preheat oven to 350 F. degrees.
- Remove dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface to desired thickness. I tried to make mine a little on the thick side somewhere between ⅛-1/4" thick. I usually roll the dough out between two lightly floured pieces of waxed paper.
- Cut into desired shapes and place on an ungreased cookie sheet leaving space between cookies because they will expand.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies look set. I cooked mine for about 9-10 minutes since I wanted them to be soft, bake longer if you want a crisper cookie.
- For the frosting: Once the cookies have cooled you can make the frosting. Add ingredients to a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to whip frosting together, I mixed for 1-2 minutes. Frost cookies and top with sprinkles if desired. Above is a recipe for butterscotch sauce which I think makes the frosting taste amazing. You can make it while you are waiting for the cookies to cool so it will be ready when you make the frosting, or you can just use store bought caramel sauce.
- For butterscotch sauce: Mix ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir for about 5 minutes until it gets a little thicker. It will thicken more once cool. Set aside until it cools completely then add to the frosting.
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