Painted Sugar Cookies – Fun & Easy Cookie Recipe

These painted sour cream cut-out sugar cookies are fun to “paint” with food colored egg wash, then frost with white buttercream frosting. You can use any cookie cutter and any food color to make these perfect for any theme and occasion!

Painted Sour Cream Cut-out Sugar Cookies

Looking for a fun holiday cookie recipe? 

Unlike some of the other hand-painted sugar cookies you may have seen, this recipe doesn’t include royal icing, edible paint, or egg yolk paint for the cookie paint part of the recipe. It uses an egg wash paint, giving these cookies more of a watercolor look maybe?

At any rate, they’re fun to make (who knew painting cookies could be so much fun?) and even more fun for to eat! I feel like children especially would have a great time making and eating these, (though I won’t bother to mention how many ended up in my own mouth while I was making them!)😮

When it comes to Christmas cookies (or cookies to make all year long!) a couple more of our favorites are good old Chocolate Chip Cookies and Monster Cookies. And sugar cookies like these are always good, too. Another cool thing about these, you can cut out any shape, paint them any color and add a white outline or design to make these coordinate with any occasion, not just for the holidays! I’m thinking some Easter themed cookies would be fun. Anyway, let’s get into the recipe.

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List of supplies we used

• Stand mixer – a Kitchenaid is a staple piece of equipment we use almost every single day, and it works wonderfully for this recipe too; however, if you want to use a large bowl and spoon and mix by hand, go for it!
  
• Several small mixing bowls – you’re going to need one for the paint and another for the frosting. I often reach for these Pyrex measuring cups when I need a small mixing bowl.
  
• Spatulas – it’ll be handy to have a couple of these around to use throughout the baking process.
  
• Measuring cups and spoons
  
• Rolling pin – to roll out the cookie dough; we got this one as a wedding gift and I love it.
  
• Sifter or strainer – a little mini strainer works perfectly to sift an even layer of flour on the work area and the cookie dough, keeping the somewhat sticky sugar cookie dough from sticking to everything it touches.
  
• Cookie cutters – we used a snowflake this time, but of course you can use any shape to make you own custom sugar cookie shapes. A cup turned upside down works just fine too!
  
• Silicone brush – or something to paint with. You could also use a clean paint brush.
  
• Wire rack – somewhere to set the cookies to cool (a strip of paper towel works too!)
  
• Metal spatula – this thing works great to transfer the sugar cookies before and after they’re baked!
  
• A cookie sheet or two
  
• Non-stick cooking spray – sonething to grease the cookie sheet(s); you can also use a piece of parchment paper to line the cookie sheets instead
  
• Handheld electric mixer – to easily mix up the frosting
  
• Piping bag and tip – I use the Wilton brand piping bag and tip system which consists of a piping bag, coupler set and piping tip. If you’d rather not mess with that, you can put the icing in a sandwich bag, cut off one of the bag tips and apply the frosting details that way; it will be harder to be neat and precise, though.

Ingredients 

For the sugar cookies

Butter – we like to keep things simple and use all salted butter; however, you can use unsalted butter, you might just want to add a pinch of salt to the recipe.

Sugar – regular granulated white sugar

Eggs – separate the eggs since the yolks go into the cookies and the whites are reserved for the egg wash paint. 

Sour cream – maybe an unexpected ingredient, but this contributes to the softness of these sugar cookies.

Vanilla extract – pure vanilla extract is the best, but all we have in the kitchen at the moment is imitation vanilla so that will work fine, too. 

Flour – regular all-purpose flour

Baking powder

Baking soda

Food coloring – liquid or gel food coloring (I usually use gel). You may or may not be able to find the gel food coloring at the local grocery store; if not, it’s available on Amazon. I chose blue since I was making all snowflake cookies for the winter and holiday season. Also, you can divide the egg wash paint into several tiny bowls and make different colors! 

Water – you’ll need a little water to mix with the egg whites to thin it somewhat.

For the vanilla buttercream frosting

Butter – again, I used salted butter

Powdered sugar – confectioners sugar, 10x sugar, whatever you want to call it.

Vanilla extract – if you want truly white frosting without a brown tinge, use clear imitation vanilla extract.

Milk – 2% or whole milk

Find the full recipe on the handy little printable recipe card below!

How to make Painted Sugar Cookies (completely from scratch!)

Cream the softened butter and sugar together using a stand mixer. 

Separate the eggs (save the whites, we’ll need them later!), and add just the yolks into the mixing bowl along with the sour cream, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and baking soda and mix thoroughly.

Chill the dough in the fridge for thirty minutes to an hour so it’s easier to handle. (You can actually skip this, the dough just won’t roll out as well and it’ll be more sticky.)

While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Then use a sifter (or strainer like we did!) to evenly dust a layer of flour on a flat surface (we used the kitchen table.) Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, dusting more flour onto the dough if necessary, until the dough is rolled out to about 1/8 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, then gently transfer the cut-out cookies to a greased baking sheet.

Now for the painting! Use a whisk or fork to mix the egg whites with the water in a small bowl and add a small amount of food coloring at a time until you reach the color you like. (If bubbles are covering the top of the egg wash mixture after stirring, you can skim them off with a spoon if you wish.) Use a silicone brush (or a clean paint brush) to paint the unbaked cookies with the colored egg wash.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (or until they are just starting to turn golden brown around the edges).

Let the painted cookies cool on the pan for a minute or two before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cookies are cooling, make the vanilla buttercream frosting. Use an electric handheld mixer to beat the frosting ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (like Wilton tip #3) and pipe an outline or design on the painted sugar cookies.

Enjoy.💛

How do I store Painted Sugar Cookies?

Place cookies in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.

Notes

This recipe makes great sugar cookies without the painting part. Just add both whole eggs into the cookie batter instead of separating them and frost completely with any cookie icing you please!

How many ccokies this recipe will make depends on whether you make little cookies or big ones, of course. 

Even More Amazing Cookie Recipes (Made from Scratch!)

• Sand Tart Sugar Cookies
  
• Chocolate Marshmallow Surprise Cookies
  
• Chocolate Chip Cookies

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’til next time, we love you and we’ll be praying for you,

-Julie