When I think of Easter, I think of bright and beautiful pastel colors. These cookies perfectly encapsulate everything Easter! Vivid colors, adorable spring shapes like bunnies, chicks, flowers, etc., and it’s all wrapped up in a delicious cookie. As for the flavors of the sugar cookie, it’s a super simple, buttery, tender, soft sugar cookie. You can spruce up this recipe anyway you want, turn it into a sandwich cookie with buttercream in the center, dip the bottom in white chocolate, anything! :) Of course, you can keep them as they are and enjoy them with tea or dipped in milk.

Colorful round cookies with zigzag stripes in blue, pink, and yellow are topped with tan Easter-themed shapes, including bunnies and chicks. Candy eggs are scattered nearby on a plaid cloth. Cookies cool on a wire rack.

How To Make Easter Sugar Cookies

This recipe is very easy to make. The sugar cookie dough is extremely easy to make and can be made without a stand mixer or electric handheld mixer if you’re lacking in that area. I love this recipe so much, not just because it’s extremely easy to make (which also makes it a great make-ahead recipe) but because of how beautiful and vivid they are! I know you’ll love this recipe as much as I do :)

Step 1: Make the Sugar Cookie Dough
Step 2: Color and Chill the Dough
Step 3: Create the Striped Pattern
Step 4: Cut and Assemble the Cookies
Step 5: Bake

Key Ingredients

This recipe uses all the basic sugar cookie ingredients. Flour, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, etc. With the addition of a few others like baking powder, salt, and food dye. The biggest thing I’ll say here is that I will always recommend gel food dye over liquid for many baked goods. Liquid food dye tends to thin out whatever it is you’re making. We don’t want our cookie dough to become too sticky and tacky; it’ll make it so much harder to work with. I use Americolor Food gel, which you can find on Amazon, here!

All-purpose flour – Provides structure while keeping cookies soft.
Butter – Adds rich flavor and tenderness.
Granulated sugar – Creates sweetness and helps achieve crisp edges.
Egg – Binds the dough and adds moisture.
Vanilla extract – Enhances flavor.
Gel food dye – Gives vibrant pastel colors without adding excess moisture.

Colorful strips of pasta dough in blue, pink, yellow, and purple are laid side by side on a marble countertop, with zigzag edges visible on each strip.

How to Store Easter Sugar Cookies

Proper storage keeps your sugar cookies soft and fresh!

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Layer parchment paper between stacked cookies.
For longer storage, freeze baked cookies for up to 2 months.

If you want to freeze the dough;

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Freeze for up to 2 months.
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling.

Colorful, round cookies with scalloped edges and striped yellow, pink, blue, and purple dough, some with butterfly shapes cut out, on a parchment-lined baking sheet. One butterfly-shaped cookie is placed on top.

Ingredient Alternatives

Salted butter – Use and reduce added salt slightly. I usually always suggest unsalted butter in baking so you can control the amount of salt, but if salted butter is all you have, it’s not the end of the world :)
Almond extract – Replace ½ tsp vanilla for a subtle bakery flavor.
Gluten-free 1:1 flour blend – For gluten-free Easter sugar cookies! My GF friends can enjoy this recipe too!
Natural food coloring – For a dye-free option (colors will be softer).

How to Prevent My Sugar Cookies From Spreading

One of the most common baking questions is: Why did my sugar cookies spread? We’ve all been there before. And especially after all the time and cost of ingredients you put into a recipe, the last thing you want is to pull puffed up, spread out cookies that didn’t hold their shape out of the oven.

Here’s how to prevent it:

Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
Chill again after cutting and assembling.
Use parchment paper (not greased pans).
Measure flour correctly (spoon and level).
Don’t over-cream the butter and sugar.
Avoid overmixing once flour is added, just until the dough comes together; you’re good to stop mixing!

A hand holds a round, colorful cookie with wavy stripes of pink, purple, yellow, and blue and a bunny silhouette in the center. Other similar cookies and pastel candy eggs are in the background.

Easter Sugar Cookies

Recipe by Maddison Koutrouba – thesqueakymixer.com

0.0 from 0 votes

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Servings

15-18

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
gel food dye

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and the sugar until the mixture is light, fluffy, and creamy. About 2 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you mix.
Add in the egg and vanilla. Continue to mix and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is combining evenly.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until a nice, soft dough forms and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and let the dough mix a few seconds longer to ensure that everything has been combining evenly.
Divide the dough into 5 equal-sized balls. Keep one uncolored, dye the others pastel easter colors. I chose pink, purple, blue, and yellow.
Roll each color about 1/4 of an inch thick between two sheets of parchment paper. Transfer the dough to a cookie sheet and let it chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
After the dough has chilled, remove all of the colored dough from the fridge and use a jagged pastry cutter to slice the colored dough into 1/2 inch strips. If the dough becomes too soft after it’s all been sliced, place it back in the fridge to firm up for 20 minutes.
After the sliced, colored dough has chilled, place the colored strips next to each other in an alternating pattern on top of parchment paper. Repeat until all of the dough is used up.
Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the striped dough, then use a rolling pin to gently roll the dough together to help the stripes form together.
Use a 4″ scalloped circle cookie cutter to cut out as many cookies as you can from the striped dough. Place onto a cookie sheet fitted with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Use small 2″ spring-shaped cookie cutters to cut out as many little cookies as you can. Click here to find the cookie cutters I used on Amazon! Use these same cookie cutters to cut out a small shape in the center of the striped circle cookies. Place the uncolored cookie in the center of the striped cookie. Repeat for each one.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Allow the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack.
Enjoy!