This is one of my oldest and best recipes for thick cut-out sugar cookies. It's adapted from a recipe by a pastry chef named Michelle Bommarito. The sugar cookies are big, thick, sturdy and designed to stay put on a stick. In addition to the cookie recipe, I've added my favorite cookie buttercream to the recipe card.
Back when I first posted this recipe, the cookie bouquet business was booming, and most of the commercial cookie bouquets actually tasted pretty good. Always up for a challenge, I wanted to try making my own bouquet-worthy sugar cookies at home. I was never able to decorate quite as well as the people who made cookie bouquets, but I did find this recipe for cookies that are just as tasty.
Thick Cut-Out Cookies on a Stick
I am still not the best decorator, but I'm getting better, which is why I keep this photo as a reminder. But even back when I took this, my cookies tasted great and had the perfect texture. Yours will too if you use this recipe. These cookies are buttery and not overly sweet. They partner so well with sweet frosting. In the recipe card I've included a basic royal icing as well as one I call Cookie Buttercream.
Royal Frosting or Cookie Buttercream
Over the years I've used different types of cookie frostings. While I appreciate the beauty of cookies iced with royal, my personal favorites are cookies decorated with a buttercream. Or to be more specific, not a true buttercream but an American type made with butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk. The one that works best for cookies is actually one with slightly less butter and more sugar. It's a buttercream recipe originally from the side of a sugar box and the measurements are 3 ¾ cups of confectioners' sugar, 1 stick (4 oz) butter, 3-4 tablespoons whole milk and a teaspoon of vanilla. It's sweet, but it goes well with the not-too-sweet cookies. It also crusts over well enough so that you can stack the cookies gently. You get the durability of royal and the flavor of buttercream.
Recipe
Sugar Cookies on a Stick
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 13.5 oz/380 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 sticks butter unsalted, softened (8 oz)
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Royal Icing
- 1 pound confectioners' sugar
- 5 tablespoons meringue powder or ¼ cup pasteurized egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- cold water
Cookie Buttercream Frosting
- 1 stick butter, can be salted or unsalted, softened (114 grams)
- 3 ¾ cup confectioners' sugar (1 pound)
- 3-4 tablespoons milk, whole milk seems to work better
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Stir in the egg, salt and both extracts.
- Slowly add flour mixture (1 cup at a time) and stir until incorporated
- Form the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface to approximately ⅝" thick. Cut the cookies into shapes and place the cut cookie shape on a parchment lined cookie; Poke a stick into cookies.
- Bake the cookies for approximately 8-10 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown in color. Remove cookies from the oven and allow tocool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. For larger cookies, bake at 350 F for a slightly longer time.
Royal Icing
- Beat together the confectioners' sugar and egg whites (or meringue powder), then add vanilla. Add cold water until you get the consistency you need for decorating. Divide and color.
Cookie Buttercream
- In a large mixing bowl, combine softened butter and 1 cup of the sugar and beat until creamy.
- Gradually add another cup of sugar, all the while beating with an electric mixer. Continue gradually adding sugar, alternating with tablespoons of milk, and beating until mixture is smooth and spreadable. Beat in the vanilla.
Elke Royal says
These look great! Could the dough be rolled into balls, put on the stick and then flattened with a glass dipped in sugar? And how many cookies can I get out of this one recipe? Thanks.
Anna says
I'd freeze it and thaw it. The longest I've frozen dough is 3 months.
Anna says
Michael's sells long sticks which are perfect.
jeanne says
What kind of sticks do you use for the cookie bouquet??
Dana says
If I wanted to make the dough about 6 days In advance does it have to be frozen or can it be kept In the refridgerator? Also what's the longest you have frozen the dough for with it tasting ok?
Heather says
This is absolutely fabulous, I tried Martha Stewart's recipe for Sugar cookies today and they were not what I was looking for and they were do hard after baking. I need to make sugar cookie centerpieces for my daughter's first birthday (its a garden party) and I am also making the cupcakes. Do you think I can make the dough ahead of time (I need to make about 70 cookies) and then cut them out, and then put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper in between and freeze them until I need to bake them off? I am just trying to not kill myself two days before the party. Let me know your thoughts 🙂 Thank you again!
Kim says
Bommarito’s recipe is the absolute best. I've used it on several occasions now and have friends everywhere asking me to make them cookies. A tip that I've found is after making the dough shape it into a rectangle in the thickness you desire for your first batch that way after the hour of chilling you can unwrap the dough and immediately cut out your first shapes w/o having to roll it out. I've found the dough is extremely hard when you take it out of the fridge and this has saved me time from having to let it warm up. Thanks for sharing this recipe it will be my go to sugar cookie recipe from here on out!
Beth says
Thank you very much!!! 🙂 I can't wait to try it next week for a baby shower!
Anna says
Beth, I'm not giving exact numbers because it's just so variable. What I can tell you is you get about 30 oz of dough. If you use an ounce of dough for each cookie you'd get 30 cookies, but most cookies on a stick are bigger than that so you're more likely to get 20 or so. I think I got about 14 or 15.
Beth says
I see some people have asked how many cookies Michelle's recipe makes, but I didn't see an estimated number. I am making them for a baby shower and want to know an approximate number for how many cookies the recipe makes? And how big the cookies that you made were? Thank you so much!
Anna says
Hi Rhonda,
Thanks for the review!
Rhonda says
Perfect! Used your recommendation a few months ago for my sister's baby shower centerpiece bouquets and they were perfect and beautiful, and for my daughter's 16th birthday party (smiley faces) centerpieces! This is now my go to recipe for cookies on a stick----delicious too!
Michelle says
Michelle Bommarito’s Sugar Cookies are wonderful!! I got tons of complements on them. I made a bunch for my best friends baby shower. Baby bottles, teddy bears and duckies! and they were so tasty!! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=2752127&id=1526619178&fbid=1358389009562
Andrea Potter says
Bless your heart! You saved me alot of money and precious time. This recipe was absolutely perfect! I made this and didn't have time to make a second batch, so I used a package of Betty Crocker sugar cookie. Your Bommarito's recipe was superior and held its shape when it baked. The bouquet turned out beautifully! The smell was incredible! It even smelled better than the BC package. Thank you a million times over. I was so proud to take this bouquet in to both my sons' classes. I'm going to make some more and mail them to young relatives in other states. You're awesome.
Trish says
I made these yesterday and could not be more pleased with how they turned out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Anna says
Susan, about the babyshower. I would make the dough ahead of time, freeze it, then that it out and bake the cookies fresh the day before. If you don't have time to do that, these should freeze just fine.
Anna says
Hi Stephanie,
I haven't used cocoa powder in this recipe, but there's a Halloween recipe with cat heads on a stick and it's made with a good chocolate sugar cookie dough. Here's the link.
https://www.cookiemadness.net/?p=1061
Susan, that tea cakes recipe sounds familiar. I will see if I can find something similar and email it to you.
Susan says
Back in the 1960's, my Grandmother used to bake "Tea Cakes" which I remember as slightly sweet, more like a slightly chewy cookie in size and consistency than cake and presumably served with tea. Sadly the recipe was lost with her. I was wondering if anyone had heard of them and had a recipe.
Susan says
Sounds like what I'm looking for for a baby shower. Can I bake these in advance and freeze them for a couple of weeks before thawing and decorating them ( Michelle Bommarito's recipe) ?. How long are they good after baking if not frozen ?
Stephanie says
Anyone try adding cocoa powder to make a chocolate sugar cookie? Any suggestions?
chimera says
I made the Michelle Bommarito recipe last night - they came out perfectly! I didn't want them for a cookie bouquet, but I was tired of thin, crackly sugar cookies for decorating, and wanted something a bit more substantial. These taste great and they're nice and thick and even. Make sure you chill your cut-out dough shapes on the cookie sheet before putting them in the oven - they'll hold their shape perfectly. I'm excited to decorate them tonight! Thanks for the recipe.
michelle says
Ok bakers, I trust you. I was going to begin my research and test baking today but it looks like you have done all of that for me. I have the supplies and will begin with confidence that this will work. thanks so much.
Mamata Reddy says
These work out to be 2 cents each at this site (if bought by 1000):
http://www.thebakerskitchen.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=244
P. Voth says
I would like to know where you buy the cookie sticks in bulk and at a discount. They can get expensive. Please help!
Mamata Reddy says
Thank you SO much for doing this trial and error! It is so great to see how you worked through the various recipes to find the one that works on sticks! I regularly use the Big Fat Cookies one, but I'm so glad to hear there's a better one for sticks. Thanks so much for documenting your experience!
Cris says
Thank You, Thank you, Thank you, I made this cookies for my tween daugther's B-day party, shaped as guitars, (the girls don't eat cake anymore...) They loved them and actually eat them !!!
Anna says
Wow! $1,100? Good for you. Thanks for making the cookies.
Sandra says
I used the Sugar Cookies For Sticks for regular cookies and decorated them with a soft fondant like receipe and with Royal Icing. I made them for a baby shower as well as for raising money for Breast Cancer. I will only use this receipe for now on! I raised over $1100 for Breast Cancer benefiting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Joann says
Thank you so much for this recipe. It is the best I've tried. It is almost as good if not better than Cookies by Design. I made it for my son's birthday party. As soon as he put it in his mouth, he said "this is a great cookie". I knew that my hunt was over. Thank you so much.
Alexis says
Anna, thanks so much for the recipe, I have made it several times and the cookies turn out great each time!
I have a good friend who is allergic to wheat - has anybody tried to modify this recipe with another kind of flour (or blend of flours) with any success? He still eats my cookies but I think he regrets it later!
I would love to see and try a wheat-free version of this recipe! Thanks to anyone with suggestions.
Anna says
It depends on how big you make the cookies.
lindsey says
i was just wondering how many cookies this recipe will make?
Anna says
Thanks for all the tips, Ron! I'm going to have to get a new Silpat.
Ron in Tampa says
1. TYPE OF PAN AN TEMP OF DOUGH MAKES A DIFFERENCE
I used an uninsulated, regular old commercial half sheet pan with a silpat liner, with well chilled dough (cut out momentarily held by the edge did not bend) and the results were perfect. My second pan had no silpat and I used parchment paper, the dough was a little less chilled and they spread, not bad, but less desireable than the siplat chilled batch.
2. EASY ROLLING = USE PLASTIC WRAP BEFORE FIRST CHILL
Before the chilling roll the dough to desired 5/8 thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap. It is easier before the dough hardens as it chills, there is no flour mess, and the cut outs come out of the cutters easier and less deformed.
4. LITTLE DASH OF ALMOND MADE BIG DIFFERENCE
I used the 1 tsp Vanilla and dash of Almond, which I took to mean 1/4 tsp and the flavor it imparted was so much better and more complex than plain old vanilla, yet wasn't overpowering as pure alomnd would have been.
5. SMALL WILTON BOTTLES FOR FROSTING
Use the Dam and Flood technique for outlining and filling an area using small clear squeeze bottles instead of piping bags. (2 fo 1.99 at WalMart)
THANKS, Sorry Cookies By Design,I can make my own now
maggie says
I tried a few different recipes and my family of taste testers all agreed that Michelle Bommarito's recipe was the best. I would like to try to use lemon extract but I'm not sure if I should leave out the vanilla. Has anyone tried this or have any suggestions?
debbie says
How do you keep the white cardboard sticks for the cookies on the stick from burning. I tries to keep them up but still had dark marks after baking.
Daisy says
I made the "Michelle Bommarito" recipe in the shapes of balloons on a stick for my daughter's birthday party. They turned out wonderful!! Super tasty and they all stayed on the sticks.
I was wondering, though, if you really roll your cookies so thick - 5/8" and they only took 7-10 minutes to cook? I rolled my dough out to about 3/8-1/2 inch and they took at least 10 minutes to cook. Just curious.
Either way, thank you for doing the testing for us!!
Debora says
To Barb:
A stick is a quarter of a pound. We get four sticks in a one pound package of butter. Good luck!
Stacey says
The Michelle Bommarito’s Sugar Cookies For Sticks was THE BEST EVER!!! I made rainbows and hearts for my arrangement and it was absolutely professional! I will use this recipe again and again. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I did not have any almond extract so I used coconut and they were fabulous! Again, THANK YOU -THANK YOU- THANK YOU!
Stacey from Olive Branch, MS
jean irvine says
i would just like to thank the person i took the recipe for the sugar cookies on a stick, they turned out beautiful everyone loved them
thanks......jean ontario canada
Rhonda says
I made the Michelle Bommarito recipe for my sister's baby shower. I did cookie boquets for centerpieces in several baby themed shapes iced with Royal Icing in the shower colors. I used the Wilton cookie sticks from Michael's. The cookies were a huge hit and turned out so perfect! Thanks for the great site!
Lori says
I am making these for my sons Christmas Party! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Julie says
It makes a fair amount of cookies... especially the size that I would imagine you would be making for a preschool party. I'm a preschool teacher my self (4 year olds) and I can't imagine them eating anywhere near the amount of cookies that this would actually produce.
Sherry says
I would like to try these cookies for a preschool party. How many cookies do you think one batch would make?
Barb says
I would like to try this recipe. How much butter is in a stick of butter? I'm from Canada and our butter is sold by the pound.
Sharon says
Ok, so I tried decorating these wonderful tasting cookies. I made royal icing and as a youtube video said put a small amount of royal blue food coloring in it. The color looked right in the bowl but dried to a pale green. For a baby shower I wanted pastel blue. Any hints?
Also I tried piping outlines on them and discovered I needed to have a lot more practice before the baby shower display in Sept.
Thirdly, I realized last night that the sight of a pale green baby footprint cookie is not appealing. I took the cookies to work today and everyone agreed the taste was great, but the icing did need some work. I'll make the baby footprints white with pastel blue piping tomorrow when I practice on my 2nd batch.
Sharon says
I baked Michelle Bommarito's cookies on Sunday. How incredibly perfect! I couldn't believe they tasted just like Cookies by Design. I didn't have any unsalted butter in the house so I used the salted one and cut out the kosher salt. It was just great. Now if I could only find out how to decorate them...hm-m-m. More research ahead.
Anna says
Sure! I almost always make dough in advance.
Karly's Mom says
Can you make this cookie dough in advance? Plan to make these for my daughter's 1st Birthday and I'd like to do as many steps ahead of time as possible. Thanks!
Julie says
I did the 3rd one for my friends birthday... they turned out great! not only did they taste good, but they looked great. Instead of the icing/frosting that she suggusted I used betty crocker cookie icing... with in 4 min. it was hard and ready to decarate... everyone I know was very impressed by my cookies... and it was way less expensive than going to one of those cookie shops.
Jennifer says
Hi,
I tried the third recipe and they were phenomenal. They worked just like cookies by design so I definately recommend it!!!
Anna says
How old was your flour? It does sound like maybe one of the ingredient was less than fresh. Could something have been wrong with the butter? Let me know how they taste. Maybe your nose just picked up on something else.
PinkPoodle says
I just made the Michelle Bommaritos cookies for the stick - they look fantastic, I've not decorated yet but they are thick did not spread. My PROBLEM is ... they smell like play doe???? Was my flour old you think, if not that then why? Please help.
Anna says
Beth, a lot of craft stores (definitely Michael's) sell the sticks. Look for them in the Cake Decorating secion. They look like long, sturdy, lollipop sticks. You can also use wooden sticks.
Beth says
Hi,
I was wondering what kind of sticks do you use for these types of cookies? I am interested in getting started making these. I currently make a soft sugar cookie.
jessica says
do you the cookies with the sticks inside?? i have read some recipes saying that you should and some saying you should'nt.
Anna says
Hi Susan,
You know, it's really not clear. I have re-labeled the recipe. The Michelle Bommarito cookies are the "Sugar Cookies for Sticks"....the last (and best!) recipe.
Susan says
Hi, You mention that Michelle Bommarito's cookie recipe is closest to that of cookies by design, however that recipe is not listed. Or am I missing it?
carla says
LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe! i have searched many times for a recipe similar to that of cookies by design. this is by far the closest, and i may even like it better! i went to our local asian market and bought chopsticks to use for the sticks... much cheaper than buying them from a cake supply shop. this is now my go-to recipe for great sugar cookies on a stick!
Tara says
I am new at baking. Can anyone tell me what is meringue powder and where do you buy it?
flood insurance says
flood insurance
Anna says
Oooooooooh. Thanks for the tip, Candace. This will help me out a lot.
I still wish there were some kind of studio you could go to decorate your cookies -- kind of like paint your own pottery but decorate your own baked good instead. All of the cooks (and maybe cakes too) would be baked and ready to decorate. All the icing would be in tubes, everything would be done and all you'd have to do is decorate.
Candace says
Yea! I'm so glad you had success with Michelle's recipe. They truly do taste good.
If you get really adventurous, and want to try the border and flood decorating style, there is a good tutorial on Cake Talk (and in their galleries there is an amazing collection of cookie art - lots of inspiration - especially by a woman named Antonia74, who did the tutorial).
http://www.cakecentral.com/article54-How-To-Bake--Decorate-Cookies.html
tg says
hey someone stole my cookie, and my comment showed up as "anonymous". it wuz i who woke up wondering what was up with the sugar cookies. (i just wanted to get full credit for being the wise-ass.) carry on, then.
Anna says
Anonymous, at least you got some sleep and didn't stay up all night tossing and turning over cookies on a stick. I'm suspect several readers were so anxious they had to take an Ambien. I apologize to everyone who is groggy today and I will try not to leave you in suspense regarding cookie issues.
Anonymous says
y'know, i got up today, and i said to myself, what is up with the sugar cookies? that was like the first question on my lips. it's been nagging at me all morning. cookie madness to the rescue! hee
veuveclicquot says
what a fun idea!!! another must make for me 🙂