Circle Sugar Cookies: Tips & Tricks to Make them Perfectly Round!

While it is insanely convenient that several of my class sets are completely made with circles (hello not needing a cookie cutter!!), I know that accomplishing perfectly round circle sugar cookies can be pretty frustrating.

So, let me share some of my tips and tricks for getting (mostly) circular cookies!

And let me just preface this by saying: my cookies aren’t perfectly circular either 😉

*DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links which means that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase from one of my links. I greatly appreciate your support!

Before Placing Cookies on the Baking Sheet

Before you actually put the rolled-out cookies on the baking sheet, you have two options:

1- To make the dough easier to roll out, cut and transfer circle sugar cookies to a baking sheet:

Chill the dough before rolling (usually around 15-30 minutes in the freezer or 30-60 minutes in the fridge does well). Just remember that if the dough gets too cold, it may be too hard to roll out and you’ll need to then let it come to room temperature a bit on the counter. Also note that if you’re working on a hot room, the dough will warm up quickly as you’re working with it.

2- To make the cut circle sugar cookies easier to transfer to a baking sheet:

I always roll out my dough on parchment paper. After rolling the dough, cutting the circles and then removing the excess dough, you can then place this parchment sheet of circles on a cookie tray and let that chill in the fridge or freezer for about 10-15 minutes. Then, peel the cookies off the parchment and onto the baking sheet while still cold.

After Cookies are on the Baking Sheet

Then, once the cookies are on the baking sheet, to fix any wonky cookies you can use a circle cookie cutter slightly bigger than the actual cookies that you cut.

Use the cutter to wiggle around/circle the dough to fix any wonky sides/make it more circular.

(That’s a terrible verbal explanation, so please do check out this little video I posted on TikTok of how I do that.)

Note: for optimal success with this option:

a) make sure there is enough space in between the cookies

b) use a cookie cutter that is just .25”-.5” bigger than the actual size of the cookie

c) make sure not to wiggle the cutter around too much because you CAN manipulate the shape of it too much so that it’s no longer a circle and/or much smaller

AND, generally speaking, you don’t want to have to pick up the raw cookie dough once it’s placed on the baking sheet.

Immediately After Baking

Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, you can also use the above cookie cutter trick on the freshly baked cookies.

Note: This needs to be done IMMEDIATELY after the cookies come out of the oven and are still hot. If you wait until the cookies have started to cool, this trick won’t work.

After Cookies Have Cooled

If the aforementioned options don’t work, you can go the extreme route after the cookies are baked and cooled:

Take a microplane food grater/zester (like this one or this one) and actually shave off the edges of the cookies to get your desired shape.

I usually only do this technique when it’s absolutely necessary (like getting perfect straight edges on a square cookie) because it leaves the edges of the cookie exposed to air since you’re shaving off the protective layer (if that makes sense).

Love Your Wonky Circle Sugar Cookies

At the end of the day, however, I encourage you to just love your cookies just as they are, wonky circles and all 😉

There are always designs in my circle sets that will look great on a wonky circle (and sometimes even better than on a completely round circle!), which I usually try to mention in the class videos.

How to Decorate Wonky Circle Sugar Cookies

Once you get to decorating, you have two choices for how to decorate your (wonky or not) circles:

1- follow the shape of the actual cookie with your outline and flood

2- “correct” the cookie shape by flooding a (more) perfect circle on top

I usually opt for option 1 as I find that option 2 further emphasizes the fact that the cookie itself isn’t totally circular.

Hope these tips help! Be sure to check out my circle classes if you haven’t already.

Questions about my online classes?

• General FAQs on classes
• Why take my classes?
• My ultimate class recommendation list

Want to dive into resources on the blog? Start here:

• What Is Royal Icing: A Beginner’s Guide
• Royal Icing Recipe
• Sugar Cookie Recipe
• How to store royal icing (more detailed instructions)
• Royal icing consistencies
• All of my favorite cookie decorating supplies