I will confess that I have never had success with baking cut-out cookies….until this year! I went with a few girlfriends to a local Christmas cookie baking class. It was such a fun evening in downtown Greenville. The chef had the dough premade for us to use, but made a batch of dough in front of us to show us her tips. I am going to share with you what has worked for me….FINALLY!!!
These tips apply to any sugar cookie recipes and are really recommended for most cookie recipes in terms of the mentioned chilling part!
Last Saturday afternoon, Ashlyn and I made the sugar cookie dough. Always follow the ingredients as listed with no substitutions! If it says to use all-purpose flour then you should use it as well as unsalted butter.
After you have made your dough recipe, divide it in half. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and place in the fridge either all day or overnight is best. We pulled it out late Sunday after church.
I have a wonderful Roul ‘Pat pastry mat. Any kind of pastry mat or pastry board works well. Flour your mat well. Only take out one of the balls of dough from the fridge to work with at a time.
Here is a rolling tip that helps so much in getting the proper thickness! Keep the dough, the surface and the rolling pin lightly floured at all times. Place the rolling pin in the center of the ball and roll just half way across. Place the rolling pin back in the center and roll in the other direction. Flip the dough over and do the same thing. Continue this until you get the desired thickness mentioned in your recipe! This keeps the dough uniform throughout. Wow!
You are ready to cut cookies. Always keep cookie cutters floured. After all are cut and placed on a parchment paper lined tray, place the tray back in the fridge to chill thoroughly. Also, the extra dough from the cut-outs can be placed in the fridge and re-rolled for more cookies! Probably just once more because the addition of the flour for cutting and rolling will start to change the texture of the dough.
Yes, you chill the cut cookies on the tray before baking! This keeps the cookies from spreading out while cooking and losing their shape.
One very common mistake is over baking. It takes very little time for them to bake. Go by your recipe!
After baking, let them cool completely before decorating. I made a royal icing that you pour or drip on the cookies. Then you just simply use sprinkles.
I let them have at it and decorate in their own way! They had a lot of fun and have enjoyed cookies in their lunchboxes this week.
I did find that the metal cookie cutters were easier to work with than the plastic ones. They release much better.
Don't forget to keep your dough, mat and cutter lightly floured to keep everything from sticking.
This was a fun baking experience. We are going to make gingerbread cookies this weekend since these are almost gone! Follow the same tips with gingerbread cookies. ALWAYS uses unsulphured molasses when making these!
Here is the Roul ‘Pat! You can click the image and it will take you to Amazon for information on it!
Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to ask me any questions. I am in no way an expert on cookie baking….just sharing what has finally worked for me!
Merry Christmas!
Shenita says
These are great tips, Christy! My girls have a bag full of plastic cookie cutters that they always used; and they were always less than perfect. Maybe that was our problem…lol!!!
NanaDiana says
OMGosh- Don’t mind me- as soon as I sent that I realized you meant metal spatulas!!! xo Diana
Christy Our Southern Home says
No, no!! Thanks so much for letting me know. It was a typo….I corrected it thanks to you! Metal cookie cutters! LOL!! Thanks so much sweet lady! I think that was the biggest part of my problem with sugar cookies through the years…the chilling. This chef is a professional baker and she knew it all. 🙂
NanaDiana says
Thanks, Christy~ I never knew that about chilling the roll outs. I can’t tell you how many times I have reused a pan that is still warm from the previous batch.
I have a question though…what did you mean the metal cookies were easier to work with than the plastic ones? xo Diana