Need T&T Cutout Cookie Recipe!
I swore off baking cutout cookies YEARS ago! But I was seduced by the pictures of BEAUTIFUL snowflake cookies in EVERY magazine... Bought the cookie cutters and used a shortbread recipe. It was enough of a pain rolling out the dough and cutting out the snowflakes. They looked lovely (unbaked) on the cookie sheet, but as they baked they morphed into undistinct blobs. 20-20 hindsight tells me the dough was too buttery to produce nice clean shapes. But I'm a butter SNOB! Having said that, does anyone have a tried and true cutout cookie recipe? Must I use margarine or Crisco to get cookies that hold their shapes?
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Yes. This one is extraordinary in that a) it doesn't mess up your kitchen b) you don't have to bake all 1000 cookies at once and c) you can use cutters with any amount of detail and the cookies won't break. GINGER COOKIES: In a saucepan put 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup dark Karo corn syrup, 1 tablespoon ginger, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 2 teaspoons cloves. Bring to a boil and stir to melt ingredients. Remove from burner. Add 1 cup (2 sticks) real butter. Stir occasionally until butter has melted. When nearly cool add 4 cups flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and work dough until all is blended. Form into 4 rolls, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate anywhere from 2 hours to 2 weeks. When you want to bake some cookies take a piece of dough and let it warm a bit toward room temperature (do not microwave it!). Work dough in hands like modeling clay until pliable. Roll out directly on large ungreased cookie sheet---as thin as possible. Cut directly on sheet using cookie cutters. Remove excess dough to recycle for next rolling. Bake about 7 minutes at 375. Remove promptly from cookie sheet to cool on newspapers covered with a dishtowel. I too had forsworn rolled-out cookies as a big damned mess to make but now have used this recipe many times and it's actually fun. You can roll it as thin as a potato chips and cut out curly pig's tails and reindeer antlers and nothing breaks.
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I've tried several recipes and do have a favorite but you have plenty of options and who to believe. I use a 1-2-3 recipe (1lb sugar, 2lb butter, 3lb flour - eggs and vanilla)
I'll tell you my absolute must trick when doing cut outs (and I just did them last night, snow flakes included) - FREEZE the cut out dough shapes before you bake them and bake them from frozen. If your recipe has enough butter (and I love butter too) they will always spread if they are even remotely warm when then go in the oven.
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Emme
Dec 19, 2011 11:21 PM
My Cutout/Drop Cookie -- works both ways -- if I drop, I roll in sugar so they'll crackle
115 g Browned Butter
110 g Cream Cheese
260 g Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
180 g Flour
127 g Bread Flour
½ cup Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
¼ cup Cornstarch
1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
¼ tsp. Sea Salt
Sugar, for rolling, optionalCream butter and cream cheese. Add in sugar; beat til mixed. (I generally even do these by hand.) Add egg yolks and vanilla. Whisk together dry; stir in. Shape into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap or put in a ziploc, and refrigerate. Roll and bake at 350.
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This recipe for No Fail Sugar Cookies is easy and works really well. I picked it up a few years ago on Chowhound but now noticed it all over the internet. Tastes great and cookies keep their shape.
No-Fail Sugar
6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring
1 tsp. salt1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.
2. Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)
3. Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.
4. HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.
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eLizard
Dec 19, 2011 01:57 PM
good housekeeping.... they're pretty perfect. the recipe is halved in their cookie cookbook. this is it already doubled. which i do anyway....
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