Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep sugar cookie cutouts from spreading? ›

But when you're baking, butter triumphs over margarine every time. For cakes, cookies, and pastries, butter (unsalted, that is) provides richer flavor. (It begins as cream, after all, and margarine is made from vegetable oil.) Butter's high fat content is also what gives baked goods their texture.

when you bite into the cookie? We have a new solution: roll out cookie dough with powdered sugar instead of flour. We came across this tip in a cut-out cookie recipe we made recently and had to pause for a moment to appreciate its sheer simplicity – and obviousness.

Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment, roll, then freeze; it makes cut-out cookies a breeze! If you plan to store it for only a few hours or days, there's no need to overwrap the baking sheet; for longer storage, wrap the entire baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap before freezing.

Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.

Which One Should I Use in Cookies? Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren't as flavorful.

In baking, melted margarine could work in recipes that call for melted butter, but in recipes that call for softened butter, swapping in tub margarine may change the texture; for example, cakes will be less tender, and cookies will generally spread out more and be less crisp.

The best butter for your baked goods depends on what type of recipe you're whipping up. Unsalted, American-style butter works well in goods like cookies, pound cakes and pancakes that require the high-fat content of conventional butter and more flexibility with salt and flavor content.

Over-working the dough yields a tough cookie, which is not at all what you want. The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender. → Follow this tip: One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they're just incorporated, and not a second longer.

1. Cookies. Cornstarch does kind of incredible things to cookies. I mean not only does it give them soft centers, prevents them from spreading, and makes them somewhat thick (in a good way), but it also contributes to the chewiness factor, which, in my opinion, is the most important cookie attribute.

What does baking powder do in cutout cookies? ›

If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself. If it continues until the end, the air pockets are preserved as the cookie's crumb. Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out.

Cream of tartar makes cookies chewy, as it precludes the sugar in the dough from crystalizing, which would lead to crispiness (ie: the opposite of chewiness).

Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy.

Too much baking soda or baking powder can mess up a recipe, causing it to rise uncontrollably and taste terrible. But don't freak out if you accidentally pour too much baking soda into cookie dough or add too much baking powder to the cake batter. Depending on the situation, you might be able to fix it.

If your cookies spread thin, it's because the fat in the dough starts to melt before the dough begins to bake. There are two fixes: First, add a bit more flour in the mix— maybe ¼ or ½ cup. Second, refrigerate the dough and put it in the oven cold.

Oven temperatures are a crucial factor in baking. If your cookies consistently come out flat, you may have selected the wrong baking temperature. If you bake cookies using too much heat, the fats in the dough begin to melt before the other ingredients can cook together and form your cookie's rise.

Start with a base icing that has white gel added to it. Uncolored royal icing has an off-white natural tinge and is more likely to allow bleed and absorb color. Add white gel to your base to act as a stabilizer to prevent color bleed right off the bat. The biggest culprit in color bleed is usually oversaturated color.