After enjoying painting so much, I needed something to do as a creative outlet for my artsy side but I couldn't see myself finding sitters for my kids while I was off on some scaffolding some where painting. Baking seemed like the perfect fit for me. I didn't have to leave the kids and I could bake and decorate late at night or during nap. So I kept experimenting and researching until I found a great cookie and icing recipe. I came across many great tips for rolling out and decorating my cookies along the way.
One of the biggest questions people ask, is how I get that perfect cookie. Here's how! (I can take no credit for these little tricks though. All of this is borrowed from many other decorators who have been so kind as to make a youtube video or post it somewhere for researchers like me to find. Thank You!)
A good recipe is crucial. One that won't spread or puff up. Ever tried to make cut out cookies and they bake into blobs? Can I get a "amen?" I found my recipe on the Wilton website and made a few little changes to suit my tastes. Here's my version of Melissa's Sugar Cookies:
2 sticks SALTED butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavor
3 cups all purpose flour
cream the softened butter and sugar. Then add your flavorings and mix a little more. add your egg and mix a little more. Then gradually add your flour. Right after you add all of your flour, scrape your bowl, then go back to mixing. I highly recommend a stand mixer for this. You can do it by hand as I did for many months when I first began, but a stand mixer is the way to go. If you do it just right, your dough should clean your bowl and you should have a big glob of cookie dough caught up on your flat beater with none sticking in the bowl.
Next, you take half of your dough and make a lump. I roll mine between parchment paper on the bottom and wax paper on the top. I found 2 board books and tore a few pages off to make them the same thickness that I wanted my cookies to be. I placed the books on either side of the dough like this
Then you put your wax paper on and roll. Notice that the rolling pin never touches the table, just the books! Isn't that great! You'll get even cookies every time. You don't have to use books. Just anything you can find that is the right thickness and can hold up to your pushing down the dough. The dough never touches the books. That would be kind of gross.
There's my dough all rolled out.
I have 3 pieces here because I double my batches of dough with my new big mixer!
Next, you're going to pop your dough into the freezer. I use a piece of foam core board from the dollar store. It is great for moving cookies around in the kitchen. Especially since I only have 1 baking sheet. I know, it's crazy. You'll want it to freeze for about 20 minutes.
When your dough is ready, simply cut out your shapes and the dough should stick to the cutter. Then you just have to gently push the dough out of the cutter on to your baking sheet. I had a lot of cookies to bake, so I stack mine on a tray lined with cling wrap and keep them in the fridge until I get them all cut out. This keeps me from running my oven for an extended period of time.
See the pretty cookie!
This is the dough right out of the freezer. If you can't do this, it's not ready. If you cut your cookies from soft dough, your edges will be rounded and they will be harder to ice.
Pile your scraps up and let them soften so you can re- roll them. Rolling between the paper keeps you from adding extra flour to your dough. AND it's mess free! Yay! No flour flying everywhere!
Here are my stacked cookies. Make sure you put cling wrap in between each layer.
I bake my cookies at 400 degrees. These are rather large, and I baked them for 13 minutes. Right when the come out of the oven, I use a smooth spatula to pat them on top. This helps me get a nice smooth top in case they puffed up a little.
See how nice those are!
Now I know you are all excited! So go bake some cookies!!
