How To Make Sugar Cookies

Rolling out dough takes up a bit of space, so clear off those countertops before you begin. Use parchment paper for rolling for best results (though a well-floured work surface will also work). To roll out the dough, you’ll want to lightly dust a large piece of parchment paper with flour. Roll out the dough until it starts to stick a bit to the parchment, then lightly dust the top of the dough with a bit more flour and cover it with another piece of parchment. Flip the whole thing over, peeling off the bottom piece (and saving it so you can repeat this process). Keep an eye on the thickness of the dough. You want it to be about the thickness of a graham cracker, or, if you have a ruler handy, no thinner than an eighth of an inch. Don’t worry about making it a perfect circle or rectangle. Cold is best. Regardless of the shape you’re cutting out, or the method you’re using (by hand, with a cutter, glass jar), you’ll want the dough to be chilled. If it gets too warm and flimsy, it’ll be challenging to cut out clean shapes and move. Put the dough back into the fridge to firm up if it starts to soften. A cute cutter does not always make a cute cookie. No matter how appealing the wide range of cutters may be, there are some that don’t actually make great cookies. In particular, avoid shapes with small, delicate features. Those smaller parts of dough are doomed to tragedy: getting stuck in the cutters, burning before the rest of the cookie is baked through, or just breaking off. And they’re challenging to decorate. Broad cookies make better canvases. Shapes with a lot of surface area (circles, triangles, diamonds, stars) yield the greatest success. They bake more evenly and offer multiple decorating options.

To start, use a food coloring marker to draw the stem of the flower (or just wing it!). If you would like to add some sparkle to your tulip cookie, sprinkle green sparkling sugar over the area while the icing is still wet. Then, turn the cookie vertically to remove any excess sugar. If needed, you can brush off any stubborn pieces with a (clean, baking only) paint brush. The next step for your tulip flower cookies is to use a food coloring marker to draw the outline of your tulip petals. Then, just as you did with the tulip stem, use pink royal icing to outline and immediately fill just the middle petal. While the icing is still wet, apply pink sparkling sugar to the area and shake off any excess. Wait about 20 minutes for the middle petal to dry and then outline and fill the rest of the tulip with pink royal icing.

There are times when you just need a cookie NOW. Today’s recipe yields two big cookies, similar in taste and texture to the ones you’d buy at the mall, but much healthier! The cookies come together almost instantly—no stand mixer needed, and no rolling out dozens of cookie dough balls. These are super soft and gooey, straight out of the oven! Share with a friend, or eat one now and keep the other one for later. There’s nothing like going through the day knowing a soft chocolate chip cookie is waiting for you at home! Preheat a toaster oven to 325 degrees F, or a regular oven to 350, and grease a tray. In a cereal bowl, combine first six ingredients and stir extremely well. Add wet, and stir to form a dough. Break dough into two equal balls (or 4 balls, if you’d prefer smaller cookies), and smush into cookie shapes. Place cookies with some space between them, as they will grow as they cook. Bake 11 minutes in the toaster, or 7-8 minutes in an oven. They should still be a little undercooked when you take them out, so let them sit 5 minutes before removing from the tray. Do you have a favorite “tried and true” chocolate chip cookie recipe, In terms of how to make chocolate chip cookies, everyone seems to have a different idea about what makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Some people like soft cookies, some prefer crispy cookies. Some swear by adding cornstarch to their chocolate chip cookies. I’ve never tried it, but supposedly it makes the cookies extra chewy. For a bigger-batch recipe, I use my recipe for Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies, which yields cookies that are somehow chewy, soft, and crispy all at the same time!

Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Lightly grease two cookies sheets (whatever size you have) with vegetable shortening (like Crisco) or better yet coconut oil, which is trans-fat free. If you are the UK, there is something called Trex vegetable fat in the refrigerated section of the supermarket near the butter. I'm told it a good substitute for Crisco. Carefully, lightly brown the 6 tablespoons butter or margarine in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Be careful not to burn it. If you have trouble getting it to brown, down worry about it, it is mostly to add the color! Remove the browned butter from heat. Blend in the confectioners' sugar and the vanilla extract. It will start off think and lumpy, until you add the milk in the next step. Mix in just enough milk to make the mixture smooth and spreadable. It probably will only take a small amount, like 1/8 to 1/4 cup. Now set the icing aside.