Wait! Before you toss those empty paper towel rolls into the recycling, CHOW has another way we can use them: to help us make perfectly round slice-and-bake cookies.
This tip is brilliant in its simplicity. You just mash the cookie dough into a roughly tubular shape, wrap it in plastic wrap, and then use the paper towel tube like a mold. Refrigerate until firm and then slice the cookies as usual — except with much more cylindrical results!
I think I'll take Chow's tip one step further. I often find that cookie dough softens too much as I cut, so that the last half of the cookies end up squashed instead of round. If I keep the unsliced cookie dough in the mold while slicing and just push it out from the opening as I go, the paper tube should help it keep the bulk of the cookie dough in a circular shape even if it softens.
→ Check Out the Full Video Tip: How to Cut Perfectly Round Cookies from Chow.com
Related: Cookie Baking Tip: A Quick Way to Cool Hot Baking Sheets
(Image: Chow.com)
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
How To Make Classic Chicken Salad
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
If you rotate the cylinder a little bit before each slice, the cookies last half of the cookies won't end up squished.
I use the roll every time I chill cookie dough logs and it works perfectly!
Brilliant!!
The roll might even insulate the cookie dough a little. But couldn't you also put an ice pack on top of the uncut portion, maybe wrapped in a towel? Maybe that's a little too far.
What a great tip!
I like imperfect cookies!!
What kind of cookies are those in the picture?
ErinEO - Looks like rosemary shortbread to me!
My favorite rolled cookie recipe with which I use this trick? http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cappuccino-flats/ It's work but they are worth it!