Dust off your rolling pin and try to remember where you tucked away the cookie cutters. It's time to start cutting stars, bells, trees and Santas out of sugar cookie dough.
I agree that roll-out cookies are a picturesque tradition that's great for kids, but I am also brave enough to admit that they are a big hassle for not much flavor: make the dough, refrigerate it, roll it, cut out the shapes, bake and then frost or add sprinkles.
Each December, I remember being dissatisfied with last year's cut outs and ready for a new approach. I've tried making the dough in the food processor. I've added some spices or more vanilla or really good butter to pull more flavor out of the cookies. I've tried rolling the dough between plastic wrap and wax paper.
I can't get the vision out of my head: my two-tier glass cake stand decked with little handmade cookies decorated with sprinkles and those little silver dragees.
Today, I plan to sneak out of the office holiday party early to make "Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies" from Dorrie Greenspan's new book Baking: From My Home to Yours (Amazon.com, $24). The recipe says, "If you want to make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic." Then, after refrigeration, "roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of 1/4 inch." Scary stuff.
Any tips on rolling out the dough to get pretty cutouts? Do cookie presses really work? Are you planning to make roll out cookies this year? Let us know in this poll.
I am making 4 types of cookies: two drop and two ice-box type - where you slice up a chilled log of dough.
I like roll out cookies. But the ones I make are very similar in taste to one of the ice-box cookies. And it is much easier to make ice-box cookies.
I usually make these cookies at Christmas:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/1582
but I don't turn them into ice cream sandwiches. They're a little easier than roll-out cookies and they taste and smell very holiday-y. But if anyone's going to give them a shot, make sure to use a brand-new box of soft brown sugar. Otherwise the cookies get too hard and chewy...
I use this recipe, substituting spelt and kamut flour for the all-purpose flour it calls for (& without icing):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/106791
I find it's easy to roll out.
i'm making maida heatter's tried & true fruitcake icebox cookie - but i'm updating the cinnamon, candied cherries & walnuts to cardamom, pistachios & dried cranberries with orange zest.
i've also made these fab hazelnut sable stars - they are sinfully delish. maybe again? not sure if time will allow...
Above you asked, "Any tips...?" Here's a link which may be helpful to those making cut-out cookies this season!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/12/AR2006121200283.html
Here's a[nother] cut-out cookie recipe:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/12/AR2006121200315.html#cutouts
I usually make gingerbread men. I have a cookie cutter for gingerbread women too!
And then sugar cookies shapes like stars and trees.
I make Imperial sugar cookies ... it's an old recipe from Imperial margarine. Sounds odd but it makes the best sugar cookies. I'm getting new cookie cutters this year because I'm sick to death of my old shapes but I'll make untold dozens of these cookies to give out. We hadn't even been discussing it but when my neighbor left our house last weekend after game night she said "I want my cookies unfrosted this year".
My 12-year-old son and I made a gingerbread house this year, and made some cookies from the leftover "construction-grade" dough. It rolled so easily and is so tough! I just don't have the patience I used to have for fussy rolled cookies. We're going to make chocolate crinkles and brown sugar shortbread this year - and possibly the ginger-chocolate chunk Martha cookies. But nothing rolled.
Sicilian fig cookies are a must each year. The others vary depending on how much time and motivation I have.
For cut outs, I've always used a sour cream sugar cookie recipe and a cinnamon recipe from a 1960s McCall's cookbook. Both are tender but crispy and have wonderful flavor, but we don't decorate them other than sprinkling colored sugar or cinnamon sugar on, because it masks the flavor. I've never found a recipe to equal either one of those.