Sugar cookie cut-outs complete failure, help!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

We made sugar cookies twice this week and both times I failed miserably. The first time I used a grocery store mix that I just added eggs and milk too. I rolled the dough with a wooden floured pin on a floured plastic cutting board. Then tried to transfer (pry) the cut cookies off board and onto a cookie sheet. The shapes looked nothing like the cutters after I finally got them onto the sheet. (although the taste of the cookies was pretty good). My Halloween cats were shaped more like roadkill. So today I tried again with homemade dough (recipe rated 4.9 stars by 2700 people-- sounds like it would be hard to screw up).
I floured and cut directly on granite countertop, and, again, by the time I had transfered to cookie sheet the shape of the cut-out was completely lost. AND, to make matters worse this highly rated recipe tasted so flour-y it was nasty. I have tried with regular cookie cutters and with the Williams-Sonoma plunger type cutters that are (supposed to be) fool-proof. Can anyone give me tips to getting sugar cookies right? I was so fed up today that I tossed 3/4 of the dough down the disposal. My kids love to decorate cookies and I need to figure this out!

[m448]

freeze the disk of dough after rolling it, then cut out then freeze the shapes again for a frew minutes. Frozen dough will keep its shape better during baking.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Yeah, it sounds to me like the dough is too warm.

My technique that I have been using with success the past few years is this (with homemade, from scratch cookie dough):
make dough
lay out a piece of Glad Press and Seal that has been sprinkled with a bit of flour
lay another piece of Press and Seal over that
roll out dough
put dough in freezer for 15 minutes or fridge 30+ minutes
I only cut out one set of shapes from the dough then repeat the above steps with my scraps
as soon as one cookie is cut out I transfer it to my Silpat sheet on the cookie tray rather than moving all the cookies after cut so they don't have time to warm up
I have no problem with them losing their shape unless the cookie tray is warmed up from the previous batch so it's best to start with a cool sheet each time

Beth

[ThreeofUs]

Sorry to hear about your roadkill - but it sounds like your cookies tasted great! (And that's really what matters, no?)

I roll them out on very lightly oiled parchment paper, pop into the freezer for a couple of minutes, and then cut and transfer quickly.

If you make the dough stiff enough, you don't have to go through the freezing step to get a harder consistency.... But this makes for some dry cookies, imho!

[m448]

Sorry I was naking but like Beth I roll between two sheets of plastic wrap (regular 'ol clingrap) and without any added flour. I then put the whole ovalish round on the back of a half sheet pan and stick that in my freezer. I roll out another while the first is chilling then whip out the chilled round, cut it and stick it on the pan. If the oven is preoccupied with another batch I stick the cutouts in the freezer. You can definitely freeze cutouts unbaked, for a good while. Several years ago (before kids) I made hundreds of cutouts for trays that we gave to families for Christmas and cut them all out in November but didn't bake them until December. I'm much more sane now. ;)

[bubbaray]

:hysterical: Susan, you are possibly the only other person (other than me) who I've heard describe their cooking as roadkill.

LOL

I'm sure they tasted great!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Thanks all for your replies! I will try freezing the dough, I did refridge it but maybe not long enough? Who the heck knows. Honestly, this whole sugar cookie deal may be well beyond my skill/baking coordination level. (if DH would stop burning link sausage on my cookie sheets taste would also likely improve....) I will give it one more honest attempt, thank you!

[pakin]

For me, making cookies with cookie cutters is too much work. I really like the Wilton cookie shapes pan like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D8ZUT4

You can find them at Walmart or Target. They are in store for the holidays. I have one for Halloween, one for Easter and two for Christmas. They came with a sugar cookie recipe. The recipe worked out great! I made the dough, put them in the pan and baked. I just had to make sure that I spray vegetable oil in all the crevices. Cookies came out perfect every time!

HTHs.

Pakin

DS 4/2001
DD 6/2005

[shilo]

hi susan,

i'm pretty sure i've posted my recipe/tips for sugar cookies here before so if you've already done a search, sorry for the repeater...

white velvet cutouts: modified from allrecipes.com

1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened
1/2 block (4oz) cream cheese (i use light/neufchatel b/c i like a less dense cookie)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp vanilla

cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar. add the egg and vanilla and whip until fluffy. fold/stir in the flour. that's it. the real trick is in how you handle the dough from there on out - here's some hints...

it works best if you divide the recipe into 2 or 3 sections, put in baggies and squished flat (cools more evenly) and either refridg for at least 4-5 hours, or freeze for 45 min or so. then, as you're working the dough, treat like a standard cut out dough. but once you've done a roll and cut, you need to ball up and keep re-freezering the scraps to keep it good and cool until right before you're going to roll/cut it again. also, flouring both the working surface and rolling pin and rolling out between 2 dowels so that you get a uniform thickness helps too. try to group your cookies on baking sheets by size since the smaller cutouts will cook faster than the larger ones.

bake at 350 for 12 min. or until edges are just barely starting to brown ( for really large cookie cutters this is more like 13 or 14 min).

if you want to coat the cookies with sugar sprinkles, spray them lightly with cooking spray before sprinkling them on the _uncooked_ dough.

if you want icing, here's my favorite icing recipe:
(dries hard and a little shiny) i use is 1cup confectioners sugar (powdered sugar), add 2T milk, stir, slowly add another 1-2 T until it is almost a paste, but still has dry chunky sections. then add 2T Karo syrup (a little more or less until the icing is as thick as you want it). really thick and it will hold a bead for piping, thinner and it will spread easily with a paint brush. you can flavor with a tiny bit (1/8t) of any flavored extract (i like almond, ymmv) anyway, then you add real icing food coloring (not the little droppers of liquid you get at the grocery store, but the real stuff you get at a cake decorating store or michaels - that's the to the intense colors - they come in little screw top containers about the size of a film cannister - i add a dollop of color with a toothpick to about 1-2T of icing at a time - or however much of a color you need. make sure to keep your working bowl of uncolored icing covered with a damp paper towel while you are working with a color, so that the main batch doesn't dry out.

if you want a really firm/hard icing for piping the edges (or adhering broken bits back together ;)) you can mix up a 1/2 or 1/4 batch of royal icing and pipe it with a #1 round tip on a piping bag:
the ratio for royal icing is 3T meringue powder to 1 lb. (box) confectioner's powdered sugar and 6T warm water (if it's very humid outside, use a little less water). beat it until stiff peaks form and hold (a few minutes). then you're ready to color it and load it into a piping bag. this icing actually dries/stiffens pretty rapidly, so do be sure to keep your tip on your piping bag in a damp washcloth whenever you're not using it to keep it from drying out in the tip.

here's sam's first bday cake with the iced cookies and those 'food writer' pens you can get for the outline details:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/lorien_ca/DSC_0091.jpg

here's the cookies i did for my sister's shower with the icing and royal icing piped around the edges:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/lorien_ca/jayshouseno-ip.jpg

and here's max's first bday cake from today coated in sugar granules and some royal icing for the eyes and other detailing: http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/lorien_ca/DSC_0056.jpg

[Globetrotter]

lorien_ca, :bowdown: and that's all I'm saying..

To the OP, I'm with you!! BTW, how IS your dh?? I think of asking every time I see your name!

I can NEVER get them to retain their shape and now I know why! I will try lorien_ca's technique and let's see what happens, but I know I will never be able to replicate that.

[wendibird22]

We made sugar cookies twice this week and both times I failed miserably. The first time I used a grocery store mix that I just added eggs and milk too. I rolled the dough with a wooden floured pin on a floured plastic cutting board. Then tried to transfer (pry) the cut cookies off board and onto a cookie sheet. The shapes looked nothing like the cutters after I finally got them onto the sheet. (although the taste of the cookies was pretty good). My Halloween cats were shaped more like roadkill. So today I tried again with homemade dough (recipe rated 4.9 stars by 2700 people-- sounds like it would be hard to screw up).
I floured and cut directly on granite countertop, and, again, by the time I had transfered to cookie sheet the shape of the cut-out was completely lost. AND, to make matters worse this highly rated recipe tasted so flour-y it was nasty. I have tried with regular cookie cutters and with the Williams-Sonoma plunger type cutters that are (supposed to be) fool-proof. Can anyone give me tips to getting sugar cookies right? I was so fed up today that I tossed 3/4 of the dough down the disposal. My kids love to decorate cookies and I need to figure this out!

I could have written this post after each attempt I've made at sugar cookies. DH and I always have horrid results. You are not alone!

[Pennylane]

I agree with the pp, make sure your dough is cold before you roll it out. Once you cut it into shapes, pop it back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before baking. This helps the cookies mantain the shape when the are baked.

I love Barefoot Contessa's recipe for shortbread cookies. It really holds together well.

Ann

[kochh2]

we had success with abutter cookie recipe, my kids loved painting them with different icing colors... so much fun, and just wanted to add that we prefer to roll it out between 2 pcs of wax paper FWIW!!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

Lori, HOLY you are amazing, thanks so much!!! I will try your recipe next time! WOW!

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

lorien_ca, :bowdown: and that's all I'm saying..

To the OP, I'm with you!! BTW, how IS your dh?? I think of asking every time I see your name!

I can NEVER get them to retain their shape and now I know why! I will try lorien_ca's technique and let's see what happens, but I know I will never be able to replicate that.


Thanks for asking! We are now exactly one year from his accident and he is doing well. He can not run or ski or boat, the things he loved to do, so , in his mind, he still has a long way to go but we knew going in it would be 3 years to see extent of full recovery.
We are very, very lucky.

[marie]

Lori-
those cookies are amazing! I wish I had your icing recipe a few days ago - i was making cookies for DD's class party and, living in small-town VT, the closest thing I could find to meringue powder was powdered egg whites for $17.99!! Soooo, Royal Icing was a no-go and I certainly will be filing your icing recipe away for future use!

OP - i can't add any more to the advice you've already received. Thanks for the update on your DH. It seems like he has had an amazing journey and recovery thus far. To me, the real question isn't whether or not he can ski or run but can he still use a roll of duct tape?!? :D

marie
mama to
DD1 9/03
DD2 12/07

[happymom]

Ooooh, I have found a fellow cake decorator on this forum! How exciting! Lori, youre cookies are beautiful and perfect! I also use a karo syrup icing- dries hard enough but not as hard as royal icing. Did you bake and frost those cakes too? They look great!

[Globetrotter]

Thanks for asking! We are now exactly one year from his accident and he is doing well. He can not run or ski or boat, the things he loved to do, so , in his mind, he still has a long way to go but we knew going in it would be 3 years to see extent of full recovery.
We are very, very lucky.

WOW, that is a great update, and I'm so glad for you!

[urquie]

Thanks for asking! We are now exactly one year from his accident and he is doing well. He can not run or ski or boat, the things he loved to do, so , in his mind, he still has a long way to go but we knew going in it would be 3 years to see extent of full recovery.
We are very, very lucky.

i know this is an old post, but i missed it and had to reply to your great news! every time i see your user-name, i wonder how your dh is doing... and if he's been getting into the duct tape. so glad to hear that he's still improving! :bouncy:

[elephantmeg]

Thanks for asking! We are now exactly one year from his accident and he is doing well. He can not run or ski or boat, the things he loved to do, so , in his mind, he still has a long way to go but we knew going in it would be 3 years to see extent of full recovery.
We are very, very lucky.

oh I am soo glad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!