Nightmare before Christmas: Finding Cookie Cutters, Cake Decorations, & Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipes

Making Rolled Sugar Cookies With Kids Makes a Great Holiday Baking Tradition

When the holidays come around and the children are on Christmas vacation, there is one holiday activity that is a must in my family, and that is to make Christmas cookies. Making memories with my loved ones while making Christmas cookies or some other kid friendly holiday baking is one of my favorite pass times, and it is a great way to add some extra holiday fun for the kids to keep busy with. I have been trying to find the perfect light, fluffy, and soft cut out (rolled sugar) cookie recipe just for the occasion, and no offense Betty Crocker, but your pre-made mix in a bag rolled sugar cookies just don't cut it.

However, Betty Crocker, I happen to like your 1986 recipe (slightly altered) as the sugar cookies come out pretty soft and quite delicious, which I've included a slightly altered version of it in this hub for those of you who would like to check out the recipe that made those delicious looking rolled sugar cookies in the picture above.

Finding the Perfect Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

Still in search of the perfect rolled sugar cookie recipe, I image Googled (I searched on Google Images), trying to find what looked to be the perfect sugar cookies. After looking through several sugar cookie images I came across a San Diego food blog called Kirbie's Cravings. The sugar cookies pictured looked pretty light and fluffy so I decided to check out the cookie recipe, which turned out to be that ever so popular recipe for sugar cookies on allrecipes.com. However, it came with a story about how hard it was for Kirbie to find just the right sprinkles and other cake decorations to explain away the naked look of the Christmas cookies pictured, as well as the question on where to find whatever sprinkles and other cake decorations you're looking for.

As I finished reading the blog, the answer to Kirbie's question about where to find cookie sprinkles and cake decorations for the naked sugar cookies came to me with help of my memory of the cut out cookie nightmare before Christmas I had experienced a few years back. It truly was a cookie nightmare before Christmas, as it was around 8pm Christmas Eve, and I still had what seemed to be a million and one tasks to do before Christmas morning. Christmas cookies for Santa needing to be made of course were one of those tasks. Luckily I had prepared the cookie dough early that morning and had it chilling in the refrigerator. See, I thought everything would be perfect if I prepped the cookie dough well before hand. This was going to be the first time I made cut out Christmas cookies with my kids, so naturally it was going to be a memorable experience for us all.

I began looking through my old Betty Crocker cookbook that happens to have loads of cookie recipes, one of which looked like it would be the perfect rolled sugar cookie recipe. The sugar cookies looked light and fluffy, almost like the round sugar cookies you buy at the grocery store that have gobs of frosting and sprinkles on them. Since I happen to like the softness and the taste of the round store bought sugar cookies, with a little less frosting of course, I decided that was the rolled sugar cookie recipe to try out. It was actually quite an easy cookie recipe, and very versatile. You could make the dough for either rolled or drop sugar cookies with just a little more or less of the dry ingredients already being used. However, I failed to remember until after I had my rolled sugar cookie dough all chilled and ready to go, that rolled sugar cookies generally require you to have cookie cutters, and I did not have any Christmas themed cookie cutters.

Realizing that my kids wouldn't really get the fun of pressing the cookie cutters into the cookie dough, I decided I was not going to let some cookie cutters keep me from making great memories with my children. Besides, Santa needs his sugar cookies, right? I was determined that my kids would have at least some fun by being able to decorate Christmas cookies shaped like trees, stars, candy canes, gingerbread men, and snowmen. So I pulled out a butter knife and started trying to cut the shapes into the dough. You know, I think there is a reason why you press cookie cutters into the dough, and that is because cookie dough does not really cut. Well at least this cookie dough didn't cut, as when I tried to cut it, it would tear and I'd end up with broken cookies. It took forever, but I managed to cut out Christmas cookie shapes by pressing the knife into the dough and making the shape I wanted.

My Christmas cookies may not have looked like the perfect snowmen, Christmas trees, gingerbread men, candy canes, or stars that you get from cookie cutters, but my kids had a blast frosting and decorating them anyway, and as I mentioned earlier the cookies tasted quite delicious and were actually quite soft. However I did make a few alterations to Betty Crocker's sugar cookie recipe. I've included one of the alterations I did, as I am unsure of the specific amount of extra powdered sugar and flour I added to make the cookie dough a little less wet and sticky, and a little easier to roll.

The holiday season can be chaotic enough without a cookie nightmare before Christmas. So being as I did not want to ever have to cut out cookies with a butter knife again, I started looking for a set of cookie cutters on E-Bay. Not only did I find a great starter set of cookie cutters at a really great price, but I also found the answer to Kirbie's question on where to find the cookie sprinkles and cake decorations of your choice. As that old E-Bay commercial says, 'Whatever "IT" is your looking for E-Bay has "IT,"' including cookie sprinkles and other cake decorations.

Rolled Sugar Cookies From Betty Crocker's 1986 Cookbook (Slightly Altered)

Yields: Approximately 5 dozen cookies.

About 65 calories per cookie.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup margarine or butter softened (I use unsalted butter which gives the cookies a better taste)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (instead of baking soda and cream of tartar you can substitute 2 teaspoons of baking powder, which is what I used.)
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

* Granulated sugar (optional)

* If using self-rising flour, omit baking soda and cream of tartar.

Directions

1. Mix powdered sugar, margarine, vanilla, almond extract and egg until smooth. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Combine the flour mixture in with the powdered sugar mixture then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough into halves. For thicker cookies roll to ³/₁₆ inch thick on a lightly flowered cloth covered board and cut into desired shapes with 2-to 2 ½-inch thick cookie cutters. Otherwise roll the dough halves to ¼ inch thick on a lightly flowered cloth covered board and cut using any cookie cutters. If desired sprinkle with granulated sugar.
3. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for about 6-8 minutes depending on the thickness. The cookies edges will be a light golden color when they are done. For frosted or decorated sugar cookies, omit the granulated sugar, and let cool before frosting.

Copyright © 11/09/2011 by A.K. Love (dragnhaze)

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