Best Cut Out Cookies Recipes

SUGAR COOKIE CUTOUTS

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Sift together the flour and baking powder, stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the heavy cream. Cover dough, and chill for 2 to 3 hours, until firm.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired.
• Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottoms and edges of cookies are light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

CUT-OUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Form into a fat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
• Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place disk of dough on it, and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the cookies a little apart on 2 parchment or silpat lined baking sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 12 minutes; obviously it depends on the shape you're using and whether they are on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after about 5 minutes. When they're ready expect them to be tinged a pronounced gold around the edges; they'll be softish still in the middle, but set while they cool.
• Remove the cookies with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack. When they are fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoons of not-quite-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved confectioners sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Color,as desired. I think pastes are much better than liquid, not just because the range of colors is better but because they don't dilute the icing as they tint. Ice cooled cookies, as desired.

DECORATED CHRISTMAS CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill until firm, 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in thickness. Cut out with Christmas cookie cutters of your choice. Using a floured spatula, transfer cookies to greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks., Decorate cookies with frosting and colored sugars.

BEST EVER CHOCOLATE CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients to form a soft dough. Divide dough into 2 pieces, flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Dough is sticky so be sure to add more flour to the rolling surface as needed. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

PERFECT CUT-OUT COOKIE DOUGH

Steps:

• Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Blend egg and vanilla extract into the butter mixture.
• Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl; mix into the butter mixture until just incorporated. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator and let the dough warm to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Roll dough out onto a flat surface to about 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters; arrange onto baking sheets.
• Bake cookies until firm in the center, but not yet browning, 8 to 12 minutes. Let cool briefly on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

NEVER-FAIL CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour. Divide dough into 4 portions; shape each into a disk. Cover; refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 30 minutes., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with floured 3-in. holiday cookie cutters. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets., Bake until edges are light golden, 12-14 minutes. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., For frosting, beat confectioners' sugar, butter, shortening, vanilla and enough milk to reach desired consistency. If desired, tint with food coloring. Spread or pipe over cookies. Decorate as desired.

THE BEST ROLLED SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

BEST BUTTER COOKIES (CUTOUTS)

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Add in egg and beat well. Beat in orange juice and vanilla.
• Combine flour and baking powder and gradually beat inches.
• Chill dough for about 1 hour.
• After dough has chilled, preheat oven to 400.
• Roll dough on to lightly floured surface to about 1/8-1/4" thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Sprinkle w/ colored sugars, if desired.
• Bake at 400 for 6-9 minutes (depending on cookie size) or until edges just slightly golden.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS SUGAR CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift together flour and baking powder in separate bowl.
• In second bowl, beat together sugar and egg until it becomes lemon-colored.
• Add butter, orange juice and vanilla.
• Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
• Slowly begin adding flour mixture (about 1/2 cup at a time) and blend; continue until all flour is used.
• Form into 2 flattened rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour.
• When ready to roll, set oven to 400 deg F.
• Cover baking sheets with parchment paper (can be reused from batch to batch).
• Sprinkle powdered sugar onto rolling surface as you would flour.
• Roll out one rectangle into desired thickness and cut out; place on baking sheet, making sure not to let cookies touch.
• Re-form scraps and roll again (may have to add more powdered sugar for rolling); continue until all dough is used.
• Once baking sheet is full, place into oven and set timer for 6 minutes.
• Depending on cookie thickness, baking time can range from 6-10 minutes, so check at the 6-minute mark to determine whether you need to bake longer.
• When light golden in color, remove cookies from baking sheet and place on cooling racks or flat surface covered with parchment.
• Cool to room temperature and frost with favorite frosting.
• If decorating, I recommend the following frosting (also appears in recipezaar under "Cutout Cookie Decorator Icing":.
• 1 cup confectioners sugar.
• 2 tsp milk.
• 2 tsp light corn syrup.
• 1/4 tsp vanilla.
• food coloring.