best christmas cookie recipes for decorating

This recipe is excellent for its purpose of rolling and cutting cookies...i tried another sugar cookie recipe and hated it...it didnt roll and cut as well and the cookies were flat and crispy...... This recipe is TERRIBLE. If I could give it zero stars, I would. First of all, I am an experienced cook, and always follow my instructions implicitly. The dough is TOO STICKY to be rolled out... This recipe is WONDERFUL. Make sure you: chill at least 1 hour to firm up the dough. Knead the dough before rolling out with pin. Use SUGAR instead of flour when rolling. There are many option... I must add my voice to the hundreds before me. These cookies are a miracle! While I like to think I know my way around a kitchen, sugar cookies have always been disastrous for me. WOW...these are great sugar cookies. Exactly what I was looking for. I made them for my son's preschool class using dinosaur cutouts and they turned out great. What I liked best was that they... I made these for my boyfriend on our anniversary.

As an aspiring pastry chef, I am always in search of great recipes and ways to "doctor them" . I made 1/4 of the batch the f...I tried this method I learned from a different sugar cookie recipe. You make little balls with the dough, then dip a glass into sugar and flatten cookie with the bottom of the sugar... These ARE the best! I didn't change the recipe at all, and I don't see the need to. I didn't have any problems at all with the dough being sticky. Matter of fact, I used only very little flou... I have made this recipe too many times to count! I don't know what went wrong with those that didn't like it. My advice: FOLLOW the suggestions of others. I read through MANY reviews and thi... These special Christmas cookies are perfect for gift-giving, including decorated cut-out sugar cookies, gingerbread people, sandwich cookies, speculaas, and more. Get the Gingerbread Snowflakes Recipe Noah's Ark Sugar Cookies Get the Noah's Ark Sugar Cookies Recipe Get the Stenciled Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Get the Walnut Cookies Recipe Try one of our glazed spritz cookie variations:Citrus-Glazed Cookies Vanilla-Glazed Cookies Vanilla-Glazed Swirl Cookies White-Chocolate-Glazed Cookies Get the Glazed Spritz Cookies Recipe Get the Brandied-Fruit Tartlets Recipe Gingerbread Trees with Lemon Icing Get the Gingerbread Trees with Lemon Icing Recipe Peppermint Meringue Cookies with Chocolate Get the Peppermint Meringue Cookies with Chocolate Recipe Christmas Character Sugar Cookies Get the Christmas Character Sugar Cookies Recipe Get Santa's Sugar Cookies Recipe Get the Speculaas Cookies Recipe Get the Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds Recipe Get the Gingersnap Palmiers Recipe Get the Decorated Santa Cookies Recipe Get the Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies Recipe Get the Gingerbread People Recipe Get the Surprise Cookies Recipe Simple Sugar Cookie Trees Get the Simple Sugar Cookie Trees Recipe Get the Stained Glass Cookies Recipe

Get the Spiced Cardamom Cookies Recipe Get the Cut-Out Butter Cookies Recipe20+ Menu Ideas for Christmas Brunch Create a dazzling arrangement of cookies to savor and share this holiday season. Christmas Light Sugar CookiesChristmas Light Sugar CookiesAn assortment of crushed starlight mints, rock candy, dragees, M&M's, and string licorice comes together for some beautiful bulbs.
exterior home decorVarying amounts of texture add even more interest.
best place to see christmas decorations in san franciscoWrap cookies in parchment, then secure with ribbon and tuck inside box. 10 Winter Sangrias Your Christmas Party Needs Decorated Christmas Cutout Cookies Recipe 34 Christmas Cutout Cookies to Make Your Season Bright 6-7 dozen (2-1/2-inch cookies).

Reviews for Decorated Christmas Cutout Cookies Log In to Review Submit ReviewEdit ReviewUpdate ReviewCancelThis weekend, four winners of the Holiday Baking Weekend Giveaway (and their guests) assembled at the Lodge for a weekend of rest, relaxation and…holiday baking! I decided to focus in on decorated sugar cookies, since learning those skills can open up a whole world of cookie fun around the holidays, but since I’m much better at haphazardly slopping savory ingredients into an iron skillet than I am at executing precise, meticulous cookie decorating techniques, I knew I’d want to bring in reinforcements. One day a month or so ago, I went to Twitter and asked for the names of favorite cookie decorating foodbloggers. There was a handful of bloggers whose names were mentioned over and over. I am Baker, for example. Her cookies are absolutely lovely. So are One Tough Cookie‘s. Amazing. One of the most enthusiastically recommended cookie experts was the lovely Bridget at Bake at 350.

I’d met Bridget briefly before, but wasn’t sure if she’d be game for taking a weekend out of her December and coming up to Oklahoma to teach a cookie decorating class. But I did know I was willing to find out. I emailed Bridget the same day…and she graciously accepted the invitation. And if that weren’t enough, Bridget took care of rounding up all the necessary supplies to teach the class…and send everyone home with what they’d need to decorate cookies themselves. When the box arrived at my house, I just about died. The stuff was just lovely. My homegirl Bakerella would have fainted. I adore the colors. Aside from all the sprinkles and glitters, there was all the gel coloring needed to make whatever color of icing anyone would ever want. I loved the glitter dust. And squirt bottles galore. I’ll show you why we needed them in a minute. (Sweet Baking Supply is the source. So here’s what happened: Bridget arrived. Then I ushered Bridget to the mixer and said something along the lines of “Take it away, Bridge!”

I like to show my guests a good time. I’d had a bunch of plain cookies made up for Bridget ahead of time (recipe link below) so she could focus primarily on the icing/decorating process during the class. Bridget uses two thicknesses of the same Royal Icing for her cookies (one thick, one thin); it begins with storebought meringue powder. Benefits of meringue powder (as opposed to fresh egg whites): 1. You don’t have to worry about the raw egg factor. I don’t get concerned about raw eggs for myself, but if I’m going to serve others (or, in this case, give cookies to others) meringue powder is a better bet. 2. You’ll get a more consistent result. With meringue powder, you’re not having to battle the temperature of the eggs, etc. So you’ll be able to get (generally) the same basic result each time you make the icing. To make the icing, you add the meringue powder to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Then you add water…

And mix it a bit until combined. Next, add in sifted powdered sugar. Here’s where Bridget asked me for a sifter and I handed her this fine mesh strainer, which I use for a sifter. She was very nice and didn’t talk about how unwieldy and awkward it was. I was very nice and sat there and ate undecorated cookies. It’s a problem I have. That, and inadequate kitchen tools. After you add the powdered sugar, you add a little corn syrup, then turn on the mixer and let it go. You don’t let it go for one minute. You don’t let it go for two minutes. You actually let the mixer go for a good five to ten minutes—more if needed. You want to let it beat until stiff peaks form. This, for instance, is not stiff enough. If you hold the paddle upside down and the icing moves or flops backward, it isn’t stiff enough.THIS is stiff enough. How gorgeous is this? The meringue powder makes it so glossy and nice. This is the icing Bridget uses to outline and define the sections of a cookie.

We had plenty of disposable pastry bags on hand, and lots of decorative tips. And lots of royal icing, colored various shades of holiday colors. To color the icing, Bridget uses Americolor gel. Other brands, Bridget warns, can make the icing taste a little funky. Just add a little icing into a bowl and drop in some of the gel coloring. Then stir it around, adding more color to the icing to get it to the depth you want. Bridget colored some icing green, then spooned it into a bag. She recommends filling it less than halfway full, then attaching a twist tie here… And here (up toward the top) if you want to walk away from it and come back later. Next up, now that the outline was completed, Bridget mixed up some flood icing. Flood icing is used to fill in the outlined areas of a cookie. It moves a little more freely and easily and can be used to create some really wonderful effects (more in a minute). All you have to do to make the flood icing is plop some regular royal icing into a bowl and add water in teeny tiny increments, stirring well after each addition.

This (above) is way, way too thick. The rule of thumb Bridget uses after mixing in each addition of water (and the additions are half a teaspoon at a time) is to raise up a ribbon of icing and drag it back and forth across the surface. If the ribbon sinks down into the rest of the icing within a count of “one thousand one, one thousand two,” it’s ready. This (above) is still not ready. A note about thinning the royal icing to make flood icing: there are no shortcuts, and this can not be sped along. You literally should only add water 1/2 to 1 teaspoon at a time (adding less and less each time), stirring after each addition, until the icing reached the proper consistency. As I watched this portion of Bridget’s demonstration, I commented that because I am impatient in the kitchen, I would be tempted to just slosh in a bunch of water and stir it around. But Bridget warned that doing so can really compromise the integrity of the flood icing. Next up, the flood icing goes into a squirt bottle…

And you just fill in the spaces. Use a toothpick to carefully move the royal icing around and evenly distribute it. Note from Bridget: The icing should not be thin enough to ooze into place all by itself; if it’s thin enough to do this, it either won’t dry properly or will dry with unsightly pits.Who the heck needs that pressure? Meanwhile we mixed some red flood icing on the sidelines (I was very, very careful not to slosh…but it was difficult) and Bridget squeezed it into the middle section. And then…this lovely mint green color! This color was my favorite. And you can see (above) the difference between the original, thick royal icing and the thinner flood icing. The thick stuff wouldn’t be able to be poured. Now, here’s what happens when you put flood icing on flood icing… It creates a flat color-on-color effect. (Bridget calls these “flat dots.”) And I love the red/mint green combination. That’s the basic technique!

Outline with the thick royal icing, fill in with the thinner flood icing. Drop flood icing onto flood icing to create pretty flat effects. The world is your oyster. Bridget was great to encourage everyone to try it. She made her way around the island, lending her help and instruction for anyone who needed it. My girls were there with a couple of their friends. And the guests churned out some lovely cookies… The flat flood-on-flood designs are my favorite. Just use a toothpick to make swirls. Bridget brought some finished cookies along. These peppermint candy cookies will make your skirt fly up…in a major way. Here’s the tutorial on Bridget’s site that shows you how to make them: Here are the links to the recipes we used: Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies – These are the cookies Bridget uses, and they are exceptionally delicious. You don’t have to chill the dough before rolling them out (a plus!) and they’re really tasty. Note that she rolls the cookies pretty darn thick—I’d guess hers push half an inch thick—and in my opinion, this is what makes Bridget’s cookies extra memorable.