Making Memories Finding Cookie Cutters Cake Decorations & Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipes

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

Making homemade rolled sugar cookies makes some of the best memories as you and your loved ones mix together the ingredients, roll it out to cut into cute cookie shapes, then decorating those delicious looking home baked cookies (maybe like contestants in a Food Network baking challenge). 

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. 

Keep the kids busy, while having loads of
fun, making cut-out sugar cookies.
Image Copyright © 11/09/2011 by A.K. Love

Kid Friendly Baking = Precious Moments & Skills Learned

Making memories with my loved ones while making Christmas cookies or some other kid-friendly holiday baking is one of my favorite pastimes. Kid friendly baking is not just a great way to add some extra holiday fun for the kids to keep busy with, it's a great time to learn some baking skills.

Out of all the kid friendly baking, I think cut-out sugar cookies that you have to roll out flat so you can cut-out cute shapes and decorate make some of the best memories especially when you have a delicious sugar cookie recipe. One of my go-to's since 2009 is my slightly altered Betty Crocker sugar cookie recipe from 1986, shared for you to try a bit below.  If you enjoy my slightly altered sugar cookie recipe maybe give Kirbie's Cravings a visit, as if it wasn't  for her naked sugar cookie post, I might not have thought to share my altered sugar cookie recipe.

Finding the Perfect Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

See, I have been trying to find the perfect light, fluffy, and soft cut out (rolled sugar) cookie recipe to replace my ever growing Lofthouse cookie addiction, and no offense Betty Crocker, but your store bought pre-made rolled sugar cookie mix in a bag just doesn't cut it. I stumbled across Kirbie's Cravings through an image search back in 2010, looking for the secret to the Lofthouse sugar cookies.

  

On the left are the cut-out sugar cookies
 from: Kirbie's  Cravings. On the right is the
light, fluffy, coveted Lofthouse sugar
cookie.
Image Copyright © 11/09/2011 by A.K. Love

After looking through several sugar cookie images I came across a San Diego food blog called Kirbie's Cravings.  The sugar cookies pictured on her blog 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.

Originally posted in 2009, Kirbie's recipe has been updated since then so it no longer comes with a story about how hard it was for her to find just the right sprinkles and other cake decorations to explain away the naked look of the Christmas cookies pictured, and the question of where to find whatever sprinkles and other cake decorations you're looking for. 

As I finished reading the blog, I had already known the answer to Kirbie's question about where to find cookie sprinkles and cake decorations for the naked sugar cookies, as around the time she posted her sugar cookie post, I was also experiencing a cut out cookie nightmare before Christmas. Maybe she found my answer (which used to be hosted on hubpages.com, but they've undergone big changes so now here is where the answer resides) to her question which I share shortly before my altered Betty Crocker sugar cookie recipe.

I eventually had a moment of clarity, and thought why not just look at the ingredients.  Low and behold, the secret ingredient to the melt in your mouth Lofthouse cookie is rice flour. 

However, that moment of clarity was well after the chaotic holiday times, when I stumbled upon Kirbie's post. Since I notice her recipe was the same as the all recipes, which I had tried in one of my previous attempts to make Lofthouse sugar cookies, I ended up opening up my old Betty Crocker cookbook from 1986. 

I slightly altered this 1986 Betty Crocker rolled sugar cookie recipe to use only confectioners sugar. This made the sugar cookies come out much softer than the sugar cookie dough or mixes bought at the store and very delicious. 

I've included my slightly altered version of it for those of you who would like to check out the recipe that made those delicious looking rolled sugar cookies in the picture above. You can jump down to make this deliciously soft cut out cookie recipe below. I think they come pretty close to the Lofthouse cookies, or you can continue reading to find out what a cookie nightmare before Christmas was like.  

I am planning on experimenting with the rice flour theory to see if I can make the exact Lofthouse sugar cookie at home and will let you know how that goes. Rice flour isn't the easiest to find unless you want to buy it in 50lb bags from a restaurant or an online store like websturaunt.com so I will also experiment with making rice flour and update you on that as well.

Cookie Nightmare Before Christmas

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 baked 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 beforehand. 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. 

Before you ask... I swear I didn't
 use the blueberry muffin mix in
 the cookies. I was making muffins
  for breakfast that morning. 
I did however,
 use the powdered sugar
underneath the muffin mix.
Please note that the kitchen
tools list I provided does NOT
include a whisk.

Copyright © 11/09/2011
by A.K. Love

I used a rolled sugar cookie recipe from my old Betty Crocker cookbook that happens to have loads of cookie recipes. One sugar cookie recipe in particular looked like it would be the perfect rolled sugar cookie recipe. The sugar cookies looked light and fluffy, almost like the round lofthouse 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 lofthouse 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 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 to cut cookies without cookie cutters, but I managed to figure out how to cut out cookies without cookie cutters. I had to cut Christmas cookie shapes by pressing the knife into the dough a little section of the design at a time slowly 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 really quite soft. 

The holiday season can be chaotic enough without some kind of nightmare before Christmas. As I did not want to ever have to cut out cookies with a butter knife again, I set my mind to find a set of cookie cutters. Not only did I find a great starter set of cookie cutters at a really great price, but I also found a few stores that answer Kirbie's question on where to find the cookie sprinkles and cake decorations of your choice. 

7 Stores To Get Cookie Cutters, Cake Decorations, Flavorings, Food Colorings, & More

Here's a few stores that offer a variety of decorations, cookie cutters, and other great baking supplies. Check them out! 

Let's start with Wal-Mart, which has FREE 2-Day Shipping on select orders totaling $35 or more. Wal-Mart supercenters have two sections to find sprinkles, frostings, colorings, and many other cookie and cake decorations. The first section is the baking aisle, and the second is the craft baking aisle.

Another store that offers cookie decorations is Hobby Lobby. Just ask where the baking craft section is and you'll find plenty of baking decorations to choose from.

Michaels is another store where you can get your cookie decorating needs. Like Hobby Lobby, Michaels' craft baking section has a nice selection of cake decorations. Cookie sprinkles being one.

Supermarkets may be a little more expensive but many times will offer at least a few kinds of sprinkles and other cake and cookie decorating supplies. 

If you can wait for a bit, you can order your cake decorations, cookie cutters, and other baking supplies through Amazon. The selection of cake and cookie decorations as well as baking supplies seem endless.

Ebay surprisingly, also has great decorations for your naked rolled sugar cookies. I guess that old EBay commercial that says, 'Whatever "IT" is you're looking for E-Bay has "IT,"' was right! Including cookie sprinkles and other cake decorations.

You can also find cookie and cake decorations at specialty online baking supply stores such as ColorKitchenFoods.com, NaturalCandyStore.com, Wilton.com and several others. The first two stores I just mentioned offer cake sprinkles and cookie decorations made with natural food coloring.

Helpful Kitchen Tools & Aids to Make Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Now that you know where to get the baking equipment needed for making cut-out sugar cookies, take a look at the complete list of the tools you'll need below. This list of kitchen tools provides the bare-minimum of what is needed.

• 2 large mixing bowls (1 should be plastic wrap friendly)
• Large fork / hand mixer / stand mixer
• Rolling pin
• Cookie Cutters 
• Cookie sheet pans

How Much Time is Needed to Make Homemade Cut-Out Cookies?

The time it takes to make these delicious sugar cookies can vary depending on the kithchen tools that you have on hand. 

Times I provide are a rough estimate based on the manual side of preparation. You won't be on your feet for too long even though prep will be 3 hours and 15 minutes, this is because most of the preparation is bringing the butter to room temperature and chilling the cookie dough. 

Luckily, you only need to bake for 8 to 10 minutes per dozen cookies. The total prep and cook time is about 3 hours and 55 minutes to bake all the cookie dough, but the cookie dough can be wrapped up air tight and frozen to be baked at a later time. This sugar cookie recipe makes about 5 dozen sugar cookies.

 

Ingredients for Soft, Delicious, and Easy Rolled sugar cookies!

• Powdered Sugar (confectioners sugar) I think is a key ingredient to making soft sugar cookies. You will need 2 cups of powdered sugar.
• Unsalted Butter is definitely a necessity, even though Betty Crocker gives you a choice of using margarine or butter softened. I use unsalted butter as I feel it gives the cookies a better taste. You will need 1 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature.
• Egg will help provide the lift that makes these sugar cookies fluffy. You will need 1 egg for this sugar cookie recipe.
• Vanilla Extract is partly what gives these sugar cookies a delicious flavor.  You will need 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Almond Extract is the other part to making these delicious rolled sugar cookies. Let me know if you agree in the comments below, I find the flavor similar to the Lofthouse sugar cookies. You will need ½ teaspoon almond extract.
• All Purpose Flour helps prevent us from having a diabetic coma from eating a sugar cookie made of just powdered sugar. You can use self-rising flour as a substitute, just make sure to omit the last two required ingredients or it can alter the flavor of the cookie. You will need to have 3 cups of all-purpose flour.
• Baking Soda / Baking Powder is what the Betty Crocker recipe asks for in addtion to the egg and the next ingredient for making these cookies fluffy. You will need 1 teaspoon of baking soda, (instead of baking soda and cream of tartar you can substitute 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and is what I use.) * If using self-rising flour, omit baking soda and cream of tartar or baking powder.
• Cream of Tartar / Baking Powder is the last of the required ingredients for these soft and fluffy sugar cookies. You will need 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.
• *Granulated sugar (optional for sprinkling on top).
• *Frosting (optional for decorating).
• *Sprinkles (optional for decoration).

Directions

• In a large bowl, mix powdered sugar, margarine, vanilla, almond extract and egg until smooth and creamy. 
• 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 2 hours.
• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 
• Divide dough into halves. 
• For thicker cookies roll to 3/16 inch thick on a lightly floured flat work surface 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 floured flat work surface and cut using any cookie cutters. 
• If desired sprinkle with granulated sugar.
• Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet pan and bake for about 6-10 minutes depending on the thickness. The cookie edges will be a light golden color when they are done. 
• For frosted or decorated sugar cookies, omit the granulated sugar, and let cool on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

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