Cutout Sugar-Free Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to cut-out cookies? ›

The dough can hang out in the freezer for weeks; when you're ready to bake your cookies, remove as many sheets of dough from the freezer as you'd like, let the dough stand at room temperature for five minutes, then use your favorite cutters to stamp out cookies; they'll be easy to cut, will hold their shape, and won't ...

I can't wait to read through all of the great ideas posted there! To help cookies keep their shape, freeze them! I freeze each batch of cut-out cookies for 5 to 10 minutes before baking.

When you decrease the sugar in a cookie recipe, you won't just get a result that's less sweet. You'll get cookies that are harder, drier, crumblier, and spread far less. It was also interesting to note that decreasing the sugar also yielded 1 less cookie dough ball.

Roll out the dough as evenly as possible to the recipe's recommended thickness (here's how to roll out cookie dough like a pro!). Most recipes suggest rolling the dough to ¼-inch thick because it's easy to work with (less breakage) and achieves a soft, tender cookie.

This isn't the case with sugar cookies, though. Once the edges develop a golden hue, you've gone too far. While overcooked sugar cookies are certainly still palatable, they'll be hard and crunchy, instead of soft and chewy.

Your sugar cookies might be spreading because you are under-creaming or over-creaming the butter and sugar. Creaming the butter and sugar together creates structure in the cookie dough and adds pockets of air to give it a light texture. It's sometimes referred to as mechanical leavening.

Like above comments, try to leave out leavening agents in a good cutout recipe, ie baking powder and baking soda. They make the cookies rise and spread, which is exactly what you don't want in a good cutout. Recipes with a simple butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour and salt mix are perfect for cutouts.

Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.

Different fats will affect the shape of your cookies, as will the temperature of the dough when it goes into the oven. Softer fat like shortening and margarine will spread more than butter, and cookies with butter in them, if refrigerated before baking, will hold their shape, even when quite thick.

Why are my cutout cookies puffy? ›

Q: Why are my cookies so puffy and cakey? Whipping too much air into the dough. That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don't overdo it when you're creaming together the butter and sugar.

The primary purpose of vanilla extract is to add flavour to baked goods. Lacking it, baked goods tend to have a bland and boring taste. Vanilla extract can also contribute moisture to create a soft and fluffy texture.

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

A: Switching to sugar-free cakes and sweets is unlikely to lead to much, if any, weight loss. Sweeteners used in these products usually include a sugar alcohol, such as maltitol or sorbitol, which are not zero-calorie, but about half the calories of sugar.

Cookies spread because the fat in the cookie dough melts in the oven. If there isn't enough flour to hold that melted fat, the cookies will over-spread. Spoon and level that flour or, better yet, weigh your flour. If your cookies are still spreading, add an extra 2 Tablespoons of flour to the cookie dough.

But when you're baking, butter triumphs over margarine every time. For cakes, cookies, and pastries, butter (unsalted, that is) provides richer flavor. (It begins as cream, after all, and margarine is made from vegetable oil.) Butter's high fat content is also what gives baked goods their texture.