We love making cookies, and we're happy to share that love. These are all of our cut-out cookie and royal icing recipes, both currently available and from the past, complete with helpful tips and videos to guide you on your own baking adventures.
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Use room temperature butter, but chilled eggs (except for gingerbread). If you are using unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp of salt to your dry ingredients.
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Cream butter and sugar together for about two minutes - it will turn lighter and become fluffy.
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Add in the eggs one at a time. Add in the extracts next. Let it mix all together until it's a uniform consistency, and scrape the sides if you need to.
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Sift the dry ingredients together and then add in half a cup at a time to the wet. Stop when the dough starts to comes away from the sides of the bowl. You may have half a cup of dry stuff left at this point, and that’s ok. If the dough doesn’t do this, add more flour, a bit at a time, until it does. That’s also ok.
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Lightly flour a surface and "Slap knead" the dough just enough to make it smooth. Put it into an airtight container and refrigerate it for at least three hours. It can stay in your fridge for a couple of days, and you and can also freeze it for several months.
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Preheat the oven to 390 F, or 380 if you have a convection oven.
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Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch and cut out shapes. Lay them at least ½ inch apart on cookie sheets. Parchment paper or silicone mats are recommended.
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Bake one dozen cookies for 7 to 8 minutes, or two dozen for 10 to 11 minutes. The cookies should lose their shiny tops and have just a touch of brown around the edges. Let them cool on the tray for five minutes, then move to a wire cooling rack.
Instructions for all cut-out cookies:
Choose Your Flavor:
Lemon Poppy Seed
Tart, yet earthy. Give your taste buds a jump start with this delicious variation.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
A dark chocolate cookie with cinnamon overtones and a touch of chili powder. Excellent with a glass of cold milk.
Pumpkin and Spice
Enjoy this Autumn favorite all year round. Unlike the famous latte, this cookie contains actual pumpkin.
Strawberry Ginger
With real strawberry pieces and the warmth of ginger, this cookie will take you to Summer months no matter what time of year it is.
Mocha Latte
Can't choose between chocolate and coffee? Get the best of both worlds in this rich cookie.
Red Velvet
Chocolatey, but with an understated tartness. These are a little more complicated to create, but are well worth the effort.
Gingerbread
A holiday classic! Our recipe is deliciously authentic in flavor, but holds its shape perfectly when baked.
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We've dedicated a whole page just for royal icing, and as more videos and tips emerge, we'll be adding on to it! Click here to learn all about the Queen of Cookie Decorating - Her Royal Majesty, Icing.
Tips and tricks:
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You can leave out the salt if you’re using salted butter.
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We use unbleached, all-purpose, NOT self-rising flour. W're happy with store brands, especially Aldi.
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Make more cookies than you’ll need for each batch, just in case you break or mess some up. Drop off any extras on your neighbor’s porch. <3
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Learn about the different consistencies of icing, such as flooding vs. piping. This will take practice, but it’s worth it!
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Flooding takes about 4 hours to dry, and 8 to dry completely. Piping dries much faster, about 1 hours. Dry under a fan if possible.
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It’s worth seeking out and purchasing gel food coloring for red, blue, black and brown. These can be really hard to saturate with liquid coloring without changing the taste and consistency of the icing.
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Check out groups for “flipping” cookie cutters.
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Watch lots and lots of videos of other bakers making cookies and icing them! They’ve been immensely helpful for experimenting and troubleshooting.
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Store cookies in airtight bins with a paper towel to absorb moisture.
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We package the cookies by placing them back to back and wrapping them in tissue paper to protect the icing. We then put the wrapped cookies in a brown paper bag for local deliveries or pick up.
Our substitutions for vegan and gluten-free:
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Eggs/egg whites are replaced with Neat Egg.
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Butter is replaced with Miyoko’s plant-based butter, but we’ve tried several kinds and they were all fine.
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Flour is replaced with Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour