My Favorite Cookie Swap Contribution AND Reader Help: Roll-out Cookies

by Caitlin

Ahh, cookie season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Especially if you're in the Larger Pants Selling Business, and if you are then maybe also call me because I'm predicting I'll need your help soon.

For much of my childhood my parents' friends had an annual cookie decorating party around the holidays. It's one of my most dear childhood Christmas memories, and in my adult years I've longed to recreate it.
It was such a wonderful treat to go over to their house and spend an evening sitting at a table covered in a rainbow of colored frostings, sprinkles and candies as bin after bin of sugar and gingerbread cookies in various shapes appeared non-stop.

Joyce, prolific hostess, spent weeks baking hundreds of cookies. She'd freeze batch after batch until the evening finally arrived. She made a simple sugar frosting which she'd color with food coloring and pour into muffin tins - a great strategy. We each had an area to work in, and after using little paint brushes and loading our cookies up with decorations galore we'd carefully place them on wire cooling racks to dry. Some were garish, loaded with as much extra sugar as possible, others we took our time on and were little works of delicious cookie art.

Angels, trees, stars, candles, gingerbread people small and large: We loved that the shapes were familiar year after year, but what excitement there was if she debuted a new shape! For several years she even made special gingerbread house pieces for my brother and I to construct. Those gingerbread houses are what first taught me about royal frosting and that there was such a thing as sugared violets. Some flowers were edible?! 12 year old Caitlin was in awe.

A marvel our hostess was.

Over the past few years I've longed to recreate those wonderful memories. I've collected various sprinkles, jimmies, sanding sugars, and adornments. My baking cabinet is full, and my husband rolls his eyes at the mention of colored sugars. The truth is, aside from the issues of first not having the space, and lately not having the time, a major inhibiting factor is that...I'm afraid of cut out sugar cookies. I haven't had good luck with them in the past. I don't quite have the technique down, and I don't have any recipes I love.

I need your help, dear readers! How can I achieve a roll out sugar cookie that will keep it's shape, that carries the frosting and decorations well while still imparting a little taste, and which won't break your teeth to bite into? A sugar cookie that looks as good as it tastes: That's what Santa can bring me.

These two recipes look promising, but I've got a little Rollout Cookie PTSD. So much work, and what if it's not worth it?

Gingerbread Snowflakes

Holiday Sugar Cookies

(Photo from Epicurious)

Dear readers, can you help?

And! In return I offer you my favorite cookie swap contribution:These molasses crinkles. My grandmother always made molasses crinkles so I'll always have a soft spot for them, but they were specifically requested for a party last year and this recipe did not disappoint. Spicy, sweet, chewy, they are true holiday perfection.

I'm supposed to be attending some cookie parties soon, and (spoiler alert, friends!) I'll be bringing these to both. They were a huge hit last year, and why mess with a favorite? My secret trick, as with all cookies, is to underbake them slightly to retain that chewy softness. They'll still cook a bit when you take them out, so leave them a little shiny on the tops.

Also, find a fun, festive, cocktail napkin to unfold and display them on, and people will think you're more put together than you are.

(Photo: me)