Prevent A Sticky Cookie-Cutter Mess With A Simple Flour Hack
To make the annual onslaught of birthday celebrations and holiday gatherings more enjoyable, most home bakers have a trusted frosted sugar cookie recipe to happily please family and friends. Despite making simple round cookies, when a seasonal occasion inevitably crops up, who can resist rolling out dough to make fun whimsical shapes? During Hannukah and Christmas, most kids and adults make sugar cookie cutouts with their favorite seasonal cookie cutters. However, before you adorn your dining table with edible Christmas trees, stars, and angels, you might want to think about how you're going to prevent your precious cookie cutters from sticking to that delightful butter-filled dough.
Sure enough, the ingredient you need most when preparing these fun sugary shapes is typically the main ingredient in your beloved cookie mixture: flour. Flour serves its purpose in baked goods by working to keep all the intended ingredients together to maintain the structural integrity of your dough. When used in tandem with cookie cutters, this multi-functional ingredient is equally important. By simply dipping cutters into flour before cutting out your cookie dough shapes, you are preventing your assembled dough from sticking directly to the inner lining of your cookie cutters. Beyond the simple act of dipping cookie cutters into flour, there are a few additional pointers worth mentioning that, in the end, will work to keep your cookie cutters mess-free.
How to use flour effectively when cutting out cookie shapes
Now that you're ready to make foolproof Christmas cutout cookies, use flour judiciously, making sure not to add too much to your work surface which may negatively impact the texture of your finished product. Add a light sprinkling of flour to your designated workspace, and to prevent dough from sticking to your rolling pin, either rub a bit of flour along the surface or cover the exterior in wax paper.
Once your dough has been rolled out, dip your cookie cutters one at a time in a small bowl of flour, making sure to shake off any excess clumps of flour before pressing them into the dough. You should continue dipping your cutters into flour after each dough press.
To minimize inadvertently warming your dough by rerolling, arrange the cookie cutters close together, moving from the middle to the outer edges of your dough sheet. If you find that your plastic or metal shapes are collecting sticky dough, simply wipe away the dough with a cloth before again dipping them in flour. For those of you who might experience difficulty removing the dough from the shapes, use a small silicone spatula to carefully release your dough from the cutters. Now that you're committed to making flour your steadfast companion during the cookie-cutting process, there are some additional techniques you may want to utilize to keep your cookie cutters mess-free.
Refrigeration is a key element in achieving dough-free cookie cutters
Beyond using one unexpected ingredient that will seriously elevate your sugar cookies, if you're hoping to make your next batch with ease, you may want to give your cookie dough some chill time in the fridge. Many cut-out sugar cookie recipes require a small amount of refrigeration time so dough rolls more effectively without the residual mess. The butter used in your cookie dough will harden slightly, which means cleaner cookie cuts. If the shape of your cookies is a top priority, before baking, add the cutouts (prepared on a parchment-lined baking pan) to the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes to help solidify their texture. While you wait for your cookies to bake, make sure to keep the scraps and extra dough in the refrigerator before rolling out additional cuts.
Next to chilling your beloved dough, you also want to make sure you're rolling out the mixture at an even thickness. Dough that's been rolled too thickly (usually over ¼ inch) makes it difficult to cut precise and clean-edged shapes. So roll your dough to the right, even thickness, chill it, and then keep a small bowl of flour handy to keep those cookie cutters clean.