Easy Valentine Cookies (2024)

FAQs

How do you get a chewy cookie? ›

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

The best way to store sugar cookies is in an airtight container at room temperature, with a layer of parchment paper or wax paper between each layer of cookies. Sugar cookies can last for up to two weeks at room temperature, up to a month in the refrigerator, and up to three months in the freezer.

You can use the tip of a small, sharp knife (like a paring knife) to cut the dough into any shape you like. Use a stencil or cardboard cutout to help, if you like. You can roll the dough into a long strip and twist it into a “pretzel” shape, or a candy cane shape.

By switching up the technique, I omitted all the extra air that gets incorporated into the dough during creaming, and as a result, the cookies made with melted butter were significantly chewier and fudgier than those made with creamed butter.

Baking powder. Baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents that react with different ingredients in the dough-making and baking process. Baking powder generally produces more higher rising, cakey cookies with smooth tops. Baking soda tends to produce craggy, dense cookies.

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.

Room Temperature:

Decorate the cookies within 48 hours of being baked, as they will start to become stale if left at room temperature for too long.

The holes trick

There's also a new technique going around when preventing craters in a second layer of icing: poke holes in the base flood (under the area you'll cover with a second layer of icing). You can even do this when the first layer flood has completely dried!

If you decide to leave them in the fridge, they will last about a week, but keep in mind that it's best to eat them within the first three days. When it comes to the freezer, decorated sugar cookies can be kept there as long as undecorated ones, so about three months.

Hand wash and thoroughly hand dry your tin cookie cutter. Never use an abrasive and do not put in dishwasher. Using a mild soap is okay, but thoroughly rinse before you dry.

Should you spray cookie cutters? ›

Should I Spray Cookie Cutters? There's no need to spray cookie cutters with cooking spray. Simply coat your cookie molds with flour in between molding each cookie to prevent the dough from sticking.

Press dough into the mold with fingers, working from center outward. You may lightly roll the back side of the cookie to smooth before turning out of the mold. Trim, dry and bake. To check your print, use light from the side – daylight or light from a floor lamp – so the shadows let you see if your prints are good.

A standard drinking glass with about a 3-inch opening is a great stand-in for cookie cutters. Round cookies can be decorated in a variety of ways to add festive color to any cookie tray.

Using household items like pliers and a soda can, you can easily make cookie cutters in just about any shape imaginable. Bonus: Making an assortment of customizable shapes for your cookie swap is guaranteed to steal the show.