Best Cutout Christmas Cookies Recipes

CHRISTMAS CUTOUT SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time to make a stiff dough. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll out a portion of cookie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheets. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minute, rotating baking sheet halfway through cooking time. Cool completely on pans about 5 minutes, transfer to cooling racks and cool completely before decorating.
• In a small bowl, mix sugar and water to form a thick, smooth icing. Stir in food coloring to reach desired shade. Drop icing onto cookies using a small teaspoon and smooth with the back of the spoon. Make additional bowls for additional colors.
• Additional multi-colored sprinkles can be added on top of icing before it dries for more decorative cookies, if desired.

DECORATED CHRISTMAS CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill until firm, 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in thickness. Cut out with Christmas cookie cutters of your choice. Using a floured spatula, transfer cookies to greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks., Decorate cookies with frosting and colored sugars.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS SUGAR CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift together flour and baking powder in separate bowl.
• In second bowl, beat together sugar and egg until it becomes lemon-colored.
• Add butter, orange juice and vanilla.
• Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
• Slowly begin adding flour mixture (about 1/2 cup at a time) and blend; continue until all flour is used.
• Form into 2 flattened rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour.
• When ready to roll, set oven to 400 deg F.
• Cover baking sheets with parchment paper (can be reused from batch to batch).
• Sprinkle powdered sugar onto rolling surface as you would flour.
• Roll out one rectangle into desired thickness and cut out; place on baking sheet, making sure not to let cookies touch.
• Re-form scraps and roll again (may have to add more powdered sugar for rolling); continue until all dough is used.
• Once baking sheet is full, place into oven and set timer for 6 minutes.
• Depending on cookie thickness, baking time can range from 6-10 minutes, so check at the 6-minute mark to determine whether you need to bake longer.
• When light golden in color, remove cookies from baking sheet and place on cooling racks or flat surface covered with parchment.
• Cool to room temperature and frost with favorite frosting.
• If decorating, I recommend the following frosting (also appears in recipezaar under "Cutout Cookie Decorator Icing":.
• 1 cup confectioners sugar.
• 2 tsp milk.
• 2 tsp light corn syrup.
• 1/4 tsp vanilla.
• food coloring.

GRANDMA'S CHRISTMAS SUGAR CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift dry ingredients together.
• Add shortening or margarine using a fork to combine with dry ingredients.
• Add unbeaten eggs and vanilla.
• Mix well.
• Add ground pecans for added flavor. (This is how Grandma always mixed hers).
• Whisk the dry ingredients together, add alternately with the eggs and vanilla.
• Mix well.
• Roll out thin on floured board and cut with floured cookie cutters.
• Decorate with sugar.
• Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes.
• Makes about 6 dozen.

CUTOUT CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder salt, nutmeg and cloves; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for at least 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll dough, a portion at a time, to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired with frosting or confectioners' sugar., To Make Ahead: Dough can be made 2 days in advance. Wrap in plastic and place in a resealable bag. Store in the refrigerator., Freeze option: Freeze undecorated cookies in freezer containers. To use, thaw in covered containers and decorate as directed.

CUTOUT CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• On a large sheet of parchment paper, lightly flour both sides of 1 disk green dough, cover with more parchment, and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat with second disk. Remove top sheets of parchment.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll pieces of red dough into thin snakes. Arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern. (If dough gets too soft to work with, refrigerate 10 minutes before continuing.)
• Roll yellow and plain dough into pea-size balls and arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Top dough with more parchment and gently roll over dough until decorative pieces are flush with green dough.
• Carefully remove top sheets of parchment. With a 4-to-5-inch-tall tree-shaped cutter, cut dough. Transfer dough on parchment to baking sheets and freeze until firm, 15 minutes.
• Remove cutouts from excess dough and transfer to newly lined baking sheets. Bake until set, 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

MINTY CHRISTMAS TREE CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• For the cookies: Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Mix the mint and vanilla extracts with the egg in a small bowl with a fork.
• Beat together the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on low speed until the butter has picked up the sugars, about 30 seconds. (If using an electric hand mixer, beat about 2 minutes.) Increase the speed to medium and beat, stopping halfway to scrape the bowl, until slightly creamy, about 1 minute (about 3 minutes with a hand mixer).
• Reduce the speed to low, slowly add the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture a heaping cup at a time in 2 additions, stopping a few times to scrape the bowl and beaters. (If using a hand mixer, increase the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning.) Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium (higher with a hand mixer) and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 2 minutes (about 5 minutes with a hand mixer).
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide the dough into 2 even pieces, each about 11 ounces. Shape each piece into a 6-inch square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
• Remove one of the dough squares from the refrigerator and let soften until just pliable but still cool and firm, about 15 minutes. Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Dust a piece of parchment with flour. Dust the dough square with flour and roll it out on the parchment to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Lift the dough occasionally by sliding a metal spatula or bench scraper underneath to make sure it isn't sticking to the parchment. Cut out Christmas trees with a 2-inch cutter as close together as possible and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between the trees. Gather together the scraps and roll and cut more cookies. Chill the cookies on the baking sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
• Bake, rotating the baking sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through, until the cookies are light golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool the cookies about 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, remove the second dough square from the refrigerator to soften until just pliable but still cool and firm, about 15 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, chilling and baking procedures with the second dough square.
• For the green royal icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the frosting thickens. The icing should be pure white and thick but not fluffy and bubbly. (If the frosting is overbeaten, it will get aerated, which makes it harder to work with. If this happens, let the frosting sit for a bit to settle, then use a rubber spatula to vigorously beat and smooth out the icing.) Add the green and red food coloring and beat until evenly distributed and the color is a deep hunter green. Put the icing in a resealable plastic bag and snip the corner to make a tiny opening (or put the icing in a piping bag with a 1/16-inch tip).
• To decorate: Pipe a dot of icing onto the top point of each tree. Stick a chocolate nonpareil candy on each dot. Pipe the icing onto the cookies in zigzags to make a tree design. Sprinkle white nonpareils around the icing as snow. Let the icing set at room temperature, at least 1 hour.

GINGERBREAD CUTOUT CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, molasses and vinegar; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; cool to lukewarm. Stir in egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt; stir into molasses mixture to form a soft dough., Divide dough into thirds. Shape each portion into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until easy to handle., On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 3-1/2-in. gingerbread boy cookie cutter. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 7-9 minutes or until edges are firm. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Decorate as desired.

CONFETTI CHRISTMAS CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, flour and egg until dough forms. Sprinkle candy sprinkles over dough; gently kneed into dough.
• Roll dough on floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 7 to 9 minutes or light golden brown around edges. Cool 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet; cool completely, about 20 minutes.
• Decorate with frosting and additional candy sprinkles as desired.

GRANDMA'S CHRISTMAS CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar. Add yolks, vanilla and salt. Alternately add flour and milk until well mixed. Chill dough. Roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes. Bake in 350 degree oven for 7-10 minutes. (bake one alone to see how long it takes) After cookies are done and cool: Beat icing ingredients together until thick, add food coloring if desired. To keep frosting moist, cover with damp cloth. Leave cookies out until frosting dries. Store in airtight container.