Hello! Hello! Greetings from my world which this week means recovering from oral surgery (no pain, yay!) and two weeks of bland “soft foods” (boo!). I had no idea how many things I regularly eat that are crunchy, seedy, nutty, or spicy. Or all four!\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\nAnyhoo, I asked on Instagram this week, “What are your Christmas cookie questions?<\/b><\/i>” I’m still getting questions in my DMs. I wanted to share them here as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n YES! You can actually freeze them at any point along the way. Freeze the dough, freeze the cut shapes, freeze the baked shapes…you can even freeze them fully decorated! I have a post all about the details on freezing cookies here<\/a><\/b>.\u00a0<\/p>\n My Perfect Every Time Cut-Out Cookies<\/a><\/b>. I’ve made thousands of these over the years. No chilling, no spreading…and they are delicious!\u00a0<\/p>\n Royal icing transfers are small details that you pipe and let dry ahead of time. They can then be placed onto wet royal icing when decorating. I used them here on graduation cookies<\/a><\/b>.\u00a0<\/p>\n You can also BUY royal icing transfers, which I love to do this time of year. They make for the cutest – and easiest – ugly Christmas sweater cookies. (This is really fun for a cookie decorating party.)<\/p>\n I developed this gingerbread cookie recipe<\/a><\/b> for my book, Decorating Cookies<\/a><\/b>, published in 2012. Since then, I’ve made SO MANY of these cookies – and it’s the recipe I look forward to every Christmas. I like them best piped simply so that the gingerbread color shows through and the flavor really shines.\u00a0<\/p>\n You might know The Pancake Princess website<\/a><\/b>. She and her team conduct bake-offs of recipes. Here’s what she said about my gingerbread cookie recipe:\u00a0“A BEAUTIFULLY TENDER AND CHEWY COOKIE THAT HAS A MILD BUT FLAVORFUL SPICE MIX… texturally, it’s a dream to roll out and bakes up into a neat cookie with a soft texture and good chew.<\/i>”\u00a0<\/p>\n So, I did some digging on this one. The consensus is that it doesn’t really go bad, unlike liquid food coloring. If it’s clumpy, dry, or grainy, I’d buy a new bottle. I recommend Americolor <\/a><\/b>and Chefmaster<\/a><\/b> food coloring.<\/p>\n For Christmas, I use royal icing<\/a><\/b> because the cookies can be stacked, packaged, and mailed. But, yes! Cut-out cookies pair beautifully with buttercream! Here’s a post where I used buttercream<\/a><\/b> for decorating.<\/p>\n Edible printers are one tool cookie decorators use, along with projectors for tracing. When you see a perfectly perfect logo, chances are that one of those tools was used. YEARS ago, I bought an edible printer. These are my favorite cookies I ever made with it.<\/a><\/b> After that, I found it to be a nightmare to use…maybe because I didn’t use it often. Today’s printers seem more user-friendly, but I would only recommend one if you’re going into business.<\/p>\n 1\/4 inch.\u00a0<\/p>\n I apologize in American…the grams are whatever is in the large egg I happen to crack open that day. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I sure do! Easy gluten-free cut-out cookie recipe here<\/a><\/b>!\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\nCan you freeze cookies?\u00a0<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/div>\nWhat is your favorite, best-tasting rolled cookie recipe?<\/h3>\n
Have you used royal icing transfers?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\nWhat’s your favorite gingerbread cookie recipe?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/div>\nHow long is gel paste food coloring good for?<\/h3>\n
Do your cookies work with buttercream? Do you have a buttercream recipe?<\/h3>\n
Have you tried edible printers? Is that how people get such precise designs?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/div>\nHow thick do you roll your cookies?<\/h3>\n
How many grams is the egg in your recipes?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/div>\nDo you have a gluten-free cut-out cookie recipe?<\/h3>\n