Easy Cookie Hacks
10 Christmas Cookie Hacks to Try This Year
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Christmas cookies require a lot of effort; beyond striving for good taste, there's the pressure to make them look perfect and presentable. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a few tricks and tips to make the process not so laborious? Behold some hacks to try this year, including a whole new way to roll out your cookie dough (think: backwards).
1 Use the Handle of a Wooden Spoon (Not Your Thumb) For Thumbprints
Despite the name thumbprint cookies, don't use your thumb! Use the handle and tip of a wooden spoon to press into each cookie's center to make the process go quicker. You can even stamp out fun shapes like hearts.
2 Have cookies on demand by portioning them and freezing them.
Nothing beats a cookie straight from the oven. To "hack" freshly baked cookies, double up your recipe, portion the dough into balls, and freeze them in an airtight container. When you're ready to bake, simply transfer the cookies onto a baking sheet and increase the bake time by about a minute.
3 Roll the dough out before chilling in the fridge.
Most recipes call for rolling the dough out after it's chilled, but take it from Dorie Greenspan and roll your dough out between two sheets of parchment paper before it's chilled and then refrigerate the whole thing (parchment paper included!) for about an hour before cutting the cookies.
4 Stamp the rolled-out dough using a cloth doily.
Want to give the surface of your cookies a festive texture? Use a rolling pin to roll a cloth doily over the rolled-out cookie dough to imprint the beautiful pattern.
5 Position all your cookie cutters on the rolled dough before committing.
Take after Alton Brown and position your cookie cutters across the rolled dough before cutting. This lets you get the most square mileage out of the dough without having to go through the process of rerolling a million times, which activates the gluten and toughens the texture of the cookies.
6 Use salted butter in your cookie dough.
Though it sounds strange, adding salt (more than you think) to cookies helps accentuate the buttery flavors. I like to bake with salted butter. Or try this sugar cookie recipe, which calls for one teaspoon of kosher salt.
7 Scrape in vanilla bean in addition to extract.
Take the flavor of your cookies up a notch by scraping vanilla bean into the batter in addition to vanilla extract. Cut the bean down the middle and use the backside of the knife to scrape the "vanilla caviar," as Ree Drummond calls it, out.
8 Use an easy recipe if time isn't on your side!
Five-ingredient cookie recipes, icing included, are out there, so you can whip up festive cookies on the fly without too much fuss.
9 Have cookies and milk in one with these cups.
Use a shortbread cookie and popover pan to form sturdy cookie cups. The insides are lined with melted chocolate. Let it set completely before pouring your milk! Try chocolate chip cookie shots or chocolate chocolate cookie shots.
10 Ice cookies using a squeeze bottle (rather than piping bags).
If piping buttercream frosting onto cookies isn't your thing (aka it's too friggin' difficult), try making royal frosting and applying it using a squeeze bottle.
