Like a cross between traditional sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, these brown sugar cut-out cookies are made with butter, darkish brown sugar, and a contact of cozy spices. Excellent for the vacations or anytime you crave sugar cookies with a little bit further taste! Make them any form you want and have enjoyable adorning together with your selection of icing.
Name them a compromise cookie. Possibly you need to adorn Christmas cookies, however you may’t determine between making sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, and solely have the time/vitality/components to make only one…
…or possibly you like the festive spiced taste of gingerbread cookies however can’t discover molasses the place you reside…
…or possibly you like sugar cookies, however crave one thing with a little bit extra taste…
Meet the answer that’s certain to please everybody: brown sugar cut-out cookies.
(Now, deciding whether or not to high them with royal icing, straightforward glaze icing, or cookie adorning buttercream… you’re by yourself for that one!)
Brown Sugar Reduce-Out Cookies Recipe Snapshot
- Texture: These cookies have mushy, thick facilities with barely crisp edges, similar to traditional sugar cookies and Christmas sugar cookies.
- Taste: Buttery and candy with comforting brown sugar and comfy spice flavors. If you happen to choose a plain brown sugar cookie, you may omit the spices.
- Ease: When you’ve got an electrical mixer and a rolling pin, you may undoubtedly make these cookies.
- Time: This dough wants to relax for no less than 1–2 hours, however the time it takes to make the dough and bake the cookies is fairly quick. The way you determine to brighten the cookies will account for including kind of time.
Key Substances You Want
- Brown Sugar: Like these pecan sugar cookies, utilizing all brown sugar instead of white sugar offers these cookies a deeper, extra complicated taste. I like to recommend darkish brown sugar right here for essentially the most taste, however mild brown sugar is ok if that’s all you could have.
- Spice: Cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg are the flavour energy gamers right here. If you wish to hold these cookies as plain brown sugar cookies, you may merely omit the spices.
- All the things Good: You additionally want flour, baking powder, butter, an egg, salt, and vanilla extract. Cookie baking fundamentals!
Right here’s the lineup:
Hold Brown Sugar Moist
I usually use Domino model sugar. I’m not sponsored by or working with the model—I similar to the standard of their merchandise for baking! However even shopping for a name-brand brown sugar at a better worth level doesn’t assure the sugar will probably be (or keep) completely mushy and moist.
To maintain brown sugar mushy, retailer it in an hermetic container in a cool, dry place, like a pantry, drawer, or cabinet. I retailer my flours and sugars in these containers, and have completed so for years.
In case your brown sugar turns into exhausting and crumbly, all just isn’t misplaced! You may soften it up once more by including one thing that absorbs moisture, comparable to a slice of bread or a marshmallow, to the container and letting it sit in a single day. Simply keep in mind to take away the (now-stale) bread the subsequent day, earlier than it turns moldy.
For a extra everlasting resolution, use a terracotta sugar saver. Terracotta absorbs moisture (and doesn’t go dangerous), and you should buy a brown sugar-saver bear or disc that’s particularly designed for this objective. You may even purchase brown sugar storage containers that embody a terracotta piece proper within the lid, like this one. They’re actually helpful.
This brown sugar cookie dough comes collectively rapidly with an electrical mixer. As soon as all of your components are mixed, it’s time to roll out and chill the dough.
My #1 Tip for Making Reduce-Out Cookies
Roll the dough out earlier than chilling. I’ll clarify why that is so profitable. Divide the dough in half, roll out every portion, after which chill:
Most sugar cookie doughs require chilling so the cookies maintain their cookie cutter form within the oven. However when you’ve ever tried rolling out chilled sugar cookie dough, chances are you’ll keep in mind how tough it’s to flatten chilly, stiff dough. So, roll out the dough whereas it’s nonetheless mushy (proper after making it), after which chill the rolled-out dough. Right here’s my actual technique, and it really works for chocolate sugar cookies, too:
- Divide the dough in half as a result of smaller sections are simpler to roll out.
- Roll out the cookie dough straight on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you may simply switch it to the fridge.
- Choose the entire thing up, set it on a baking sheet, and place it within the fridge. Keep in mind, you could have 2 slabs of dough. If you happen to don’t have sufficient room for two baking sheets in your fridge, merely stack the items of rolled-out dough on high of one another, with parchment paper or silicone baking mat in between.
After the rolled-out dough chills for no less than 1–2 hours, use cookie cutters to chop out shapes. Make sure you re-roll the dough scraps as wanted.
The cookies are completed when the perimeters are set and the middles nonetheless look barely mushy. These cookies maintain their form properly within the oven, and bake up with a pleasant flat floor that’s good for adorning.
Now, for everybody’s favourite half!
Adorning Brown Sugar Reduce-Out Cookies
For the cookies you see pictured right here, my group and I used royal icing to brighten the cookies formed like reindeer, timber, sweet canes, and gingerbread folks. And we used cookie adorning buttercream to brighten the snowflake cookies.
If you happen to’re new to adorning with royal icing, it could assist to look at my video tutorial on learn how to adorn sugar cookies. I’ll stroll you thru 4 easy and approachable methods which might be an amazing place to begin when you’re new to cookie adorning. For the pictured cookies, I used Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding with icing. It is a fantastic primary piping tip to have in your assortment.
I even have an straightforward cookie icing glaze you might strive as a substitute. It takes longer to dry than royal icing, but it surely’s fast and simple to make, it doesn’t require piping luggage/ideas. I exploit squeeze bottles for it! It’s fantastic if in case you have younger bakers keen to assist adorn.
And, after all, don’t overlook the sprinkles. If you happen to plan to dedicate an entire day to cookie-baking, right here’s how Host a Cookie Adorning Day information. 😉
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is a part of my annual cookie countdown referred to as Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the largest, most scrumptious occasion of the yr! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza web page together with:
Brown Sugar Reduce-Out Cookies
Prep Time: 2 hours, half-hour
Cook dinner Time: 12 minutes
Complete Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
Yield: 24 3-inch cookies
Class: Cookies
Methodology: Baking
Delicacies: American
Description
These brown sugar cut-out cookies are good for the vacations or anytime you crave sugar cookies with a little bit further taste. Make them any form you want and have enjoyable adorning together with your selection of icing. The variety of cookies this recipe yields is determined by the scale of the cookie cutter you utilize. If you happen to’d wish to make dozens of cookies for a big crowd, double the recipe.
Directions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and salt collectively in a medium bowl. Put aside.
- In a big bowl utilizing a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar collectively on excessive velocity till utterly easy and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat on excessive velocity till mixed, about 1 minute. Scrape down the perimeters and backside of the bowl and beat once more as wanted to mix.
- Add the dry components to the moist components and blend on low velocity till mixed. Dough will probably be a bit mushy. If the dough appears too mushy and sticky for rolling, add extra flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, beating properly after every addition.
- Divide the dough in half. Place every portion onto a chunk of frivolously floured parchment paper or a frivolously floured silicone baking mat. With a frivolously floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use extra flour if the dough appears too sticky. The rolled-out dough could be any form, so long as it’s evenly 1/4-inch thick.
- Flippantly mud one of many rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a chunk of parchment on high. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on high. Cowl with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for no less than 1–2 hours, or as much as 2 days.
- As soon as chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line giant baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Fastidiously take away the highest dough piece from the fridge. If it’s sticking to the underside, run your hand beneath it to assist take away it. Utilizing a cookie cutter, reduce the dough into shapes. Re-roll the dough scraps and proceed reducing till all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. (Observe: It doesn’t appear to be lots of dough, however you get lots of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Organize cookies on baking sheets 3 inches aside. Bake for 11–12 minutes or till frivolously browned across the edges. Permit cookies to chill on the baking sheet for five–10 minutes, then switch to a wire rack to chill utterly earlier than adorning.
- Adorn the cooled cookies with royal icing, cookie buttercream, or straightforward cookie icing; high with sprinkles, if utilizing. Be at liberty to tint any of those icings with gel meals coloring. For adorning inspiration, my Adorn Sugar Cookies tutorial is useful.
- Get pleasure from cookies straight away or wait till the icing units to serve them. Plain or embellished cookies keep mushy for about 5 days when lined tightly at room temperature. For longer storage, cowl and refrigerate for as much as 10 days. If embellished with cookie buttercream, cowl and retailer embellished cookies at room temperature for 1 day, or within the fridge for as much as 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Directions: Plain or embellished sugar cookies freeze properly as much as 3 months. Look forward to the icing to set utterly earlier than layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw within the fridge or at room temperature. You may also freeze the cookie dough for as much as 3 months earlier than rolling it out. Put together the dough via step 3, divide in half, flatten each halves right into a disc as we do with pie crust, wrap every in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the discs within the fridge, then deliver to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill rolled-out dough within the fridge for 45 minutes–1 hour earlier than reducing into shapes and baking. See this put up on learn how to freeze cookie dough for a video tutorial.
- Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): Electrical Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Wood Rolling Pin or Adjustable Rolling Pin | Vacation Cookie Cutter Set | Cooling Rack | Piping Luggage (Disposable or Reusable) | Couplers | Piping Ideas Set | Assorted Sprinkles (Like These or These)
- Can I Skip the Spices? Sure. If you’d like a plain brown sugar cookie, you may omit the spices with no different modifications to the recipe.
- Room Temperature: Room temperature butter is crucial. If the dough is just too sticky, your butter might have been too mushy. Room temperature butter is definitely cool to the contact. Room temperature egg is most popular so it’s rapidly and evenly blended into the cookie dough.
- Icing: Use royal icing, straightforward cookie icing, or cookie adorning buttercream. See put up above to learn concerning the variations.
- Can I Double the Recipe? Sure. Double the entire components and divide the dough into 3 or 4 sections in step 4.
- Make sure you take a look at my high 5 cookie baking ideas AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking instruments.
