It’s easy to make beautiful cookies when you have the right cookie cutters for the job. That’s why, if I had all the money in the world, I’d spend it on countless cookie cutters (and shoes); but alas, today’s post is all about making a range of cookies with the one cookie cutter we all have: the gingerbread man.
As a huge dork, I’ve chosen to use the cutter to make the Wizard of Oz cookies. Feel free to use the same idea to make other (less cool) characters!
Okay. First, roll out your dough using ample flour on both the rolling pin and the countertop. (I used a simple sugar cookie dough but you can use any one of your favorites for the task! ) Make sure that your dough is nice and cool when you do this but not brick-hard. (Unless you have muscles of steel for rolling.) After that, use the dull side of the cookie cutter to make a light imprint on the dough. Use a knife to add details (hats, skirts, ect.) before tracing the entire shape with the knife to cut it out.
Above, are the cookie dough cutouts for Scarecrow (left) and Glinda (right).
Bake as per your cookie recipe and allow to completely cool. In the meantime, make royal icing. I find that about 1 pound of confectionary sugar beaten with 2 egg whites creates the perfect consistency royal icing for decorating. Separate into bowls and color with food dye. (I prefer gel dyes because they last forever.)
When the cookies are completely cool (so as to avoid a sloppy mess and stifled sobbing later), you are ready to decorate! The trick to this is decorating in layers; allow each layer to harden before the next is applied. This requires time and patience, but also ensures that the colors don’t run into each other.
Below, I show the stages of creating a Dorothy cookie.
Ta-da! Notice that I started with the most basic elements and ended with the tiniest details. I just love the red sprinkles I found for her ruby red slippers! Insanely adorable!
I wasn’t super happy with the dress here, so in the second cookie I made of her, I made sure not to have the lines overlap. It made the dress much neater and the perfectionist in me much calmer!
Here are the finished cookies of all the Wizard of Oz characters!
(Are you a good witch or a bad witch?)
And there you have it!
Share what characters you’ve made using the one-cutter-method!
