Sugar cut-out cookies are so easy with these inventive Star cookies made with a simple and delicious vanilla sugar cookie dough!
So last year I was inspired to make these Christmas Tree Cut Out Cookies (after going to a gig I was particularly bored at!) and you guys LOVED them!
What I love about these ‘cut out cookies’ is how easy and simple they are – rather than spending literally hours making (admittedly very beautiful sugar cookies with royal icing – we just mix up a simple sugar cookie dough, colour half of it with yellow gel food colouring, do some cutting and swapping and voila!
Half of the cookie dough is easily coloured star yellow by adding about a third of a teaspoon of gel food colouring (it’s the same stuff I use to make my Rainbow Cake!). I often get mine from eBay for a couple of pounds, or you can try your local cake decorating shop.You can wear clean rubber gloves if you’re worried about your hand getting a bit yellow, and just gently knead the colouring into the dough. It will go tie-dye at first, but keep kneading until the colour is completely even and the dough is bright yellow.
Sooooo, with the lovely Sarah’s (of Taming Twins!) encouragement, I decided to try to make a video to show you how to make these cookies….. let me know what you think and if you’d find it useful to see more of these! I’m definitely going to make one to show you how to make my Rainbow Cake.
I got my Christmas Star cookie cutter from eBay – though have a look in your cupboard first – you may already have one! I also typically stock up on my gel food colouring, like the yellow used to colour the stars here – from eBay, though you can also buy them from Lakeland and cake decorating shops.
- 250g / 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 250g / 1 cup plus one heaped tablespoon caster or golden caster sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 500g / 4 cups sifted plain flour
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- Yellow gel food colouring, such as Wilton or Sugarflair
- Sprinkles
- First, make the biscuit dough. Combine your butter, which needs to be incredibly soft, with the sugar in a large bowl. Beat in the two eggs along with the vanilla bean paste, and then sift in the flour and mix with a large spatula - the dough will be quite stiff, but keep going until its all incorporated. Divide the dough into two equal portions, and then pop half onto some clingfilm and wrap it up tightly and put it into the fridge.
- Next, add about a third of a teaspoon of gel food colouring to the remaining dough, and knead until it's completely incorporated. It will go streaky at first, but carry on and add more gel if necessary if the dough isn't green enough. If its sticky, dust it with a little extra flour. Once it's a nice Christmas green, pop it onto some clingfilm too and then wrap it up and let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Next, prepare three large cookie sheets with non stick baking mat or parchment paper, and preheat your oven to 160c/gas mark 4/350F.
- Roll out your two doughs on a liberally floured work surface. Use a large circular cutter to cut out circles that will easily accommodate the size of Christmas tree cutter you're using, and transfer these to your cookie sheets. Next, cut out a christmas tree shape in the centre of each circle. Perform the same step with the green dough, and use a palette knife or spatula to pick up and transfer the green trees into the vanilla dough and vice versa.
- Bake for 10-14 minutes, and keep a close eye on them and remove from the oven or swap to a lower shelf if they're starting to get browned (generally if they are starting to get browned, they will be done). Let cool completely on a cooling rack.
I decorated the tops of my cookies with some of these adorable gold star sprinkles – the more stars the better!
I find that the easiest way to bake cookies is to line your baking trays with a non-stick baking liner – this is my absolute favourite. A non-stick liner like this makes it SO easy to get cookies off the tray, and they also mean that your tray won’t be dirty so you (probably) won’t have to wash it! I also use them when I’m making decorations from melted chocolate or candy melts – again they peel off so easily when they’re cooled.
I hope you love these cookies! If you bake them, take me @kerryedwards on Instagram so I can see!
Festive Food Friday #2
Pop on over to Taming Twins to see all of the amazing festive deliciousness that was linked up during week one of Festive Food Friday!
Join in with this week’s Link-Up! Here’s how –
On Instagram
- Tag any festive food or drink photos with #festivefoodfriday.
- Each week Sarah and I will pick some of the most mouthwatering/funny/calorific and repost them.
- You can follow us at: @tamingtwins and @
kerryedwards
Blog Linky
Please add the badge below to your post. (Just highlight the bit in the text box and pop it in the HTML of your blog post.)
Link up your festive season food or drink posts using the widget below. They can be recipes, round ups, drinks, meals out, anything that’s inspiring to festive food lovers.
- Old and new posts are welcome.
- You can add up to 5 posts each week if you’d like.
- We will pin all of the posts added to the Pinterest board, which has over 400,000 followers
- The linky will be open until midday Tuesday the following week.
- Please visit and comment on at least 2 of the other posts that have linked up, per post that you add. Spread that Christmas cheer! This really helps to make the community.
- If you follow us on Twitter and tweet a link mentioning @tamingtwins or @
kerrycooksblog and #festivefoodfriday, we will RT them. - Each week we will write a round up on one of our blogs, linking to every post linked from the week before (this will include a photo from your post – please only enter if that’s okay).
- Please spread the word, the more the merrier!
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Diane @ Life of Di. says
December 9, 2015 at 7:12 pmI love the video! You need to do more! 🙂
Also, I love the star cookie idea. So cute!
Diane @ Life of Di. recently posted…How Lovely Are Your Branches.
Diane @ Life of Di. says
December 9, 2015 at 7:12 pmI love the video! You need to do more! 🙂
Also, I love the star cookie idea. So cute!
Diane @ Life of Di. recently posted…How Lovely Are Your Branches.
Summer says
November 29, 2015 at 5:22 pmThese are so cute ♥
summerdaisy.net
Summer recently posted…My Happiness Mantra
Laura says
November 28, 2015 at 5:38 amYou’re inspiring me to bake! I love these!!!
Laura
Laura recently posted…8 Must-Have Inexpensive Pieces to Get your Through the Holidays and Beyond
Emily says
November 28, 2015 at 12:19 amHow cute! These look lovely Kerry x
Emily recently posted…honey & amaretto eggnog.
Emma @ Supper in the Suburbs says
November 27, 2015 at 9:09 pmVery clever! I loved the video too 🙂 great recipe Kerry.
Emma @ Supper in the Suburbs recently posted…10 Alternative Christmas Gifts for Food Lovers
Choclette says
November 27, 2015 at 12:06 pmWhat a fantabulous idea Kerry, love it. And love your video too. Well done for giving that a try and it’s really nice to see you in action 🙂
Choclette recently posted…Henk’s Chocolate Nut Cakes
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
November 27, 2015 at 12:00 pmAw these are cute! Simple but really effective 🙂 I love the sprinkles – bet they’d be great with a bit of edible glitter too!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche recently posted…Hoi sin veggie noodles
EmmaMT from CakesBakesAndCookies.com says
November 27, 2015 at 9:02 amSuper cute video. Lovely cookies. x