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We had family in over the holiday weekend, so we decided to spend some time baking. We made one of my husband’s favorites, a cherry chocolate chunk cookie, and sugar cookies. Normally, I like to take the easy way and buy pre-made dough which is what I did for the sugar cookies, but for the cherry chocolate chunk, we made them from scratch. I was recently sent a cookie baking tool called The Cookie Thing, so that was perfect timing! The Cookie Thing is a set of measuring boards along with a roller to help make rolling out the cookies easier.
In my work in helping underserved women learn to bake for profit, I needed something to help them achieve perfection of baking multiple amounts of cookies to look good and taste good. It took many attempts to get the exact sizes for various baked goods, and the easiest of handling rolling pin along with the best wood. The process of designing and getting the dimensions and standards to fit the needs came about over a long period of time. Once the various sizes and various woods were tested and tested and tested, it became apparent the tool had tremendous merit. – Susan Butler The Cookie Thing
The Little Cookie Thing is made from pure maple. It comes with a roller and one set of 1/4″ depth measuring boards. This was just the right size for my son to use.
The larger, Cookie Thing is also solid maple and comes with four varieties of measuring boards. Boards measure in depths of 1/8″, 1/4″, 3/8″, and 1/2″
Using the roller and boards was pretty easy. The dough I used was a tube so I had to spread it out in batches to be able to fit on the wax paper and to use the roller and boards.
First, lay the dough on wax paper and set another sheet of wax paper on top. You want to spread the dough until it is about 1 inch thick with your fingers first. Then take your board and place on top of the wax paper and start rolling. When you can roll across the boards easily, your dough is now rolled out to the precise thickness you want. I made the mistake of making the sugar cookies too thin, forgetting that they spread out quite a bit. So they ended up being more like sugar cookie crisps. The kiddos didn’t mind though!
Sugar Cookie Recipe
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated (the dough will be stiff). Refrigerate, wrapped, for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
- To make cutout cookies: Heat oven to 350° F. On a floured surface or wax paper, roll out. Cut into shapes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets; refrigerate until firm. Sprinkle with decorating sugar, if using, and bake until just beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
Having fun decorating the sugar cookies!
UPDATE:
- The Cookie Thing website is no longer… but you can find similar products on baking products on Amazon.
Disclosure: I was provided with product for this review. All views and opinions with regard to the Cookie Thing review or the company are my own and were not influenced by the company.
The Cookie Thing helps in two ways. It makes the process of not overworking the dough simple and without too much flour, but more importantly if it is used with the process described not he website and in the instructions with the product about the refrigeration of the dough after rolling out, it makes a tremendous difference. The refrigeration process of the dough overnight will allow the gluten to relax and the texture of the baked item incredible. Also, if you are wanting that perfect “shaped” cookie to not go flat, the instructions clearly explain the need for refrigerating the cutouts for about 30 minutes before going in the oven. Just so the review is understood as being somewhat incomplete in that the instructions were not followed completely. Thank you! Susan Butler
I did use the refrigerated tube of cookie dough to start, but you are correct, I did not place the rolled out cookies back in the fridge to “cool back up” so they were warm from all the rolling. We just didn’t have the time. But hey, cookies are cookies and the kids didn’t seem to mind the enlarged cookies!
The Cookie Thing sounds like a great product, definitely worth a try. Thank you for posting this review and recipe.