Cut it Out!

Sorry about that - the kids are home for the summer, and are fighting over the remote already! Luckily, I'm not measuring or doing brain surgery anything that requires too much concentration... today, I'm cutting dough.  Nothing too exciting, but a very important task indeed! Lots of people have luck cutting soft dough, but not me... I need to have that dough good and chilled to get clean cuts, and for transferring it to the pans. There's nothing worse than your cutouts flopping over & getting all mis-shapen with finger-pokes...  From my last post you saw that I have rolled and chilled my dough, so I am all ready to go!   Work with one sheet of dough at a time - it thaws pretty quickly, so don't work with really large batches unless you are superwoman quick, or cutting really BIG cookies! I like to cut right on the parchment that the dough chilled on, and I dip the cutter in some flour to help prevent sticking (this might help hold the cookie's shape a little while baking - theory unproven...). Push down as straight as you can, otherwise cookies will be lopsided & edges won't be straight (theory proven...) and there you have it! Cut as many out of a sheet of dough as you can so you don't have too much re-rolling to do.  Sometimes the cutout stays on the table, & sometimes it comes up with the cutter. Either way, I'm OK since my dough is chilled, & not likely to lose its shape by either lifting it or popping it out of the cutter. I then lay these on a cookie sheet, as many as I can get on a sheet, and put them back in the fridge to stay chilled while I finish cutting. If you like to chill your baking sheets before baking (I don't), lay the cutouts as you would for baking, with enough room in between each cookie (2" is recommended), & just pop them into the oven straight from the fridge when you're ready. If not baking right away, cover cutouts with some Saran (if layering make sure the bottom layers are chilled to prevent smooshing -  separated by layers of lightly floured parchment to prevent sticking) or layer in Tupperware (see photo) and keep in the fridge until baking time, or package well and freeze.  To freeze cutouts, I layer the chilled cutouts in Tupperware same as for chilling in the fridge (see same photo) - and then put the whole thing into a 2-gallon freezer Ziploc & straight into the freezer.  Voila! 



(don't mind my wobbly-looking sheet of cut dough... these particular square cutters are graduated and are wider on the outside, making the surrounding dough "move" - as you can see, the cutouts are actually square : )