F
estive decorated cookies are
one of our beloved holiday
traditions. We enjoy the fla-
vors, the arts and crafts, and the array of
colors. What I have come to enjoy less at
this busy time of year is the time, effort,
and mess of rolling out and cutting the
cookies. When pressed for time, we use
a short cut: scoop and bake.
Start with a simple cutout cookie
recipe and, rather than refrigerate-flour-
roll-cut out, we use a cookie scoop (for
uniform size) and flatten with the bot-
tom of a glass. Bake and cool as usual,
then decorate with bright icings, colorful
sprinkles, or painted details. You’ll have
just as much fun with half the effort. En-
joy this beautiful time of the year with
the ones you hold dear.
A few tips:
For uniform cookies, use a cookie
scoop, usually 1 Tablespoon mea-
sure. Use a 2 Tablespoon scoop for
big cookies.
Flatten the cookies to about 1/4”
thickness. Dip the bottom of a glass
in a shallow bowl of sugar, to avoid
it sticking to the cookies when you
flatten them.
For deeper, richer colored icing, use
coloring paste rather than drops. A
little bit goes a long way.
Stock an assortment of decorations,
colored sugars, and nonpareils. Read
labels for any ingredients you are try-
ing to avoid.
Since this is a classic cutout cookie
recipe, you can roll and cut out if you
prefer. When rolling dough, keep
cookies a uniform thickness. This
will allow them to bake more evenly.
If you prefer to roll out the dough and
make cutouts, refrigerate for at least
an hour to make the dough easier to
work with.
These cookies adapt easily to being
wheat or gluten free, using any flour
you prefer. A gluten free recipe mix
is included at the end of this column.
Substitute vanilla sugar, lemon sug-
ar, or juice concentrate for extracts.
70 WNY Family December 2018
For corn free confectioners’ sugar,
shop for those with potato or tapi-
oca starch in place of corn starch,
available more readily during Pass-
over. Make homemade by placing
granulated or superfine sugar and
a ‘safe’ starch in a blender or food
processor – with a heavy duty mo-
tor. The starch prevents the sugar
from clumping; use 1 Tablespoon
starch to 1 cup sugar.
Easy (Cutout) Cookies
Free of: DAIRY, EGGS, SOY, PEA-
NUTS, TREE NUTS, WHEAT*, FISH,
SHELLFISH, GLUTEN*
Yield: 24 cookies, more or less depend-
ing on scoop size, recipe easily doubles
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 9-11 minutes
1 cup dairy/soy free margarine, softened
(or shortening)
1 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups flour* (can use wheat or
gluten free flour, recipe follows)
1 teaspoon vanilla, lemon, anise or
other extract
Icing, decorations, colored sugar
Preheat oven to 350°. Line cookie
sheets with parchment paper (for easy
non-stick clean up.) Beat softened mar-
garine or shortening at medium speed;
add sugar. Beat well. Add vanilla and
flour; blend well.
Scoop onto cookie sheets lined
with parchment paper and flatten using
the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.
Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes, (rotate
pan halfway through baking time) or
until edges are just beginning to lightly
brown. Do not overbake. Let cool a few
minutes on cookie sheets, then transfer
to wire racks. Cool completely; frost and
decorate as desired.
ICING
Free of: DAIRY, EGGS, SOY, WHEAT,
PEANUTS, TREE NUTS, FISH,
SHELLFISH
Yield: enough to frost 2-3 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons water (more or less for
desired thickness)
Vanilla or other extract (about 1 tea-
spoon per 2 cups of sugar)
Food coloring, or food paste for darker
colors
Add about 1 tablespoon of water for
each cup of confectioners’ sugar. Add
more for a thinner icing; spreading consis-
tency should be easy enough to apply with
a pastry brush. Add food coloring or paste,
stir and frost. Leave cookies out to dry for
a few hours, to keep them from sticking
together. Store in airtight containers.
Gluten Free Flour Mix
2 parts white rice flour
2/3 part potato starch flour
1/3 part tapioca starch
(For example: 2 cups white rice flour
+ 2/3 cup potato starch flour + 1/3 cup
tapioca starch = 3 cups flour, use 2 1/4
cups of this mix in place of the regular
flour in the cookie recipe)
Mix together quantity needed or
make extra and store so you always have
some on hand for cooking/baking.
If you have any questions about our column, e-mail Kathy at [email protected]. For fur-
ther information about food allergies, contact FARE www.foodallergy.org, or call 1-800-929-4040.
Kathy Lundquist is a Western New York parent whose son, now an adult, was born with severe food
allergies. Over the last two decades, she has worked tirelessly, in a variety of capacities, to increase
community awareness about food allergies.