Bake Club+ : Orange Cardamom Snowflake Cookies

Day 4 of COOKIE WEEK brings us sugar cookies with a twist and a set of tips to make decorating easy!

Hi Bakers!

Welcome to our first annual COOKIE WEEK! 5 days of cookie tips and tricks plus 5 BRAND NEW holiday cookie recipes to add to your rotation.

It was hard to stop at 5 recipes, but you’ll find that there is something here for everyone. Simple sugar cookies with a festive twist, deeply chocolate and decorative cookies, an update on my childhood favorites and more!

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Cookie Tip #4: My Best Sugar Cookie Tricks

Decorative sugar cookies can be super fun and festive but also tricky. Today, I am sharing not one, but multiple tips for creating a stress-free sugar cookie making and decorating experience:

• To roll evenly, start from the center and roll away from your body. Stop short and do not roll over the edge of the dough. Keep rotating the dough in a circle and roll until even. If the dough begins to stick, sprinkle the work surface and rolling pin with a little bit of flour. 

• A tapered French rolling pin (or any without handles) works best as it keeps your weight on the pin more evenly distributed and allows for better control. Plus, it is super easy to clean.

• The best way to check for evenness is to simply run your hand over the dough. Do you feel thick spots? Thin? Even thickness is important for baking, especially when using cutters that have finer details that could easily over-bake and brown before the rest of the cookies are done.

• The icing comes down to consistency. It should never be so thick that it takes a painful grip on the piping bag to squeeze it out. For details, like on these Orange Cardamom Snowflakes, the icing should be a similar consistency as toothpaste - easy to squeeze but thick enough to hold its shape. 

• If you are not using the royal icing immediately, cover it with a piece of plastic wrap by pressing it directly to the surface of the icing. Royal icing dries out very quickly, so always keep icing that you are not working with covered at all times. This means the bits on the sides that may dry out too. Make sure not to mix them into the rest of the batch, as they will give you such a headache if they get stuck in your piping tip.

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Orange Cardamom Snowflake Cookies

Your favorite cut-out sugar cookies just got an upgrade! Aromatic orange zest and warm cardamom add festive flavors to this holiday staple. I love this recipe because the cookies keep their shape after baking (and they taste amazing, too). 

Have fun with the decorations! Keep things simple by using just one color of icing. Swap out the piping tip to add different textures and designs.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.