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Slice and Bake Cookies

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Prep Time (including chilling): 3 hours

Bake Time: 12-14 minutes

Yield: 20-24 cookies

I decided to challenge myself this Holiday Season by making Slice and Bake cookies for the first time. I remember as a college kid getting the Pillsbury Slice and Bake cookies with images inside to make for my housemates during different holidays. So I decided to give it a go myself and make these Grinch cookies.  Grinch green on the outside and a red heart on the inside to go along with the story of how the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes by the end of the classic Dr. Seuss story of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The best part is you can use this method with lots of different shapes. I started with a heart since it’s more simple. The more detailed your inner image, the more challenging the Slice and Bake Cookies are to make – but I know you can do it!

For this cookie, I used a Sugar Cookie recipe from one of my favorite bakers, Preppy Kitchen’s John Kanell. Check out his website for lots of great treats. These sugar cookies are great because they do not “poof” up like a lot of other sugar cookies which can distort your shapes. Below I share Preppy Kitchen’s recipe with my technique on Slice and Bake cookies.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups of flour (480g)
  • ⅓ cup corn starch (40g)
  • ¾ teaspoon salt (4g)
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (227g)
  • 1 cup sugar (200g)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. Sift your flour, corn starch and salt in a large bowl and mix. Set aside.
  2. Beat together the butter and sugar using beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
  3. Add the eggs while mixing and continue to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything mixes together.
  4. Add vanilla extract.
  5. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until very well incorporated.
  6. Mold your dough into a small flat disc – wrap and chill for about 30 minutes. Making it into a flat disc helps you to roll more easily once it’s chilled, compared to starting with a ball of dough!
  7. Roll your dough on some sprinkled flour to prevent sticking and use your choice of cookie cutters. I like my sugar cookies about ½ inch thick.
  8. Using a parchment lined baking sheet, bake the cookies at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Depending on how thick or large your cookies are, they may require more or less time. To that point, if you are making small cut-outs you’re going to want to check them much sooner.

So how do you do the Slice and Bake method?

  1. Immediately after the dough is made, separate the dough into 2 even parts. Color them as you wish. For the Grinch Cookies I colored half electric green and half red.
  2. Follow step #6 and wrap and chill your dough.
  3. Once chilled, take out the color you will be using for your center. Roll it out and cut your shapes as thick as you can. By doing them as thick as the cookie cutter allows, you save yourself time when it’s time to place them together! They will also hold their shape better while you handle them.
  4. Chill your cutouts on a parchment lined baking sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
  5. Remove them from the freezer. One by one, place them together in a line by attaching them with a little bit of egg white applied with a brush.
  6. Gently push this “tube” of cookie cutouts together so they are tightly stuck together and then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap.
  7. Chill this for about 30 minutes in the freezer.
  8. Next roll out your outer color (for Grinch cookies this would be the green). Roll it to a length just longer than your strand of cookie cutouts and wide enough to wrap the entire strand.
  9. Place your cookie cutout strand in the center of the rolled green dough. I like to cut off some excess outer dough to place inside the cutout crevices. This way you are sure the dough will get into those tight spaces. You can clearly see how I do this in my video above!
  10. Roll the outer dough around the cutouts and roll it on your counter to get a tight and smooth wrap.
  11. If using sprinkles, now is the time to roll your slice and bake dough in the sprinkles of your choice. Depending on the stickiness of your dough, you may want to use some egg white to help the sprinkles stick.
  12. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes or until you are ready to use. Frozen dough stays good for about 3 months!
  13. You want to slice the dough in about ½” thickness while it is still frozen, but thawed enough for you to safely slice with a sharp knife. If you slice them while they are not cold, the shape will get distorted!
  14. Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for about 12-14 minutes This is going to depend on the size and thickness of your cookies so keep an eye out!
  15. Enjoy these beautiful cookies! And try other shapes and let me know how they come out.

If you like this recipe, check out our other Cookie recipes.