Baking – Proper Technique for Rolling Sugar Cookies

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I have an old recipe of my grandmother's for sugar cookies and I'd love for them to turn out just like hers. However, whenever I try to roll out the dough, I find I either can't get it thin enough, it is too sticky or it ends up tearing. What are the proper tools and techniques I need to roll out sugar cookie dough?

Best Answer

There's a lot of things that can throw off baking recipes --

  • Regional variations in flour hardness. 'All purpose' flour from the US South tends to be softer than brands from other areas.
  • The humidity and temperature.
  • Altitude (affects the boiling point of water, which will require adjusting baking times and possibly leavening agents)
  • How you measure your flour -- I'm lazy and use scoop & sweep -- my mom, however, would use spoon and sweep.
  • Size of your eggs. Most recipes in the US assume 'Large' eggs unless otherwise specified.
  • Type of salt used. Most recipes in the US assume table salt unless otherwise specified.
  • How you mix the dough, and how long you mix it.
  • How long you rest the dough before rolling out.

In your case, for rolled doughs:

  • temperature of the dough. (you want it chilled, but not so cold that it crumbles)
  • work surface / rolling pin material (specific to your problem, will affect how much things stick, and how they retain/transfer heat)

You might also want to see Baking 911 : Cookies Problems and Baking 911 : Rolled Cookies

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