Easy and Delicious Cutout Cookies

In this Post: These easy cutout cookies combine the nostalgic anise flavor of my husband’s childhood favorite recipe with a Scandinavian twist of rich almond, vanilla, and cardamom. The flavors meld beautifully and can easily be adjusted to your exact taste preference.

Background

Baking fussy difficult cutout cookies is not something I have time for at the holidays with all the other things I have going on.

For years, I just didn’t bother… until my husband asked (ok, begged) for me to make his childhood favorites. He doesn’t ask for much so I agreed, with trepidation, to get the recipe from my mother in law.

It was absolutely NOT love-at-first-batch… but I didn’t want to let him down.

So, after making some important adjustments, I settled on this final iteration of my (now) trustworthy recipe.

Trust me when I say these actually are easy, delicious, and enjoyable to make. They don’t make me want to put my rolling pin through the window, and I consider that a major win when it comes to cutouts 😂.

Cookie Recipe

Ok, here’s the recipe. Ingredients on the left, instructions on the right!

Feel free to adjust flavoring as you’d like in the cookie recipe; I find that the impact on dough texture is not significant.

Tips:

• keep dough chilled; work with a small amount at a time
• work on a lightly floured surface
• DO NOT over-bake! These take EXACTLY 8 minutes in my 350F oven

Anise Flavored Royal Icing Recipe

There are many ways to make royal icing and I am certainly no expert. I am a total amateur when it comes to icing and even I have great success with the above recipe.

Egg whites vs Meringue

If you are uncomfortable using raw egg whites there are recipes that use meringue powder as an alternative. Since my eggs come from my own chickens I am confident they are safe to use.

Icing Flavoring & Density

In general, when adjusting flavoring with royal icing, be cautious about changing the liquid:sugar ratio. Some people also make two versions, one more stiff for outlining, one more liquid for flooding.

I didn’t bother to do so – no time for unnecessary fussiness right now, remember? – and I’m thrilled with how they turned out.

Previously, I made cutout cookies so infrequently I only have two cookie cutters: a small fir tree and a sweet little Dala horse. When I make Papparkakkors – Swedish thin gingerbread cutout style cookies – I make them with with my aunt at her house so she keeps all the cookie cutters in her stash. Even though I only had the two styles I was able to mix it up a little and keep the decor interesting but simple.

Cookie Decorating: Sweet and Simple

When decorating I kept things simple, opting to lightly drizzle green icing on the white trees as embellishment once the first layer of icing had dried. I let them overnight to prevent color bleed-through.

The green trees were sprinkled with sweet crunchy Swedish Lars Pearl Sugar. Instead of purchasing sprinkles or other new cookie decorating supplies I racked my brain for something I already had on hand. Since I use pearl sugar for topping Kanelbullar, or Swedish cardamom buns, I had plenty and decided to give it a try. It worked beautifully and balanced the green trees with a little white while the white trees have a complimentary touch of green.

Note: After about 4 days the icing starts to look dry, and at about 5 days it started to crack a little around the edges. It tasted great but just a heads up for those of you who like to make things really early – save the decorating for just a few days before your party!

Imperfect but Delicious!

Some of my cookies have bubbles, some are a little crunchy on the edges – seriously, even one minute too long in the oven and it will show! Knowing your oven well and paying attention is so important when baking. They are definitely not perfect but I’m not trying to open a bakery!! In fact, I’m really working on trying not to focus on perfection so much. I’m hoping that this blog will help me work through 30+ years of hangups about Things Being Just Exactly So.

Putting something imperfect yet beautiful out in the world is definitely out of my comfort zone.

And check out this last photo… I just had to laugh! Someone clearly jumped on the counter and landed in the icing before it was dry 😂.

I hope you give this recipe a try! Be sure to enjoy the process, even if they don’t turn out “perfect”!

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