How to bake your best batch of cutout cookies yet

Cutout cookies — whether sugar, shortbread, gingerbread or any other type of dough — are a holiday baking staple. They’re fun to make with kids, they’re easy to decorate, and, of course, you can cut them into any shape you want.

And yet, it can be all too easy to watch in dismay as your dough sticks and tears on the counter or those cute little snowmen turn into a shapeless, edible Rorschach test.

If you’re looking to win the day at your holiday cookie swap and take your cutout cookies to a new, neater level, here are some of our top tips.

Chill the dough

Chilled dough is less prone to sticking, easier to cut and more likely to hold its shape in the oven, especially essential for more intricate cutouts.

When you chill the dough is not terribly consequential, and generally you can pick what works best for your schedule. The first option is to freeze (or refrigerate) the dough after you’ve shaped it into a thick disk, King Arthur Baking says in its “Baking School” cookbook. When you pull the dough out of the fridge (frozen dough should be defrosted there, preferably overnight), set it on the counter before rolling to let it soften slightly at room temperature. Tap it with your rolling pin. “If it cracks when you try to roll it, the dough is most likely too cold: Let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before trying again,” says King Arthur Baking. The next possibility is to freeze or refrigerate the rolled-out dough. Lastly, if you want to prep as much as you can ahead of time, chill the cut cookies and bake them straight from the fridge or freezer, adding more time as needed. I almost always pop the unbaked cookies briefly in the fridge or freezer regardless of whether the dough was chilled before cutting. It’s extra insurance to keep the shapes from going wonky.

If you’re working with even a somewhat large batch of dough, roll one portion out at a time and keep the rest in the fridge, Zoë François writes in “Zoë Bakes Cookies.” If at any point the dough starts going soft while you’re rolling, chill it, preferably in the refrigerator. The freezer can work for a short period, but after too long, it can make the dough harder to roll and cut.

For particularly warm kitchens or times of year, consider chilling your counter, too. Although this is often recommended for pie dough, it works just as well for cookies. Just place a bowl, baking dish or sheet pan full of ice cubes on the work surface and chill until cold to the touch. (If you end up with any condensation on the counter, dry it off before rolling.)

Don’t use too much flour

When it comes time to rolling, “the trick is to use as little flour as you can get away with, so you aren’t adding a bunch of unnecessary flour to your dough, which can make your cookies tough,” François says. Lightly dust your work surface and the rolling pin (preferably wood, François advises, either of the dowel/straight or French tapered style) to start, using more as you go if needed. If the cookies stick to the surface, don’t panic. A metal spatula can help remove them. I also like to have my bench scraper nearby to pry up stubborn uncut dough.

Rolling on surfaces other than the counter can reduce or eliminate the need for extra flour. François likes rolling drier doughs that shouldn’t take on more flour between two sheets of parchment or wax paper, though this is best for smaller portions. Silicone mats, either the same kind you use to line your sheet pans or larger ones intended for rolling dough or pastry, are designed to be nonstick and therefore require less flour. They also slide around less than paper. The other advantage of paper or silicone, Sally McKenney says in “Sally’s Baking 101,” is that they make it easier to transfer the rolled-out dough to the fridge. Simply slide the paper or mat onto a sheet pan, then chill.

Rolling between plastic wrap is a good option for stickier doughs, Rose Levy Beranbaum says in “The Cookie Bible,” and it can ward off cracks in the top of the dough. A bonus tip from Beranbaum: If you have Wondra (precooked and dried wheat flour) hanging around, it “works wonderfully to prevent sticking when rolling.”

Make neat cuts

You can buy cookie cutters in all sorts of shapes and materials, but metal will get you the sharpest, neatest results. I like nylon options, too. As with biscuits, press straight down without twisting the cutter to avoid compressing or warping the edges of the cookie. Keep a bowl or pile of flour handy to occasionally dip the cutter in. If dough starts to stick and build up on the cutter, particularly in the crevices of more complicated shapes, wipe it clean. A metal pizza cutter or pastry wheel can help create basic shapes as well.

Reroll scraps once

Remember “YORO.” “It stands for You Only Reroll Once,” writes pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz in her cookbook “More Than Cake,” crediting Marc Cohen, co-owner of the Montreal restaurant Lawrence, where she used to work. “You can save every scrap from rolling dough, but every subsequent reroll toughens the cookies. (Or, do as we did after a long dinner service: Bake the irregular scraps as is, and eat all the pieces.)”

Two more smart tips: François recommends dusting as much flour as you can off the scraps before combining and rerolling, and Beranbaum says that if you’re cutting out cookies from multiple pieces of dough, you should save all the scraps for one large reroll, as opposed to rerolling smaller amounts from each batch.