Santa's Trash Cookies | Delish

INGREDIENTS

3/4 c. cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 c. crushed potato chips
1/3 c. Crushed Pretzels
1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tbsp. red and green sprinkles
Flaky sea salt, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350º and line two cookie sheets with parchment.
Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
Mix in egg and vanilla.
In another large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until smooth. Dough will be thick.
Gently stir in chips, pretzels, chocolate chips, and sprinkles.
Make tablespoon size balls of dough. Slightly press them down onto the cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake until edges are just starting to get golden, 7 to 8 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Easy Tips to Make Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Photo by Meredith

More: Browse our entire collection of cut-out cookie recipes.

Rolling and Cutting Sugar Cookie Dough

It can be challenging to keep sugar cookie shapes from losing their definition somewhere between cutting them out and transferring them to a baking sheet with a spatula. Try this method instead:

1. Roll and Chill

Set a 1½- to 2-cup portion of dough between two sheets of parchment paper. To keep the parchment from sliding, tape the bottom sheet to the counter, or lean in and use your body to pin both layers against the counter edge. Parchment keeps dough from sticking to your rolling pin and countertop without added flour. It also makes it easier to transport dough to the fridge for chilling.
Using a rolling pin and rolling away from your body, roll dough out to an oblong shape no bigger than your cookie sheet, lifting and replacing the top sheet of parchment as needed to remove creases.
As the dough approaches ideal thickness (a scant ¼ inch works well for most cookies), flank it with two wooden slats of equal thickness (paint stirrers work well) on top of the top parchment sheet, and roll pin over dough until pin edges rest on both slats. The goal is evenly thick dough—without thin spots that cause uneven baking and fractures.
Slide parchment onto an unrimmed cookie sheet and chill the dough until very firm, at least 30 minutes, before cutting. Roll remaining dough in same manner and keep in the fridge until you are ready to cut it. Chilled dough cuts more precisely, clings less to cutters, and retains its shape better during baking

2. Cut and Peel

.Photo by Meredith

Transfer chilled dough to a work surface and peel off top parchment sheet. Now you’re ready to cut out shapes.
Cookie cutters come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. If you’re new at cut-outs, stick with simple shapes until you get comfortable with them. Remember, the more elaborate the shape, the trickier it is to work with. Dip a cookie cutter in flour, set it on the dough, and press the cutter straight down with your palm, rocking your palm slightly to ensure you cut all the way through the dough. Lift the cutter straight up. Repeat, dipping the cutter in flour before each cut, working quickly so dough stays cold, and spacing cuts as you’d like cookies arranged on sheet, 1 to 2 inches apart.
Here’s the cool part: Instead of moving individual cut-outs with a spatula, peel excess dough away, leaving cut-outs on bottom parchment sheet.
Slide parchment with cutouts onto the cookie sheet. Since you’re not lifting individual shapes with a spatula, that means no squishing, stretching, or tearing en route to the sheet.
Pat the excess dough scraps back into an oblong shape, then roll, chill, and cut again.

Baking Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

Bake your sugar cookie cut-outs following recipe instructions, but it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the cookies in case your oven runs hotter or cooler. For best results, use an oven thermometer instead of relying on your oven’s built-in readout.

After baking, slide each batch onto cooling racks, parchment paper and all. When the cookies have cooled and firmed up for a few minutes, you can slide the cookies off the parchment to finish cooling directly on the rack. Parchment paper can be reused for several batches of cookies.
If you’re baking in batches, cool your baking sheet before loading it with fresh cookie dough. For efficient production-line baking, consider using several baking sheets so one can be in the oven, one can be loaded up with the next batch of cookies, and one can be cooling off before being loaded up again.

Shapeless cookies? Try this fix: If your rolled sugar cookies puff too much as they bake (your stars look more like blobs), try adding a little flour to the dough before rolling, chilling, cutting, and baking. Excess moisture in the dough can overactivate the baking powderand cause excessive puffing.

Frosting and Icing Sugar Cookies

After you’ve cut out, baked, and cooled the cookies, the next step—and the most fun part—is to decorate them.

Photo by Meredith

Christmas cookies Cutters