Expert tips and tricks for the holiday cookie craziness

Make your cookie dough with cold butter

I like to work with cold butter straight from the fridge as the cookies tend to hold their shape better! Chop the butter into 5-6 pieces before putting it in your mixer so it has an easier time getting incorporated with the sugar. 

After scooping your desired amount of sugar from your Domino® Easy Baking Tub, make sure to cream the butter and sugar long enough that there are no chunks of butter remaining; it may take a bit longer than usual. FYI: When you’ve finished adding all of the ingredients and flour, the dough should come away from the sides of the bowl and not be sticky. 

Pre-roll your cookie dough between sheets of parchment paper

Long gone are the days of chilling your dough for hours, whacking it with a rolling pin to get it to flatten, and adding tons of flour to your pants dough in the process. Instead, separate your finished dough into two large chunks, flatten one with the heel of your hand on top of a sheet of parchment paper, then cover with another piece of parchment paper. Finish by rolling it to your desired thickness with a rolling pin. 

Place in the freezer overnight and pull out the sheets as needed! Before you cut out your cookies, peel off both layers of parchment paper to “unstick” the dough, and place the dough back on one of the paper layers to cut out on top of. 

Keep a spray bottle and box of Domino® Powdered Sugar handy when mixing your royal icing

There’s a fine line between the perfect piping consistency and a sloppy sugary mess—even I can still mess this up after 12 years of experience! I recommend using a small spray bottle to thin the icing down and keeping a small box of Domino® Powdered Sugar and a spoon handy to thicken it up again. Don’t be afraid to go back and forth between water and powdered sugar until you nail the consistency. I usually have two piping bags of icing per color:

For decorating the base icing layer, you want your royal icing to be thin enough to smooth and settle back into itself on its own in about 10-20 seconds. If it immediately settles down smooth, it’s too thin and will run off the cookie.

For decorating details, you want your royal icing to be thick enough to hold its shape and texture, but not so thick that it holds a stiff peak when you take your spatula out. 

Use a scale to measure exactly how much icing you need

Have you ever experienced the dread of icing a tray of cookies, just to realize you don’t have enough icing to finish all the cookies you made?! To avoid this, use a kitchen scale to weigh your icing when mixing each color. Generally, it takes about 20 grams of icing to flood the base of a cookie. (i.e. 12 cookies = 240 g) Additionally, I like to have about 50-60 grams of icing in a piping bag of detailed icing. One batch of royal icing using 2 lbs of Domino® Powdered Sugar will make enough to decorate about 4 dozen cookies. 

Opt for tipless piping bags instead of piping bags with tips

Tipless bags are the best! I love that you don’t have to purchase a huge stock of tips and couplers to dive into decorating and they make cleanup a breeze. They’re also great for fine details. To cut tipless piping bags, hold the bag with the seam facing up and cut a small line across the tip. I like using sewing scissors for this. If you have to pause your cookie decorating for any reason, pop the icing bags straight into your freezer to keep your icing from separating. Let thaw on the counter for about 30 minutes and then they’re ready to go! 

Meet the Chef: Emily Henegar

Hey friends! I'm Emily, the cookie girl :) I’m an entrepreneur, cookie designer, and content creator based in Nashville, TN! I love to make people feel seen and celebrated through handcrafted decorated cookies. I started my business Cookie in the Kitchen at the age of 11 as one of many creative phases...turns out it wasn't a phase! I ran it throughout high school and college and now create cookies full time for brand partnerships, musicians and local custom orders.