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Hey Besties! You know I’m all about making impactful goodies which are easy enough for beginners! Or at least without having to spend a week of your life making them! And today is no exception as I share my experience with cookie stamps! Maybe this technique is not new to you, as I know these have been around forever. But this was my first time using them and honestly have never seen anyone use them before! I was so curious as to how easy they were to use and how successfully I could make stunning designs. And of course, I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with recipes to find the best one for this technique. I was shocked at how easy these were and how beautiful they turned out. Needless to say, I’m hooked and am so excited to try more designs! Let’s dive in!
Intro To Cookie Stamps
Cookie stamping has been around for a really long time and in my research was much more popular decades ago. Since most of the stamps are metal, they have become heirlooms and passed through generations. After much research, I went with the Nordic Ware cookie stamps because of their quality, designs and price. And because I wanted to do a couple trials for you, I purchased two different sets. I knew THESE snowflake cookie stamps would be perfect as we head into the holidays. And I had to try THESE geometric shape stamps for year-round use. Nordic Ware does offer about a dozen different stamp sets for all kinds of design options. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of these cookie stamps when they arrived and couldn’t wait to experiment!
Stamping Recipes
Nordic Ware included a recipe on the box that the stamps arrived in, so I gave it a shot! Unfortunately, and surprisingly, I did not get the clean definition in my designs that I was looking for and I did not love the flavor. For me, cookies need to be equal parts beautiful and delicious! Which led me down a path of many recipe variations to find the perfect one for this technique. Ultimately, using my go-to sugar cookie recipe that I use for my cut-out cookies ended up being perfect! Two caveats though! These needed to bake much longer than my cut-out recipe. And while I never chill my sugar cookie dough when making cut-outs, I found chilling for a few hours to give the best, clean definition in designs for stamping. You’ll see in these photos, the snowflakes were baked without chilling the dough and the geometric shapes were used with chilled dough.
Can you make them without chilling the dough? Of course. But if you’re looking for the crispest designs, I found dough chilled for at least 3 hours to be perfect. I’ve included the updated, perfect cookie stamping recipe for these below. But first, let’s talk about steps for success!
Technique and Tips
Once your dough is ready, you will roll into balls slightly larger than golf balls. Then, roll in granulated sugar, which makes it easier for the dough to release from the stamp. I worked over wax paper and baked on parchment-lined cookie sheets. You will simply center the stamp over the ball and press down until you see the dough coming out around the edges of the stamp. Note that when working with chilled dough, it takes a little extra muscle since the dough is harder. Note that the dough may release from the stamp or may stick when you lift up. If it does hold onto the stamp, simply peel it off from one side and they release easily. They will look like this!
Now, I have seen photos where some bakers leave the excess around the cookie, which gives it an authentic, home baked look. However, I’m a perfectionist (to a fault) and used THESE to easily trim the excess off. These are the same tools I use when I’m hand cutting cookies, so they are very handy to have for baking! After trimming, they looked like this and ready to go in the oven!
In comparison, here is a photo of the geometric patterned cookies before going in the oven. Remember, this dough was chilled prior to stamping.
There is no exact thickness when you are using cookie stamps, but I’d say my cookies ended up being about 3/8″ thick. And with stamping, I found these needed to bake quite a bit longer for ideal texture, compared to my cut-out cookies.
To Decorate Or Not?
These cookies are absolutely delicious completely plain and letting the design take center stage. However, there are still certainly fun options to dress them up if you choose! I just lightly sprinkled with sugar to give them a pretty sparkle. But you could really have fun with colored sanding sugars, edible metallic dry dusting or even painting them with metallics too! I’m excited to play around with different ideas!
Otherwise, these beautiful cookies are done once they come out of the oven and cool! And given the number of decorated cookies we’ve had going out our door recently, this was a welcome change! Ha!
Cookie Stamping Impressions
See what I did there? Pun intended.
I have to say, I LOVED how beautiful these stamped cookies came out and was pleasantly surprised with how easy they were! Like I said, I’m really excited to make more designs and add these into our cookie offerings. Especially this holiday season, these will look stunning on our cookie platters! I’m also planning to experiment with chocolate and other fun flavors too. How beautiful would these be in chocolate with powdered sugar sprinkled on top?!
Enjoy these pretty photos of the finished products and you’ll find the recipe below!
The Perfect Cookie Stamp Recipe
After trying countless recipes and variations, this recipe provides the best of both worlds when using cookie stamps! The perfect, crisp designs and an amazing vanilla sugar cookie flavor!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 12 minutes mins
Servings 24 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) Unsalted Butter Room Temperature
- 1.5 cups (300 g) Granulated Sugar Reserve half cup (100g) for rolling dough
- 1.5 tsp (7.5 ml) Vanilla Extract
- 1 Egg Room Temperature
- 2 tsp (9.72 g) Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp (3.04 g) Salt
- 3 cups (360 g) All-Purpose Flour
Instructions
If I know I’ll be baking, I pull my unsalted butter out of the fridge the night before to get to room temp. But if you’re baking spontaneously, no worries, just zap your butter in the microwave on half-power for about 12 seconds.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
I use parchment paper sheets on my cookie sheets and reuse them for all my batches that day.
In your mixer bowl (or large bowl with hand-mixer) cream butter and 1 cup (200 g) sugar until smooth, at least 2 minutes
Beat in vanilla and egg
In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, salt and flour. Add to wet ingredient mixing bowl a little at a time.
Mix until thoroughly blended.
For crispest stamping designs, chill dough for at least 3 hours.
Roll dough into balls slightly larger than golf ball size.
Roll dough balls in granulated sugar
Using cookie stamp, center over ball and push down until dough starts to squeeze out around stamp. Slowly lift/remove stamp.
If desired, trim any excess dough around the stamped design.
Bake at 350 for 12-13 minutes.
Cool cookies on cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to cooling rack.
Keyword Cookie Stamp Recipe
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