Do you want to know the best trick for making sugar cookies….EVER!?!? This technique leaves you with a CLEAN kitchen, CLEAN hands and delicious cookies! When I make sugar cookies, I ONLY dirty one mixing bowl, a measuring cup and measuring spoons. Seriously, that’s it! On the other hand, when my Mother and/or sisters taught me how to make sugar cookies (way back when…), we had flour all over the counters, all over our hands and basically it was A MESS!  My kitchen USED to look like this:

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Here is my much NEW and improved method:

Step 1: Mix your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe in a Bosch or other mixer, strong enough that it can do the job completely (without you having to knead extra flour into the dough on the countertop).

Step 2: Place a slightly wet paper towel on your counter (or wherever you will be rolling out your dough), then put a piece of parchment paper over the paper towel….then put a slab of dough on the parchment paper, then another piece of parchment paper on top. The wet paper towel prevents the parchment paper from sliding around while you roll out your dough.

Step 3: Roll your dough out until it’s the desired thickness. Pick up all layers except the paper towel (bottom paper, dough and top paper), and place on a cookie sheet.

Step 4: Repeat until all your dough is on cookies sheets, then put all the sheets in the refrigerator to chill.

Step 5: After…a while….(it could be 20 minutes, but I’ve waiting hours til I’ve had time to come back), simply cut out your shapes, place on parchment lined sheets again and bake!

Your cookie sheets are clean because you have used parchment paper, your rolling-pin is clean…it hasn’t touched a bit of dough…the only dirty thing in the entire kitchen is, again, the mixing bowl and a few measuring items. TRY IT! It’s the best method EVER!

Tip: I used to use waxed paper for rolling out, but something with the wet paper towel and the refrigeration seemed to slightly disintegrate the waxed paper….leaving little bits of paper stuck to your cookie. Parchment paper works a lot better! I just made a batch and timed myself. In less than 15 minutes I had the dough mixed, rolled out and into the refrigerator! Later I’ll bake (probably while the oven is still hot from baking dinner)…then tomorrow I’ll decorate them. Nice system!!!