Taste, texture and stability: the impossible cookie?

[Tri2Cook]

I have some custom made cookie cutters that are very detailed and include an imprinted design as well as the cutout. I need a cookie recipe(s) (preferably not chocolate or gingerbread-esque on this occasion but I'd be happy to see suggestions in those areas as well for future use) that tastes good, isn't a tooth breaker like some of the stuff used for building and, most importantly for this particular application, incredibly stable. I need them to expand, puff, spread, etc. at an absolute minimum because the detailing in the designs won't stand for much without becoming muddled. If I were to order the traits mentioned by importance I would say stability-taste-texture. Normally taste would be first but the main goal here is to maintain the integrity of the designs. Edible is important but I can live with them not topping a "best cookies" list if I can get the stability. Anyway, anybody got anything?

[Lisa Shock]

In general, avoid cookie recipes with baking powder, baking soda, and more than 1 egg.

[Deryn]

Shortbread - can be cut in shapes (although I am not sure how they would do with really tiny intricate corners, etc.) and imprinted. Also happens to taste pretty good in my opinion.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I forgot to mention that how you handle dough is very important. Roll the dough out on a cool surface on parchment paper, then refrigerate it for at least 20 minutes. This lets the gluten relax. If you re-roll scraps, be very careful to chill several times along the way: ball up the scraps, chill, roll partway, chill, roll to thickness, chill, then cut. If you just roll then cut, cookies can shrink due to gluten development.

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks for the replies. I should mention that I have quite a bit of baking experience and I'm very familiar with proper dough handling, etc. I'm not saying that because I don't appreciate the help, just to save people the trouble of having to explain in that much detail. I just don't have many recipes that meet my requirements for this particular situation and thought I'd see if I could fish for a few here. The recipes I have that work well for this purpose are gingerbread variations and not really what I want on this occasion. I'll give a couple of my shortbread recipes a shot, that actually (and embarrassingly) didn't occur to me for some reason.

[djyee100]

Sounds like springerle. Have you looked into that at all? I've eaten springerle that were dryish and tasted OK. The texture was slightly firmer than shortbread. The traditional cookie certainly holds complex designs well. Of course you can experiment with flavorings to come up with something other than the traditional anise.

[Tri2Cook]

Sounds like springerle. Have you looked into that at all? I've eaten springerle that were dryish and tasted OK. The texture was slightly firmer than shortbread. The traditional cookie certainly holds complex designs well. Of course you can experiment with flavorings to come up with something other than the traditional anise.

That's an awesome idea. I have a springerle recipe that uses citrus instead of anise that works really well with the springerle molds I have. Yet another "Why didn't I think of that?" suggestion. Obviously my brain has taken the night off. Thanks!

Edited March 15, 2015 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Kim Shook]

Let me know how this works for you.  I've been begging for a stable cut out dough for years and never found one that worked terribly well.

[Lisa Shock]

Here's my go-to sugar cookie formula. Add spices, change the extract flavor, or grated peel to change the flavor.

(creaming method)

 

500g Butter

250g Sugar

8g     Salt

95g   Eggs

8g     Vanilla Extract

750g Pastry Flour

[emmalish]

I'm just going to go ahead and link to some recipes on my site that I think would hold their shape well and work for what you want. Several of them, you'll see, were made with exactly the type of cookie cutter you're looking at, so you can judge for yourself :-)

 

espresso shortbread cookies

spiced cardamom cookies

cinnamon animal crackers

chocolate ginger cookies

molasses spice cookies

soft sugar cookies

 

Flavour-wise, I think the spiced cardamom cookie may be my favourite. I ate wayyyy too many of those.

Edited March 30, 2015 by emmalish (log)

[cakewalk]

You might want to try the Williams Sonoma recipe for animal crackers, it's actually a very nice cookie, flavored with nutmeg. Your description made me think of them because the cookie cutters also have an imprinted design, which is what gives detail to the shape of each animal cutout. I don't know how large your cookie cutters are - the animal cracker cutouts are quite small - or if that will make a difference, but it might work well. You can Google the recipe, it's all over the place. If you can't find it let me know and I'll send it to you.

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks! I'll pass those along. The cutters were a gift that I wanted to include some recipes and maybe a batch of cookies with but they took longer than expected to arrive so I just wrapped them up with the suggestions already posted here. I'll be having a different set made for another occasion where I will actually need to make the cookies myself so I'm definitely paying attention to the suggestions.

[emmalish]

You might want to try the Williams Sonoma recipe for animal crackers...

 

I've been meaning to try that one. Thanks for the reminder.