From Dough to Decorated Cookies

I am a planner. I love calendars, planning ahead, and making a daily to do list. When my kids were little I had a white board calendar in my kitchen where I wrote down all activities and appointments. It was even color coded per person. I am also a former teacher and teachers plan!

Making handcrafted decorated sugar cookies is a process. As I have worked on developing my craft, I worked on developing a weekly schedule.

DOUGH MAKING AND BAKING DAY (SUNDAY AND/OR MONDAY)

Depending on the number of cookies I need to make in a week, I start making dough on Sunday and/or Monday. Each batch of dough takes me about 30 minutes to mix up. I can cut about 30 cookies out of each batch of dough.

 Monday is my baking day whether it is one dozen cookies or 10 dozen cookies. And yes, I have a process for making my cookies.

• First, I roll them out using my Dough EZ. I do put down a sheet of parchment paper to roll the dough out on because I freeze my dough before cutting out the shapes.
• Once the rolled dough has been in the freezer for about 10 minutes, I cut the shapes and either place directly in the preheated oven or in the refrigerator until they are ready to go in the oven.
• Once out of the oven, I cool the cookies sheets on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes and then I move the cookie sheet to my baker’s rack to finish cooling.
• I let the cookies sit out for about 4 hours and then move them to airtight containers until Tuesday when I am ready to start decorating.

Finally on Monday, I prepare and color my icing. I make one batch for every batch of dough I used. I color the icing and let it develop overnight.

DECORATING DAYS (TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND SOMETIMES THURSDAY)

Tuesday is outlining and flooding… I can outline and flood 4 to 5 dozen cookies in one day. First I outline all the cookies. Then I go back and flood each cookie. Some cookies have one color that needs to be flooded, like a plaque, and other cookies have several areas that need to be flooded. I let each area that is flooded to dry in from of a fan for at least 15 minutes. Sometimes I start some of the details on Tuesday. I let the icing dry overnight on my baking rack.

Wednesday is detail day… This is my favorite part! I love adding the details and seeing the cookie come to life. If I have more than 5 dozen cookies that week, I also outline and flood the remaining cookies. I usually do not take orders for more than 10 dozen in a week, but I have made 24 dozen in a week. As soon as the details are dry, I begin heat-sealing each cookie for freshness.

Thursday is catch up day… Some weeks on Thursday I need to finish up some details on cookies.

PACKAGING DAY (THURSDAY/FRIDAY)

On Thursday, and sometimes on Friday, I finish heat-sealing all the cookies and start packaging them in bags and boxes. Packaging involves adding ingredient stickers and toppers, my business labels, ribbons and bows, business cards, and any other special touches. Cute packaging of the cookies is just as important making cute cookies.

DELIVERY DAY (FRIDAY/SATURDAY)

Friday, and sometimes Saturday, are my delivery days! I love it! I love to see the faces of the people when I deliver the cookies. Cookies just make people smile 🙂 And that makes me smile.

Have a Sweet Day!

Kelly