The best part of this recipe is you can use it in so many ways and for so many occasions.
The dough can be filled, left plain, or decorated with frosting and I have more tips and tricks for you to follow in this easy recipe below.
A simple shortbread soft dough that turns into a crunchy flaky melt-in-your-mouth cookie dough and is so easy to handle.
I love these sandwiched together with flavored jams, melted chocolate, or just plain dusted with powdered sugar.
The kids love them on Halloween in pumpkin shapes frosted and decorated.
A great project to keep the kids busy, they love decorating for all the holiday themes.
Scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions and make these all year round!
Baking Themes or Holiday Cutout Cookie Ideas
- Halloween
- Christmas
- Easter
- 4th of July
- Birthday party
- Animal shapes
- Baby showers or Wedding events
The Dough
This dough is made with brown sugar and shortening unlike most of the butter kinds and is not a buttery-tasting dough but more like a delicious sugar cookie soft dough with a little flaky crunch to it.
I love how firm it is and easy to handle when filling the cookies, they are sturdy enough to travel and freeze well to make ahead of time.
Just thaw and fill them when ready to use them.
Filling Suggestions:
- Almond solo filling
- Melted chocolate
- White chocolate melted with coconut
- Jams of any kinds
- Marshmallow fluff with chopped maraschino cherries blotted dry added or coconut
- Peanut butter chips melted
- Mint chips melted
- Any kinds of canned or homemade frostings tinted to the holiday theme
- Toppings:
- Cinnamon sugar
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Powdered sugar
- Frosting glazes
Baking Tips
- Roll the dough thin
- Remember to make two per cookie
- Bake until set not browned
- Chill dough for easier handling
- Use a cutting board to cut them out
- Preheat your oven first
- Use an assortment of cookie cutters to match the holiday theme
- Bake on parchment paper or Silpat mat
Party Cookie Ideas
- use numbers for birthday party cutouts or for wedding anniversary milestones
- Christmas makes stars, Santa, bells etc
- Halloween pumpkins, witches, ghosts
- Easter ducks, bunnies
- Patriotic star cutouts
- baby reveal use a baby bottle cutout with blue and pink icing
Step-by-Step Shortbread Cutout Cookie Dough Easy Recipe
- prepare a baking sheet and preheat the oven
- mix the dough ingredients and refrigerate for one hour
- roll out the dough thin
- cut out shapes
- bake
- cool
- fill with suggestions or leave them plain
Ingredients Needed to Make Shortbread Cookies
(Scroll down to the recipe card for quantities)
- sugar
- shortening
- brown sugar
- egg yolks
- milk
- vanilla
- flour
- cream of tartar
- salt
- baking soda
- Optional Fillings:
- Melted Chocolate (milk, dark or white chocolate)
- Peanut Butter chips melted
- Jams or preserves of any flavor you can use coordinating jam colors to match the holiday theme
- ( seedless jam-like raspberry preserves is our favorite)
- Sprinkles, Colored Sugars, Sugar Decorations
- Powdered sugar to dust them with or cinnamon sugar
- Thin frosting glaze made with powdered sugar and water
Easy Recipe
This is one dough you can really get creative with.
If you don't want to roll them out, roll them into balls and flatten with a sugared glass and just make shortbread.
The cookie dough is delicious shortbread plain or all decked out for the holidays
Yield: 30
Thanksgiving Shortbread Turkey Cutout Cookies
prep time: 25 Mcook time: 10 Mtotal time: 35 M
This is a basic shortbread cookie using cookie cutters to make Holiday shaped cookies and filled with many suggestions like chocolate, jams or they can be left plain, frosted and decorated.
ingredients:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 3 tablespoon milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 2/3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- Optional Fillings:
- Melted Chocolate (milk, dark or white chocolate)
- Peanut Butter chips melted
- Jams or preserves of any flavor you can use coordinating jam colors to match the holiday theme
- ( seedless jam-like raspberry preserves is our favorite)
- Sprinkles, Colored Sugars, Sugar Decorations
- Powdered sugar to dust them with or cinnamon sugar
- Thin frosting glaze made with powdered sugar and water
instructions:
How to cook Thanksgiving Shortbread Turkey Cutout Cookies
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl until it forms a soft dough except for the jam.
- Chill dough 1 hour.
- On a floured board using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 1/8 inch thickness and cut shapes using a cookie cutter in any shapes of your Holiday theme.
- You will need two pieces of dough to make a sandwich, for each cookie.
- Place on greased cookie sheet or parchment paper.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees until light brown around 8 to 10 minutes.
- Cool completely on a wire rack or on wax paper.
- Fill each cookie with melted chocolate or with jam in the center, top with another cookie.
- Optional: dust with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, brush with thin frosting and sprinkles to decorate.
Calories
79
79
Fat (grams)
11
11
Sat. Fat (grams)
4
4
Carbs (grams)
29
29
Net carbs
11
11
Sugar (grams)
26
26
More Favorite Recipes to Try
Banana Chocolate Chip Biscotti
Chocolate Spice Cookies
Old Fashioned Buttermilk Cookies
Perfect Spritz Cookies
Basic Variety Cookies
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Disclosure: This recipe was originally shared in 2017. It was edited and re-published in 2019.
How adorable and festive!
ReplyDeleteThese are so cute! I bet they taste as good as they look, too. Hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for Thanksgiving! I'm sure that your grandchildren loved them too! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
ReplyDelete