Stamped Sugar Cookies: #CreativeCookieExchange

Stamped Sugar Cookies have the heft and chew of a classic bakery style drop sugar cookie, but thanks to cookie stamps they are also super cute and fun! Keep reading to see what other stamped cookies the Creative Cookie Exchange came up with.

I had some frustration with these cookies but really I have a love-hate relationship with my (new!) ovens and maybe they are to blame. I’ve never really discussed convection ovens on here much because I know back when all I had was a conventional oven the last thing I felt like reading about was how amazing convection ovens are. Because they are. However, until now I have always had convection ovens that could be adjusted in 5 degree increments, giving the cook/baker a lot of precise control. Conventional wisdom seems to hold that convection ovens should be run at 25 degrees lower (in Fahrenheit) when adjusting a conventional oven recipe to convection. For long baking items like cakes and roasts this is fine. But cookies cannot brown enough in 8-14 minutes at 325 F (the temperature they often land on). But the outside gets too brown at 350 F. So I always baked my cookies to amazing results at 335 F convection.

No longer. Why on earth a high end line like Jenn-Air would only allow for 25 degree increments in their high end convection wall ovens I have no idea, but talk about a bummer. I finally called them about my frustration and confirmed that even though the system has a keypad for a timer, you can only scroll by 25 degree increments for oven temperature. What a design flaw. After all my excitement, I kind of want to stamp (pun intended) my feet in frustration. If you are in the market for new ovens be aware of this–it just never even occurred to me to ask.

You might be wondering about my chocolate chip cookies, which look great in my not so humble opinion. For drop cookies I have perfected an annoying but necessary method of baking for the first 2/3 of the time on the lower temperature and then increasing the temperature for the last 1/3 of the time. It is a huge pain in the butt, but it has worked.

So what does this have to do with these Stamped Sugar Cookies? Well the cookies they are barely adapted from (so barely I am linking you to them) were just so much prettier than I got. But they were pretty pale. So I baked at the recommended–by Jenn-Air–temperature of 325F convection. Do I know for sure it is the oven’s fault? No, but it does seem to me temperature would affect rate of rise and I wonder if their edges might have turned out sharper at a hotter temperature. If I make them again–and it seems likely because they are super delicious–I will try baking at 350F convection. Because I also had trouble baking them all the way through at 10-12 minutes, it took me closer to 14-15 minutes at 325F convection.

Basically it was a frustrating endeavor all around and because I left it ’til the last minute (and because I was too busy glued to my television for the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament) I did not have a chance to repeat the experiment. Having said that, Alex and I have been devouring the Stamped Sugar Cookies, so aesthetics aside the recipe is worth making!

You might be curious about the cookie stamps I used. I used a combination of Nordic Ware Cookie Stamps–cast aluminum with wooden handles, and Williams Sonoma Silicone Cookie Stamps. And of course they were all spring/summer themed, since we are getting tired of winter. I love the look and feel of the Nordic Ware stamps, but the cast aluminun does not imprint as sharply and if someone accidentally leaves it in the sink (ahem, leaves it in water in other words), it can discolor and pass on that discoloration to the cookie dough it is stamping. For these reasons, and for taking up less space (you attach the different silicone stamps to one wooden handle) I prefer the Williams Sonoma stamps–which is kind of a shame because I get the feeling they might be discontinuing them (I was able to get the Christmas ones on a great sale though!). I adore stamps because even when they don’t come out perfectly they save the step of rolling out cookie dough, which I loathe. So I would probably own both because I am a crazy kitchen collector like that.

One last note about the stamps. I chose to dip the stamps in powdered sugar before stamping and I would not do that again. It made it look like I had not mixed the flour in well, when I had. I would try first without doing anything. If the dough stuck I might try lightly misting with cooking spray–but only lightly or only once or twice (see which works better) because you don’t want added fat to make the cookies spread. When you read the recipe you will see Nordic Ware does not call for doing anything but I am a skeptic–I would love to hear what other people’s experiences are!

Anyone else have cookie stamps hanging out in their baking collection and looking for cookies to use them on?

You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact Laura at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and she will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links.

If you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

• Copycat Oreo Chocolate Creme Cookies from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Stamped Sugar Cookies from The Spiced Life
• Passionfruit Sandwich Cookies from All That’s Left Are The Crumbs

Looking for a Stamped Sugar Cookies collage to pin?