DIY Cookie Cutters and Stamps
Baking cookies with your loved ones is an amazing way to spend quality time together during the holidays. And one of the most fun parts of making cookies is cutting the dough into all sorts of different shapes and sizes, plus marking out cute designs on them!
Dont have cookie cutters or stamps? Fret not, there are a myriad of tools sitting in your kitchen that are great alternatives to cookie cutters and stamps. Read on to discover our list, and look out for the difficulty rating for the kids (or yourself!) in your cookie-making crew.
1. Dry Pasta
Credit: TasteAtlas
Pasta is one of those dishes you can make for a hearty Christmas spread, but they can also be used to stamp lovely patterns into cookie dough. Penne, rotelle, and ribbon pasta are just some great examples to use for imprinting due to their unique shapes.
Have a sweet tooth? Coat the area of pasta used for stamping in some sugar before you stamp your patterns it also prevents the pasta from sticking to the dough.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Harmless as a plate of pasta.
2. Drinking Glass / Crockery
Credit: Kitchen Counter Chronicles
A no-brainer alternative, and one that can be found in any kitchen. You can even make different sized round cookies if you have drinkware of varying sizes! Just be sure to coat the rim of your impromptu cookie cutter with flour; this ensures that the dough doesnt stick to it and is easier to extract. Also, if your cookie dough doesnt come out perfectly round, you can always trim around its edges with a knife a quick fix.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Super convenient. If youre still too lazy to grab that cup, try our Sea Salt Miso Chocolate Cookie recipe theres zero cookie cutters involved!
3. Paper and Knife
Credit: The Bearfoot Baker
Let your imagination run wild with this one! Trace out your cookie shape (Christmas hats, gingerbread men, snowflakes anything you want!) onto baking paper, then use a knife to cut the cookie dough around your stencils. Cookie dough is soft and difficult to shape, so a pro-tip is to freeze the dough for about 15 minutes before getting the knife out.
Needless to say, watch out for fingers!
Credit: Giphy
Difficulty Rating: Hard
Easy to grab, hard to wield. But use it well and marvel at your yield! Adult supervision is a must or let the kids do the drawing, while adults do the knifing.
4. Apple Slicer
Credit: 5-Minute Crafts
Cut out a round piece of dough using your handy cup, press down with an apple slicer gently, then slightly pinch the edges of the dough. Voila, youve got yourself a cute flower cookie shape!
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Effortless shaping. Much easier than cutting up a plastic bottle and moulding it into a flower shape.
5. Meat Tenderiser Mallet
Credit: Giphy
Want mini waffle cookies? Use a meat tenderiser mallet! One (gentle) pound is all it takes to transform your ordinary cookie into a waffly-patterned one that is sure to be a favourite with kids and adults alike. Works best with circular or square cookies with a large surface area.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Believe it or not, the most effort youll need is to not whack the dough too hard.
6. Fork
Credit: Giphy
Time-strapped but dont want unembellished cookies? Press a blunt-tipped fork into your cookie dough to make criss-cross patterns! For a fun twist, coat the fork with some icing sugar or dark chocolate powder to make the pattern stand out.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Simple and fuss free. Mega convenient, no new utensils needed.
7. Empty Tin Can
Credit: Giphy
Remove the top and bottom of a tin can like SPAM and youll have a really tall and effective makeshift cookie cutter. Whats great about using an empty tin can is that unlike using a cup, you can easily push the dough out if it gets stuck onto it. Heed the sharp edges, though the only thing that should be getting cut are the cookies!
Difficulty Rating: Medium
A little troublesome to turn the tin can into a cutter, but high effort = beautiful rewards. Watch out for edges when doing with kids!
8. Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers
Credit: Dose Juice
Have kids who are dying to help out in the kitchen? Hand them some greens and a rolling pin! To stamp leafy patterns, place a plant of choice onto a piece of dough, then gently roll a rolling pin over it, back and forth a few times. It may take some trial and error to find the correct pressure to get a clear print while not flattening the dough too much but thats all part of the fun.
To extract the plant-y stamp from the dough, a toothpick can be used to carefully lift it up. This makes for an excellent fine motor skills exercise for the kids, under supervision of course!
This safe hands-on activity will not only entertain your little ones, but also give you some special looking cookies from the different vegetables used. Pretty options to dole out include blue pea flower, chrysanthemum, and wolfberries.
Difficulty Rating: Medium
Good fun for the whole family, and a great lesson on creativity and precision.
9. Bubble Wrap
Credit: Cookist Wow
Love playing with bubble wrap? You can actually incorporate these fun sheets into cookie making! To start, cut a piece of bubble wrap a little larger than your entire slab of cookie dough, then gently press the bubble wrap onto the dough, bubbles side down. If you have a rolling pin, you can roll it over the bubble wrap to make for a more even pattern.
Then, lift the sheet of bubble wrap up and cut them into squares, hexagons, circles, or whatever shape you fancy. And there you have it, easy patterned cookies with a bubble wrap!
Difficulty Rating: Easy
Perhaps the most difficult thing here is having the self control not to pop the bubble wrap before you use it
10. Skimmer / Strainer
Credit: Cookist Wow
Have circular skimmers or strainers lying around your kitchen? Their holey nature makes them an excellent choice to create patterns with! On a round piece of cookie dough (perhaps cut out using a drinking glass?), place the bottom part of your skimmer / strainer and lightly press down on it, rotating in a circular motion. With some practice, youll be able to get cookies stamped with an even, interesting spider web pattern and no one will be able to guess what you used to create it!
Pro tip: spray some baking spray onto the bottom of your tool of choice before you use it to minimise the dough that gets trapped in their holes. We love a quick clean up!
Difficulty Rating: Medium
Requires some experimentation to get the right pressure to stamp the cookie dough, and may not have the easiest clean up.
Creative Cookie Cutters and Stamps
These alternative cookie cutter and stamps may not be conventional, but theyre still fun and get the job done. Best part is, theyre all conveniently sitting in your kitchen. Know any other cookie hacks? Come tell us about them!
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