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Try this sugar cookie dough recipe that holds its form very well, and make some braided sugar cookie sticks that are perfect for dipping in milk or hot cocoa. Yum!
If you need a new way to enjoy some custom cookies, these are sure to fit the ticket. I truly believe they are the best sugar cookies you can make. They hold their shape very well, even after being baked.
I’ll honestly admit that I would much rather decorate, than bake – as much as my little ones wish it wasn’t so. I have 2 kiddos, in particular, that beg and plead to bake with me in the kitchen, which I don’t do often enough.
After we moved into our very much unfinished home, they held me to my promise to enjoy baking some Holiday treats together in our new, pieced together kitchen. Hence, these Christmas sugar cookies came to be.
I had been dying to try my new Italian Verona Range, so I welcomed the opportunity on a slow Sunday afternoon.
They desperately wanted to make some Christmas sugar cookies, but I knew I didn’t have the ingredients to make the frosting. We are still in moving chaos! The idea sparked to braid the cookie dough into sticks, which would make them perfect cookies for dipping in hot cocoa – or in our house – Crio Bru. (A much healthier version of hot chocolate, and oh-so-delicious!).
To all of our delight, they came out so lovely and were a very fun family project. We also did some star cutouts with the extra dough. Custom cookies are so much fun to make, aren’t they?
Perfection was not my goal here, but welcoming creativity in the kitchen most certainly was.
I played around with a sugar cookie dough recipe to create one that would hold its shape very well, even when cooked.
There are a few tricks to the trade, but once you discover how to make sugar cookies that stay true to their works of art – the possibilities are limitless!
They get perfectly crunchy and look as lovely cooked as they do when you form the dough. And dipped in Crio Bru – who would notice otherwise!?
Get ready to make, bake, dip and eat!
Ingredients You Need:
- Butter
- Sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Egg
- Flour
Making your easy braided sugar cookies:
- Preheat the oven.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and well blended, then stir in vanilla, salt and egg.
- Gradually fold in flour until you have a solid round cookie dough ball to work with.
- Wrap dough ball in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove dough and work into the shapes you desire.
- Place cookie dough shapes onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and freeze before baking.
- Bake until they start to brown, then remove to a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
TIPS FOR MAKING A SUGAR COOKIE THAT HOLDS SHAPE
Tip 1: Use my recipe below!
Tip 2: Refrigerate dough for at least a half hour before shaping and molding.
Tip 3: Freeze the shaped dough for at least 15 minutes before baking.
Braiding the dough is fairly easy when coupled with some patience and steady hands.
First cut 3 strips – the thinner they are, the more tricky they may be to weave and the easier they break. Find a good thickness that feels good to you.
Then you can press together the tops of the 3 strips and carefully braid the strips. If the strips break, you can carefully press the ends back together.
Be sure to check out my recipe card below and let me know if you give them a try! What fun dipping shapes can you think to make? I’d love to know!
This recipe is being shared in collaboration with my dear sweet blogging friends who have all come up with a Christmas cookie recipe to share. Be sure to scroll through all these goodies!
SHARE YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS COOKIE WITH US!
The best news is, you can join in on the cookie fun as well! If you make your own cookies and want to share, take a pic and tag me on Instagram at @camitidbits. Also, use the hashtag #BestChristmasCookieRecipes for a chance to be featured on all our accounts! This is going to be so so fun!
Big thanks to Ella Claire for putting together this cookie celebration.
Double Chocolate Junior Mint Cookies by Ella Claire & Co. | Snowball Cookies with Pecans by Live Laugh Rowe | Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies by Boxwood Avenue | Chocolate Covered Peppermint Cookies by Rooms for Rent.
Pie Cookies by Handmade Farmhouse | Linzer Cookies by Inspired by Charm | Pistachio Cardamom Butter Cookies by The Chronicles of Home | Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies by Anderson + Grant
Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies by Jenna Kate at Home | Iced Peanut Butter Cookies by Maison de Pax | Caramel Thumbprint Snickerdoodles by Summer Adams | Peanut Butter Cookie Cups by Town and Country Living
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies by French Country Cottage | Reindeer Cookies by Shabbyfufu | Chocolate Chip Cookies by Happy Happy Nester | Gluten/Dairy Free Spritz Christmas Cookies by Zevy Joy
Pecan Tassies by On Sutton Place | Snowball Cookies by Julie Blanner | Braided Sugar Cookie Stick by Tidbits | Sugar Cookie Trees by My 100 Year Old Home
Gooey Butter Christmas Cookies by Tidy Mom | Toasted Coconut Einkron Cookies by Farmhouse on Boone | Christmas Candy (M&M) Cookies by Nina Hendrick | White Chocolate Peppermint Oreos by My Sweet Savannah
Praline Snickerdoodles by So Much Better with Age
You might enjoy seeing the cookie recipe I shared last year, still, one of my favorites when I am looking for a healthy, whole food treat to make – All Natural Orange Almond Cookies. They are a guilt free treat!
BRAIDED SUGAR COOKIE STICK RECIPE
Braided Sugar Cookie Sticks
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 2 2/3 cup flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and well blended
- Stir in vanilla, salt and egg
- Gradually fold in flour until you have a solid round cookie dough ball to work with
- Wrap dough ball in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Remove dough and work into the shapes you desire. See my post instructions to learn how you can braid the dough strips
- Place cookie dough shapes onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Place in freezer for 15 minutes before baking
- Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until the edges start to brown. Watch them carefully to work with your own oven.
- Place on cooling rack to cool
- Enjoy!
This looks like a fun recipe to try! I didn’t see how thick you roll the dough. Do you think it would lend itself to using a pasta maker to roll and cut the strips? (I’m thinking fettuccine size and probably the thickest setting.)
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These are so fun and look delicious!!
I enjoy your site very much and bought you Instant Pot cookbook. Your ads are well done, not in your face so I can read your site easily. However I am highly disappointed that as Christian women you would run an ad to support Planned Parenthood, with donations. It is a well known fact that they are the number one provider of abortion in the United States. Please let me know if this is your political belief so I can make a decision of whether or not I can continue to follow you.
Hi Deb,
I so appreciate you bringing up this concern, and am grateful for the compliments you paid me. No, I do not and never will support any cause in support of abortion. The way ads are distributed from my network is based on cookies – or things the end user may search on their own computer. This is never flawless of course, but on my computer I see ads for the Roomba, Nest thermostats, and Wayfair – all based on things I have searched or related to. I am certainly not suggesting you have searched planned parenthood, but you may have read articles relating to and that is why it is popping up for you. However, I can tell my ad companies to reject such ads, which is what I will be doing so they don’t show up for anyone regardless. The only way I know these things come up is because readers tell me, so thank you very very much for helping me be pro life! Have a very happy Holiday season!