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1
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper or spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
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2
Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
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3
(The dough should be soft enough to roll without cracking, but not yet sticky.)
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4
Place the dough on a piece of parchment paper or on a lightly floured flat surface.
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5
Lightly flour the top of the disk and begin rolling the dough (see Rolling Dough, page 10).
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6
Lift and rotate the dough between each roll to prevent it from sticking.
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7
Repeat the process until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick (plus or minus about 1/8 inch; thicker for larger cookies, thinner for smaller ones).
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8
Use your cookie cutters to cut out dough and place the shapes about 1 inch apart on the prepared pans.
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9
If the dough begins to stick to the cookie cutters, clean off any excess dough from the cutter and dip the edges of the cutter in flour.
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10
Repeat until the sheet pans are full.
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11
(The remaining dough can be kept in the refrigerator until its ready to be used or baked.
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12
Rolled and/or cut dough can also be wrapped tightly and frozen.)
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13
Scraps of dough can be pushed together and rerolled twice.
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14
If the dough is rolled too many times, the flour will become overworked, and that will affect the texture of the cookies.
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15
If the dough becomes soft in the rolling and cutting process, put the filled sheet pans in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are firm again, before baking.
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16
Otherwise the cookies will lose their shape in the oven.
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17
Lightly brush each cookie with some of the egg whites.
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18
(The cookies should look shiny, but have no visible buildup of egg whites.)
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19
Sprinkle the cookies with assorted sugar sprinkles.
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20
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes (cooking time may vary, depending on the size of the cookies), rotating the pans once halfway through, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
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21
Remove the cookies from the oven, let them cool slightly on the pans, and transfer them to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
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22
Repeat with the remaining dough, including the second disk.
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23
Serve the cooled cookies immediately, or keep them in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
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24
Once you have rolled your dough three times, you can reserve your dough scraps for future use.
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25
In fact, some recipes in this book call for cookie crumbs from the Vanilla Cookie Dough (page 41), Chocolate Cookie Dough (page 54), and Graham Cracker Dough (page 86).
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26
Bake the dough scraps on a parchment-lined sheet pan at 350 F. Depending on the thickness of the scraps, they should be baked for 12 to 18 minutes.
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27
When they are done, they should be slightly darker and crispier than cookies baked from the same dough.
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28
After they have cooled to room temperature, the cookie scraps can be coarsely chopped (for ice cream toppings) or finely ground in a food processor (for cake toppings).
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29
They can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 2 months.
