Basic Cinnamon + Chocolate Sugar Cookies for Movember

Hey there sugar cookie! I have such a love hate relationship with you. Sometimes you’re adorable and cute, sometimes you’re oozy and shapeless. Sometimes you’re so chewy and delicious, sometimes you’re dry and just plain nasty.

These things are so hit and miss so when I was asked to make a Movember themed thing for a bakesale I was determined to get these cookies right. With a little help from some spice and a simple freezer I present to you my no-fail recipe and tutorial to creating perfectly shaped sugar cookies! They’re perfect for holiday events or themed garnishes, or both! This is also an easy way of creating two biscuit flavours from the same batch of dough. This should make around 30 movember cookies, depending on the size.

Basic Cinnamon + Chocolate Movember Cookies

(an original recipe)

120 g butter (at room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 tbs milk (optional)

2 tbs dutch-process cocoa

1. Beat butter until it begins to pale. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and beat until combined.

2. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla and salt and continue to beat until completely combined. The mixture should begin to come together but of it seems a little crumbly add the milk.

3. Remove half of the mixture, flatten into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

4. Add the cocoa to the remaining dough in the bowl and mix until completely combined. As with the earlier half, flatten into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to firm.

5. Preheat your oven 160°C.

6. Remove dough, one disc as a time, and roll out to around half a centimetre thickness. Stamp out shapes with your cutter of choice, place on a tray lined with baking paper and, once full of shaped cookie dough, immediately place in the freezer for around 20 minutes. This is the most important step to ensure your shapes remain in tact once placed in the hot oven! Otherwise they’ll just ooze and end up looking like an ordinary, misshapen cookie (no disrespect to all the delicious, rustic cookies out there).

7. OPTIONAL: If you have any additional stampers or or textures to add to the cookies, do this now right before placing in the oven.

8. Place in the oven and bake for around 8-12 minutes, depending on the size. You’ll know when to remove them when they begin to brown around thr edges. After 5 minutes, remove tray and transfer cookies to a cooling wrack.

Now they’re ready to decorate! I embedded them in some buttercream-covered pandan cupcakes and added cachous for eyes to make little faces (a good idea in theory however they ended up looking like the Pringles logo in cupcake form. HOW EMBARRASSING).

And I may have had a little too much fun with them too.

I’d like to congratulate everyone who has participated and donated to such a fantastic cause this year. A number of friends took part in this and, despite a little self-consciousnes, did a really excellent job by embracing the mo’. So until next year, happy Movember!

EDIT: A few people have been asking where they can find these cookie cutters and stampers. I’m using the Munchstache set by Fred & Friends; they seem to be available all over the place so have a Google!