Paul Cunningham's Danish Christmas CookiesAnders Schonnemann
Although chef Paul Cunningham knows his way around a kitchen (check out his epic Danish Christmas Feast for friends), when it comes to baking cookies, he defers to his mother-in-law, Kitty Læby, who's been making her Christmas cookies for more than 50 years. Her simple but sublime kager—some flavored minimally with butter and sugar, others with spices and nuts—are all about precision.
Use a Kitchen Scale
OXO Good Grips 11-lb. Scale
Professional bakers always weigh their ingredients to ensure that baked goods turn out precisely as intended each time. To help nudge home bakers into this practice, we at Saveur have begun including weight measurements for dry ingredients like flour and sugar in our recipes. OXO Good Grips 11-lb. scale, $50 at williamssonona.comwilliamssonona.com
Get Uniform Dough with Rolling Pin Bands
Evendough Rolling Pin Bands
When it comes to rolling the dough for sugar cookie cutouts and shortbreads, an even thickness is paramount so that all the cookies will bake at the same rate and reach that golden color on the bottom at the same time. We like to use Evendough rolling pin bands, rubber bands in varying thicknesses that slide onto the ends of your rolling pin. They keep the pin at a steady height to produce an even dough. Evendough Rolling Pin Bands, four sets of two for $9 at amazon.comAmazon
Pipe with a Cookie Press
Kuhn Rikon Clear Cookie Press
You can use a cloth piping bag fitted with a star tip to achieve similar results, but a cookie gun makes the job go much faster. We like a more modern gadget like the Kuhn Rikon Clear Cookie Press for its ease of handling. Kuhn Rikon Clear Cookie Press, $20 at kuhnrikonshop.comKuhn
Control the Heat with a Great Oven
Wolf Built-in Ovens
Many directions for baking cookies and cakes will advise you to rotate your baking pan or sheet halfway through cooking, a directive that attempts to correct uneven heating in ovens. In the Saveur Test Kitchen, we bake breads, cookies, cakes, and pies in our trusted Wolf oven, no rotating necessary. Wolf Built-in Ovens, starting at $4,300 at subzero-wolf.comWolf
