How to Adapt Cookie Dough for 3-D Projects: A Series of Controlled Recipe Tests

Hi, everyone! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked if gingerbread is the only cookie dough that can be used for 3-D projects. Or why some doughs crack and spread, and others don’t, when baked over curved surfaces or molds. And so . . . I decided to create this video to answer these questions definitively, once and for all! This video is less demonstration and more lecture, controlled experiments, and food science, so I encourage you to get comfy, get rid of any distractions, and take out a notebook or laptop to record key points along the way. In other words, this video requires more concentration than usual! :)

In it, I examine both the recipe- and process-related variables that make my Cutout Cookie Gingerbread (the dough I most often use in my videos) perform well for 3-D projects. (I briefly touched on these topics in my earlier “Cutout Cookie Gingerbread Dough” video, link below, but here I go much deeper.)

In a nutshell, the less any dough spreads, the less it will crack and distort when shaped and baked on curved 3-D surfaces. Through a series of controlled tests of my gingerbread, I explore the impact of four recipe-related variables on its spreading: (1) flour-to-fat ratio, (2) type of fat (butter versus shortening), (3) amount of leavening, and (4) use of egg. As for process-related variables, I mean those that relate to dough handling, such as how thin the dough is rolled and whether it is chilled after rolling and before baking. I test those variables with my gingerbread as well.

BONUS: Once the results of my gingerbread experiments are in, I then apply those lessons learned to my Signature Sugar Cookie Dough, which typically spreads and cracks a lot more, and turn it into an awesome dough for 3-D work too!

IMPORTANT: The aim of this video is NOT to give you exact formulas for adapting your own recipes - that would be virtually impossible to do without knowing your recipes and testing them myself. Rather, the intent is to: (1) demonstrate that gingerbread isn’t the only dough that can be used for 3-D work and (2) highlight the variables that most impact dough spreading so you can successfully adapt your own recipes. (Or, if you don’t want to do that, just use mine! :) Recipes below!)

RELATED VIDEOS:
Cutout Cookie Gingerbread Dough:    • Cutout Cookie Gingerbread Dough  
How to Contour Cookie Dough:    • How to Contour Cookie Dough  

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RELATED LINKS:
Cutout Cookie Gingerbread and Signature Sugar Cookie Recipes (both as written in my books and as adapted in this video for 3-D cookie projects): https://tinyurl.com/y3l4o5q2
Key Video Graphics: https://tinyurl.com/y39hyrbh

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CREDITS:
Music by: Kevin MacLeod, http://www.incompetech.com
Videography/Editing by: Two5:7North (https://www.two57north.com), Grant and Ashleigh Murphy