Hey Besties! With the holiday season upon us, it’s also the time for year for family gatherings! And for MANY families, that means games!! And of course, we need treats! So today I’m featuring two different, super simple ways to make fun game cookies! I included a quick video so you can see exactly how easy it is to make stamped cookies! Or, if you like decorated cookies, you’ll find a royal icing transfer sheet set for all your card cookies! Either way, you have simple, fun and delicious options to delight those you bake for! Let’s go!
Starting With Recipes!
Since the theme is game night, I had to go with our classic vanilla almond bake shop flavor! These cookies bring the nostalgia and I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t LOVE the flavor! No-chill, (duh) makes these cookies super easy and quick to whip up, which you’ll love. The secret ingredient that makes all the difference is THIS baking emulsion that we order on repeat! If you have not baked with that emulsion, you don’t know what you are missing! But you always have options, and you’ll find a whole bunch of fabulous cookie stamp recipes HERE as well!
The below recipe includes instructions for using both wooden or metal cookie stamps, but for today’s poker chip stamped cookies, we’ll be using the wooden cookie stamps!
Vanilla Almond Cookie Stamp Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) Unsalted Butter Chilled
- 1.5 cups (300 g) Granulated Sugar Reserve a half cup (100 g) for rolling dough if using metal stamp.
- 3/4 tsp (3.75 ml) Vanilla Extract
- 3/4 tsp (3.75 ml) Almond Baking Emulsion (I use LorAnn's brand)
- 1 Large Egg Chilled
- 1 tsp (5 g) Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) Salt
- 3 cups (400 g) All-Purpose Flour
- Optional: Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- I use Reynolds parchment paper sheets on my cookie sheets and reuse them for all my batches that day.
- In your mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth, at least 2 minutes
- Beat in almond emulsion, vanilla extract and egg. Optional: add a couple drops of gel food coloring during this step.
- In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, salt and flour. Add to wet ingredient mixing bowl a little at a time.
- Mix until thoroughly blended.
If using wooden cookie stamp:
- I usually divide the dough into 3 chunks and roll out each onto a floured surface and cut. I make our cookies 1/4" thick and use my Joseph Joseph rolling pin which does the measuring for me – genius!
- I dip my stamp in loose flour and tap off the excess. I re-flour my stamp after every 2-3 cookies.
- Use wooden stamp to gently press down into the dough to create the design.
- Use a round cookie cutter to cut the dough and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes.
- Cool cookies on cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to cooling rack.
If using a metal cookie stamp:
- Roll dough into balls slightly larger than golf ball size.
- Roll dough balls in granulated sugar. Dip stamp in sugar.
- Using cookie stamp, center over ball and push down hard. Dough will squeeze out around stamp. Slowly lift/remove stamp.
- If dough sticks to stamp, use a lip of the dough to carefully peel the cookie dough off the stamp and place on cookie sheet.
- Trim any excess dough around the stamped design, using a circle cookie cutter or pen blade for baking.
- Bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes.
- Cool cookies on cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to cooling rack.
How To Use A Cookie Stamp
Today we are using these awesome wooden cookie stamps which I get from my favorite stamp shop! It’s a small business that I LOVE to support, and they have the most amazing designs! Their Etsy shop has the most stocked collection of their stamps, but they also have an Amazon shop as well! At the time of this writing. these specific poker chip stamps can be found in stock HERE and HERE! If there is a specific stamp you love and it’s not in stock in the Amazon shop, it’s very likely available in their Etsy shop.
Using these cookie stamps is ridiculously easy but I will tell you, the recipe you use makes ALL the difference. All of our stamped cookie recipes have been perfected to capture even your most intricate cookie stamp designs. And of course, they are soft, chewy and delicious! Or, if you want a crispier cookie, you can bake longer.
Making these cookies is as simple as rolling out your dough, like you would for cutout cookies. I roll out my dough on a floured piece of wax paper. I lightly flour my Joseph Joseph rolling pin, which does the measuring for me, to make my cookies a consistent 1/4″ thickness. You can go thicker, but you will need to adjust your baking times a bit.
Then dip your stamp in loose flour, tap off the excess and stamp down on your dough. I re-flour my stamp after every 2-3 cookies.
Now I use a cookie cutter or pen blade to trim the excess off around the design. And then place on our parchment-lined cookie sheet. I use Reynolds parchment because we’ve found cheaper brands of parchment can lead to cookie spread. Here are our cookies ready to go into the oven!
These will bake for 7-8 minutes for a soft, chewy cookie. And here they are fresh out of the oven!
It’s literally that simple! But see for yourself in action with this quick video demo HERE! These are seriously the easiest way to make designer cookies that no one will believe you made!
Decorated Card Cookies
For those of you who LOVE decorated cookies, you’re going to love these card cookies for game night! For these cutout cookies, I used our delicious vanilla cutout cookie recipe but substituted a 1/2 tsp of that same almond baking emulsion that we love! Then I used the rectangle cutter from THIS cookie cutter set to make our card cookies. I literally use at least one cutter from that set every day, I LOVE them!
And for this design, you could flood the cookies the traditional way or you could dip! If these techniques are new to you, or you want some additional guidance, this Flooding 101 tutorial and this dipping tutorial will be very helpful! I always give you options to determine what works best for you. And if you need a great royal icing recipe, THIS explains exactly how we make our icing every day for perfect results.
Once your cookies are iced white, you can turn your attention to this royal icing transfer sheet set that you can use to easily make your card suits for your cookies! You can download this pdf file by clicking the link below the file preview. Or, you can also find this file on our royal icing transfer sheet site page!
If royal icing transfers are new to you, you can find a full tutorial HERE! Essentially, once you pipe these designs on top of sheet protectors and let dry, you’ll be able to add to your card cookies! I prefer to add once my flood base is completely dry, using tiny dabs of royal icing as glue. And voila, we have adorable and delicious card cookies for game night!
Who’s Ready For Game Night?!
Whether they are for your own family, friends or customers, I hope these fun options have inspired you to get baking for game night! And on that note, you may want to check out this Bunco cookie set I shared previously! These were SO fun to make!
And before you go, are you already receiving our weekly newsletter?! If not, now is your chance to subscribe! Never miss out on a new recipe, technique, product recommendation, bakery biz strategy, and free printables! Happy Baking, Besties!