Every December somebody ends up eating a pile of amputated gingerbread arms. The dough looked fine, the shapes went onto the tray, and then half of them came out of the oven with a leg missing or a head hanging on by a thread. Some of that is the dough. A surprising amount of it is the cutter.
What goes wrong with cheap cutters
Plastic and thin tinplate cutters tend to have a rounded or slightly blunt edge. Instead of slicing through the dough, they squash it, so the thin bits at the wrists and ankles end up compressed and weak. Then when you lift the shape, it tears at exactly those points. Tinplate also rusts if it’s left damp after washing, which is how most of us find our cutters when we dig them out each Christmas.
A set I’d go for
The Sweet Cookie Crumbs Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter Set is three stainless steel cutters in three sizes:
- Large: about 14cm tall by 12cm wide
- Medium: about 10cm by 8cm
- Small: about 6cm by 5cm
Food-grade stainless steel means it won’t rust, it can go in the dishwasher, and the cutting edge is properly sharp, which is what gives you clean wrists and ankles. Having three sizes is nicer than it sounds. The big ones are the show-offs for icing, and the small ones are perfect for hanging on the tree or perching on the rim of a mug of hot chocolate.
A word of warning: sharp means sharp. Press down with your palm on the folded top edge rather than your fingertips on the cutting side.
Dough tricks that help too
- Chill before cutting. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper, then chill the whole sheet for 20 minutes or so. Firm dough cuts cleanly and holds its shape.
- Flour the cutter, not the dough. A quick dip in flour between cuts stops it sticking without drying out the surface.
- Don’t lift the shapes. Cut them out, then peel the scraps away around them and slide the baking paper straight onto the tray. No lifting means no snapped limbs.
- Roll a bit thicker. About 5mm gives the thin parts enough strength to survive. Wafer-thin gingerbread men are the ones that lose their heads.
Get the cutter and the chill right and you’ll have a tray of gingerbread people with all their bits attached, which is really all anyone wants from December baking.
