I have a very large order for cookies and am using the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe from this site. I have tried it on 3 different occasions and it was so crumbly it wouldn't roll out. It took forever to roll out one cookie at a time. Tonight I had made a huge batch and froze it in small batches. I thawed them and they were crumbly just like the other times. What am I doing wrong? I microwaved the dough for 20 seconds and didn't flour my surface before rolling them and it seemed to work better but nothing like I expected.

Please help! Order is due Saturday and I have the dough already made up exactly per the instructions.

Try this link....

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-26378.html

Did you mix it til the dough "comes together"?

Try rolling it between parchment paper then chilling it. I even cut it before I freeze it.

I have made it 4 times in about 3 weeks and works wonderful for me!

Thanks All. Since this has happened more than once I think I will just go back to my good old recipe. Everyone was raving about this one I thought I would try it.

No, don't tell me that the recipe is a bust for you! I just made a batch to roll out for tomorrow! Oh well, guess I'll just have to try it for myself. Lucky thing this is only for practice!

DON'T GIVE UP!!!!

I think I made the batch 5 times before I got it just right....Let me share my findings....

* Use LARGE or EX LARGE egss

* Sometimes I don't use ALL the flour mixture

* I use unsalted butter- I don't know if that makes a difference

* I use regular brown vanilla-the colors are only a little darker (not much)

I had a crumbly batch, a too wet batch-you just gotta keep trying! You'll get it. Also, I knead the dough by hand before I store it. I notced once that the dough had dry spots (dry in only parts of the dough).

I hope you give it another try. These tricks work for me!

I've tried the No Fail cookie recipe 3 times and had the dry, crumbly dough you mentioned the 2nd time I made it. First and third times were fine. The only thing I could think of is that I added too much flour the time that it was very crumbly. I actually made a batch this morning and was afraid I'd get the crumbly dough again; I was very conscious of measuring the exact amt. of flour and not "packing" the flour into the measuring cup. I don't know if that was the answer, but the dough turned out just fine.


Michele

I rolled out my No Fail dough this morning and found that if I touch it too much it gets too soft too fast, however the cookies turned out just fine.

I don't know if its too late for the op, but add a little more butter! I made the cookies today and added all of the flour~ dough was way too dry. I melted a T of butter in the microwave and kneaded a few drops in the dough. I grabbed a handful kneaded a little more butter until it was moist enough and repeated until I'd done the entire batch. Then I mixed it all together. I used a silpat roller on a silpat mat and had no problems. I was planning to use parchment paper, but was all out. The cookies came out GREAT!! I made Antonias frosting- great also. I'll post a picture when I get a chance. HTH

Thanks so much to all of the other posters. I wouldn't have tried the butter if I had read so many previous posts.

http://www.kitchengifts.com/nofailsugarcookies.html This another site I found!

Well, just in case you are interested, I LOVE the Wilton Roll Out cookie recipe. It is really good, easy to make and you don't have to wait to refrigerate for 1 hour. You can use it right away.

In case you are interested, here it is:

Wilton Roll Out Cookies
(Appx 20-24 cookies)

1 cup of butter or margarine
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp of vanilla
2 tsp of baking powder
3 cups of flour

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Mix baking powder with flour and add to butter mixture one cup at a time. It will become stiff, so you can knead the last cup of flour by hand. DO NOT CHILL DOUGH.

Divide dough into 2 balls. Roll out on a floured surface to 1/8 inch and cut with desired cookie cutters.

Bake for 6-7 minutes or until lightly browned.

It hasn't failed me yet!

I made my 1st batch for No Fails last weekend and loved them. Instead of chilling for an hour like the recipe says I rolled the dough out right away, cut with cookie cutters and then placed in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. It was so simple.

Here is what I learned from my first batch of no fails as a trial run for my bridesmaid bouquet. I experimented rolling between parchment, rolling with silpat, baking with and without silpat, a variety of cookie sheets, and inserting the sticks. I found it SO easy to roll out the dough with silpat and parchment and i love the freezer technique. I found that the cookies baked with silpat retained their shape the best and had the nicest underside. I am not happy with the insulated baking sheets. The sticks seemed to work better when inserted before baking. It is so important to have the sticks at the middle point of the weight, otherwise the cookie twists on the stick and becomes loose. However, I think that the longer you let the cookie sit without playing with it, the better the stick holds. I've heard that you can always use some royal icing to fix problems with the sticks.

Back to the topic.. my dough was very greasy and soft, which made reusing scraps simple. I think the cookies even taste yummy too! It sounds like the people having problems with this recipe might be adding too much flour. As someone else said, make sure to lightly spoon the flour into your measuring cup in order to get the proper amount. Do not tap on the counter to level, use a straight edge instead. I halfed this recipe.. not sure if that had any affect.

Here is what I learned from my first batch of no fails as a trial run for my bridesmaid bouquet. I experimented rolling between parchment, rolling with silpat, baking with and without silpat, a variety of cookie sheets, and inserting the sticks. I found it SO easy to roll out the dough with silpat and parchment and i love the freezer technique. I found that the cookies baked with silpat retained their shape the best and had the nicest underside. I am not happy with the insulated baking sheets. The sticks seemed to work better when inserted before baking. It is so important to have the sticks at the middle point of the weight, otherwise the cookie twists on the stick and becomes loose. However, I think that the longer you let the cookie sit without playing with it, the better the stick holds. I've heard that you can always use some royal icing to fix problems with the sticks.

Back to the topic.. my dough was very greasy and soft, which made reusing scraps simple. I think the cookies even taste yummy too! It sounds like the people having problems with this recipe might be adding too much flour. As someone else said, make sure to lightly spoon the flour into your measuring cup in order to get the proper amount. Do not tap on the counter to level, use a straight edge instead. I halfed this recipe.. not sure if that had any affect.

I made no-fails last night, and in the middle of the recipe I had an idea about this post This is my completely uneducated theory---I am wondering if the water content in the type of butter is the culpret here. The less water in the butter = the dry crumbly cookie dough Let me know what you all think. I used a generic brand of real salted butter and they were crumbly to begin with but I turned the dough out and kneaded it a minute and it came together nicely.