........your decorated cookies could be considered "fresh". I am talking about after you decorate them, let them try 24-48 hours, and individually pkg them in cello. I have been making mine so that they are packaged within a day of when they will be eaten.......but that is becoming super hard to do with life going on and holidays a'comin......
How many days would you still think they taste great?

I use the NFSC recipe and honestly, I think they start going stale 4-5 days after packaging. Even sooner if they're not individually wrapped.

Is there a stablizer out there or something bakeries can add to the cookies to keep them longer? I saw some stuff on on of my vendor sites. I have never used anything so I have no idea.

Sugar cookies? Less than a week. Longer than that the kids still eat them, and people who have no idea what a fresh one tastes like.
I like to freeze them if I'm going to keep them longer than a few days (after I get the on sale Thanksgiving turkeys out of the freezer so I have room.)
If you want to get your baking done earlier, there are recipes (no sugar cookies that I know about) that get better with age so you make those first. Do you do decorate gingerbread for the holidays? They last longer.

amber, i'm going to bump this thread because, i too would like to know if there is a stabilizer out there to help cookies stay fresher longer.

I went to a party yesterday where they had decorated cookies from a well know cookie decorator in our area. Inadvertently, i found out that the host picked up the cookies last Friday. That means that the decorator would've had to begin preparing the cookies by at least Wednesday in order to have them by friday (could've been before then too). That's about 6 days before the party.

I've gotta tell you, the cookies were so good and so fresh tasting! Now i like my cookies and they do stay fresh for a few days, but not like these. Also, her icing was melt in your mouth delicious. It was hard enough to stack but soft enough so if you'd press your thumb into it lightly, it cracked. I wonder what icing she used......they were just very delicious.

So the concensus is...........3 days? That the cookies would still taste fresh for ~3 days after wrapping? How do people deal with shipping orders, if that is the window? I am not shipping orders.....I just do cookies for friends and family on occasion. But just wondering?

Wrapped, I would give them 5 days. If they can be stored in the refrigerator, a couple more days beyond that. I've had people save my cookies for over a month (the too cute to eat thing), then break down and eat them. No complaints....but I have to believe they weren't all that tasty!

Luv, do you know someone that knows the cookie decorator well enough to ask what icing or method she uses?

I add pudding mix to my NFSC and honestly I had some in a gallon ziploc on the counter for 2 weeks and my kids asked for some and I said...eww.....those are old and nasty! They begged and I checked them for any signs of mold and saw none and gave in. They were going nuts about how wonderful they tasted so I had to see for myself. I bit into one and it was moist and yummy like the day I baked them...I'm thinking the pudding mix keeps them from drying out because I had a NFSC w/ out the pudding mix that was only 2 days old and thought it tasted stale and was too crunchy which made it seem old to me too.

The pudding mix might have some sort of preservative in it that helps the cookies stay fresh.

KHalstead, did you delete anything from your recipe, or just add pudding, and how much? I might give it a try. Other people will eat my cookies after a week and longer, no problem at all, they like it, but I don't like them more than a couple or three days.

I add pudding to my NFSC as well as my chocochip cookies, don't know why but it keeps them softer for longer.
I just add 1 4oz pkg per 1/2 recipe ,I rarely make the full recipe but in that case I guess 2 boxes?

The way I do the NFSC is like this:

2 sticks butter
1 cup crisco (halved the butter and sub. w/ crisco so they don't spread as much)
3 cups of sugar (I like them a little sweeter)

Cream those together, and add:
3 eggs (1 extra egg than the recipe calls for)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond (sometimes I leave this out)
pinch of salt

then I add in;
1 pk. pudding mix (vanilla)
then slowly add flour until it's not too sticky ( I touch it with my finger and if it doesn't stick to my finger it's perfect)

The dough is softer than when I don't add the pudding, but it's not sticky. I made them yesterday and got the full 6 cups of four to go in, other times I only need 5 cups, just depends HTH

I delete the leavening too, we like it better without.

Oh almost forgot - instant or the 'needing to be cooked' pudding mix? Or does it even matter?

shiney, no, i don't know anyone close enough to ask her although i don't think she'd even give a hint as what she does because her biz is quite lucrative.

KHalstead, that is instant pudding?

Doesn't matter if yellowy is a word or not, we understand it! I am making up a few batches of dough tomorrow, one with the pudding, and see the difference in the cookie, and hold a couple out for couple of weeks and see how fresh it still is. I'll keep y'all posted!

There is a product called Signiture Secrets that keeps baked goods moist and is a preservative.. I get mine from King Arthur Flour co.HTH

I make my cream for sandwiching cookies with butter ,
1 oz. butter (soft) to 1cup of icing sugar
add flavoring of choice and little warm water
mix by hand not electric mixer(you dont want it fluffy)

this cream hardens but soft when you bite into the cookie and taste good even after 10 days
add cocoa and vanilla for chocolate
warm orange juice for a citrus taste

Okay, I hate to be the dissenting opinion, but when I make cookies that will be individually wrapped for a customer they have stayed fresh for a couple of weeks at least - I haven't gotten back any complaints from anyone that they weren't fresh. I use Toba Garetts (spelling?) sugar cookie recipe and when I took a class with her she said that she experimented once to see how long they would stay fresh and reported that even after a month, wrapped, the cookie was still fresh and crisp. They are not a "moist" cookie so I don't see where spoilage would be a concern for long periods of time. And as I said, so far I have never had any complaints from anyone, although I doubt anyone waited a month to eat a cookie lol. Just saying though.......

luv2bake6, if you go into your profile and add your city and state under location, someone else in your area may know what that baker uses. That baker may be a member of cc and be willing to help you out.
(edited to correct spelling!)

I was the "cookie girl" at the big local bakery...well let me just say that they didn't really throw any cookies away at all. They were stored in the rubbermaid containers on the shelves.

So you are good with your holiday orders being a week old!

Folks, they're probably "good" way longer than 3-5 days. We're just used to eating our cookies right out of the oven or within 24 hours. I know that's how I taste them. My kids come over and eat cookies that have been laying out (or in a big ziplok bag) for 3-4 days. I think the cookies are DISGUSTING at this point, but they are gobbling them down and assure me they are still fine.

Next time you make a batch, set aside 7 or 10 cookies. Decorate them, bag them, label them "Day One", "Day Two" etc. Then eat one everyday for a week and see WHEN they really start tasting bad. Not "bad" compared to what we're used to, but really "bad".

"Good" is different from "fresh" - in my mind anyway.
The darn things are "good" for quite a while. Even when they start to dry, you can dunk them in a cup of coffee or milk and they are yummy again.

My hips would be glad if they 'went bad' a lot faster!

on a side note I have a couple cookies (I saved 1 cookie from a few different designs i've done thinking maybe one day I'd use them as cookie dummy type of thing to show customers) I've had 1 cookie for almost 3 yrs. now and it still looks exactlly like it did when it was decorated LOL I don't think these things will EVER mold (obviously I wouldn't dream of eating it, but just thought it was interesting)

Shiney, did you try out the recipe with vanilla pudding? How did it go?

When you add the pudding, do you need to adjust the flour amount?

Luv, yes, I tried it, the only thing I adjusted was omitting the vanilla because the pudding was vanilla flavor, and quite frankly, there was no difference in freshness after time. The ones with pudding were harder to roll out, they were crumbly. Suppose I should have adjusted the recipe some.