I have to make 45 sugar cookies with fondant over them for Sunday and the recipe I used made them spread bigtime and I won't be able to get the fondant on them right. Is there a recipe or a trick I can do to the recipe I do have to make them not spread so much? thanks

No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe. A lot of CCers use it as do I. Has never spread on me and I've been covering mine with fondant too. Works great!

HTH!

One thing I always do is to make sure they are cold before I put them in the oven. I find when my dough is room temperature, they spread like crazy . HTH!

after cutting and placing them on the cookie sheet, you can try popping the cookie sheet into the fridge for a bit before going into the oven. you can cycle them like:
* roll, cut, and place on sheet
* put sheet in fridge
* roll, cut, and place on another sheet
* put fridge sheet in oven
* put other sheet in fridge

etc.

something i used to do when I had a lot of spreading was to recut the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. just pop the cutter back over them and give a good press and wiggle a bit, be careful when pulling the cutter back up (in case the cookie tries to come with it) you may have to gently poke the cookie back down onto the cookie sheet, then put your fondant cut out on top....once completely cooled I run a pastry brush or my finger around the outside edge to loosen any crumbs you may have.

thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate it. I am running out of time as usual ugh, why don't I do these things in advance lol. thanks again

I cut the baking powder in the NFSC recipe when I kept having this issue too. I only use 1/2 tsp, not 3 tsp.

If you don't want to rebake the batch you have, roll your fondant covering a little thicker before you cut it out with the cookie cutter. Spread some piping gel mixed with water onto your cookies to make them nice and slippery. Place the fondant cut out on the cookie and gently spread it to the edges of your cookie with your fingers.

look up antonia74 tutorial under articles.. that is how i bake cookies when i do have to make them.. it is a agreat tutorial. hth

I also do the re-cut when they come out of the oven, when I'm looking for a perfectly clean, no excess cookie at ALL under the fondant look.

HOwever, in general I dont' have a spreading problem. The advantage of being a "until it looks right" cook ..... if the dough "looks" too thin or too gooey or "not right", I add more flour to thicken it up to the right consistency. I roll my NFSC, cut them out and they go straight into the oven. If I can pick up and handle the cut out cookies ok with my hands, then the dough is right. If the cut outs are flimsy, sticky or otherwise not up to the normal standard, then the dough is wrong.

I never had time to throw them in the 'frig or freezer before baking. I also couldn't figure out how that helped since the oven was at 350 degrees and the dough wouldn't stay cold for more than a few seconds anyway when placed in the oven.

Thank you for all the replies.

I used the NFSC recipe and it worked ok with the exception that if I put them in the oven right away, they spread. If I let them freeze a bit, they did not really spready, a tad, but not like the others.

The only problem with me recutting them is that these had a belly on them, cause they were pregnant belly cookies, so when they spread, so did the belly and it did not have a big enough belly to look right I even tried taking a ball of fondant, but of course with it being hot, that melted down too and looked even worse. I was putting the fondant on them while they were hot, right out of the oven and it worked out well. I did make the fondant a little thicker so it could spread more anyway, because of the belly. I will try and post a pic for you to see. I had great fun.

They look great! Soo cute

thank you, besides the cake, they were the hit of the party

Your cookies came out absolutely adorable.

awwww ty so much. I am glad you like them

You're so welcome, but it is more important that they loved them at a party.

I don't know if I said the right thing or not, but a couple weeks when we delivered a birthday cake for a 9 year old her mom said she loved the cake. I said we were so happy she did, but it was even more important for us that her daughter love the cake. Well, seeing her and her friends jumping up and down when they saw it kinda gave me my answer. lol

Those cookies are adorable! I've also been having trouble with NFSC lately. The first time I made it they did not spread at all. The second time they spread enough that when I recut them when they got out of the oven there was an easy 1/4 inch on each side. The third batch I reduced the baking powder to 1 scant tsp and there was some spreading but not much. I'm starting to get fed up. I cannot figure out what I did right the first time and am doing wrong now. So frustrating. I will try one last time completely omitting the baking powder and see what happens.