Ask Nancy Archives
Do you have a baking, decorating or celebrating question for Nancy? Now is your chance to have it answered.
Check here each month, Nancy will select ten questions submitted by viewers and posting her answers here.
Cookies Questions
Which is the best icing to decorate cookies?
Carmen - from Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Our local PBS station has stopped airing your show. How should i approach this? I really miss it.
linda - from sharpsville, PA
Can cookies decorated with color flow icing be frozen and if so, for how long?
Lois - from Borden, Prince Edward Island
Can I refrigerate iced cookies?
Chan - from SAN DIEGO,CA., CA
Bakeries often carry butter cookies that appear to have been piped from a bag using a large star tip. I find that my cookie dough is too stiff for piping. What do you suggest?
Janet - from Turnersville, NJ
Can you freeze sugar cookies decorated with buttercream icing?
Martha - from north augusta, SC
Hi Nancy! Love your show. I want to prepare cookie dough, but I don't have a food processor. What can you recommend?
Carmen Julia - from San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
How to make sugar cookies taste like almonds? I need them to have a strong almond flavor but not have them be too expensive to make.
Amarilis - from Toa Baja, Puerto Rico
Hi Nancy... I like to make novelty cookies for kids parties. I love the sugar cookie cut outs decorated, but I always run into the same problem. When I cut the shape out of the dough, whenI bake the cookie, it expands in size and looses its shape and ends up not looking like the shape at all. What am I doing wrong?
Tereze - from Philadelphia, PA
Hi Nancy! In the episode when you made flag cookies, I thought you used royal icing (with 2 different consistencies, thick and thin) so I bought meringue powder, but then I saw you needed color flow. Will there be difference if I use royal icing?
Amanda - from Chicago, IL
How far ahead can you make brownie pops, cookie pops and pops made wih candy melts?
Lisa - from philadelphia, PA
On show #807, you put together 2 cookies on a stick. 1. what did you use to attach cookie? 2. what kind of stick was used? What an awesome idea. Thank you!
Colleen - from San Leandro, CA
How do I keep my cookies from getting "hard" once they cool out of the oven? I find that when I make chocolate chip cookies, they are so delicious when they are warm from the oven but once they have cooled, the texture changes and they become "hard" and really crispy. I use brown sugar and bake the cookies a couple of minutes before the time indicated. How do "name brands" keep their cookies soft? Also, I have read the you could add pudding (boxed) to the cookie dough? Please help. Thanks so much Nancy.
Joanne - from Miller Place, NY
What kind of icing should I use for cookies? (I’m going to stack them.)
Patricia - from Brooklyn, NY
I’ve started looking through my recipes for cookies. A lot of them call for “unsalted” butter. Is it okay to use “salted” butter instead? Will it change the taste/flavor? Will I have to omit the salt in the recipe if using “salted” butter?
Audrey - from Milwaukee, WI
When I bake cookies, they spread really thin. What am I doing wrong?
Chris - from Danville, CA
If you are making the chocolate spritz cookies and you do not have a cookie press, what can you use?
Brandy - from Marana, AZ
Can I use margarine for the Roll-Out Cookie Recipe?
Nathalie - from Caracas, Venezuela
In your Oatmeal Lace Cookie Recipe, is the butter salted or unsalted?
Linda - from Aurora, CO
How do I transport cookies that have iced decorations?
Barbara - from Akron, OH
Every time I decorate my cookies they don’t look shiny when they are dry. How could I get a shiny and bright icing for my cookies using the royal icing recipe (I usually use meringue powder, confectionary sugar and water)? Thanks!
Claudia - from Guadalajara, Mexico
If a cookie recipe calls for canola oil can I use vegetable oil instead, and what is the difference between the two?
Vanessa - from San Marcos, TX
I baked cookies on Sunday. I have them on my table to prepare them for royal icing on Tuesday. The cookies are for Saturday. It’s ok if they are kept at room temperature?
Gretel - from Union City, NJ
Can I melt the fondant I bought to cover cakes and cookies?
Sheila - from Houston, TX
Do you have a recipe for no-chill sugar cookie dough?
Katy - from Fulshear , TX
When making sugar cookies, how can I keep a nice, clean edge?
Mary - from Jessup, MD
When do you sprinkle the colored sugar onto spritz cookies … before or after baking?
Laureen - from Worcester, MA
I am looking for the recipe for a cookie recipe that was shown on your show. It was made using pie crust sheets cut into 16 slices, filled, rolled and baked. Can you help me?
Gayle - from Hull, IA
Nancy, can you freeze spritz cookies? I am having a cookie dough party and we are bringing rolls of homemade cookie dough to trade and then toss in our freezers.
Sheri - from Olathe, KS
I bake and sell homemade cookies as fundraisers, but sometimes the cookie requests keep me in the kitchen baking! I want to know if you can freeze cookie dough, and how? Or, do you bake the cookies and freeze them?
Kay - from Houston, TX
Can I decorate cookies with Color Flow or is regular royal icing better?
Yael - from Herzylia, Israel
On one of your shows, you made flower shaped cookies, then placed them in what looked like a white chocolate flower pot/vase? Can you tell me where I can find instructions for making this?
Flora - from Rochester, NY
I love making cookies, however not the hard crunchy ones. How can I make soft baked chocolate chip cookies?
Shandi - from Grand Bahama, Bahamas
Could you please tell me what is wrong with my M&M and chocolate chip cookies? I've made them for years, and now they spread and are so paper thin you can see through them. Please help!
Pat - from Wadsworth, OH
I want to bake train cookies for my son's 5th birthday. What would be the simplest method to decorate for someone with no experience at this?
Tracy - from Redding, CA
Do I have to refrigerate cookies I have frosted with icing made from butter, light corn syrup and confectioners' sugar?
Lucy - from Tucson, AZ
Can you share a recipe for a delicious frosting for cookies that won't smear if stacking the cookies?
Linda - from Rochester , NY
How is flooding done when icing cookies?
Caron - from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
How do you color spritz cookie dough? I'm most familiar with kneading the icing color into roll-out cookie dough, but won't kneading into the spritz dough make it too tough or too soft?
Melinda - from San Antonio, TX
I have been trying to make the spritz cookies and have a lot of trouble getting them to stay on the cookie sheet surface. What am I doing wrong?
Wendy - from Alexandria, IN
My cookie dough sticks to the cutters. How can I prevent this?
Landon - from Plainfield, IL
What type of icing can I use to ice cookies with?
Noelle - from Lynwood, IL