With autumn’s arrival comes cookie-baking season. Sugar cookies, in particular, as their shapes, sizes, and seasonal decorating options can’t be beat for holiday—and every day—sweet snacking.

I’m a true fan of sugar cookies. I’m not though, and this may seem rather un-grandma like, a fan of making sugar cookies. Especially with kids. They take too long, from beginning to fully frosted, to keep the attention of most children. Or this grandma. The mixing and chilling and rolling and cutting and successfully transferring to the cookie sheet (which is never 100 percent successful) then cooling and frosting is just too. much. work. And too. much. mess.

I recently found a drop sugar cookie recipe (no chilling and no rolling) that provided me with delicious round treats which would just have to be my go-to sugar cookie going forward. I had simply given up on eating—and offering to my grandkids—homemade holiday-shaped sugar cookies.

Until I was contacted by PR folks requesting I review One Smart Cookie cookie cutters. “Fast, easy and no mess” the packaging boasted, while producing “perfect cookie shapes.” Tag line: “the cookie cutter game changer.”

Considering the bold claims, I was compelled to give One Smart Cookie cutters a try.

When the trio of holiday cutters arrived at my door—free for review—I was quite impressed … then soon realized there must be a mistake as these cutters would never work as intended because they were far too large for any of my (11 X 17 inch) cookie sheets. What knuckleheads making such a major design mistake, I thought.

I went to OneSmartCookieCutters.com, figuring I’d see some explanation/apology for their mistake and a workaround for use so they could sell off their stockpile of poorly designed cutters. Instead, I saw the following video … and immediately ordered a 15.5 X 20 inch baking sheet from Amazon so I could use the amazing One Smart Cookie cutters I’d received. (Watch and you’ll see why.)

Seems a true “game changer.” As soon as my baking sheet arrived, I used the recipe on the packaging for a batch of cookies and proceeded with the Thanksgiving cutter just as shown on the package and in the video. I patted the dough into the shapes, rolled over the top then released the cookies.

I was impressed with the ease and minimal mess. The true test, though, would be making sugar cookies with a kid. Benjamin was just the kid.

We mixed up a batch of sugar cookie dough—using my drop cookie recipe this time—and Benjamin got to work using the Halloween cutter (his choice).

He set the cutter on the parchment paper (which I secured with some tape so it would stay in place for him … making sure to remove the tape before baking).

Then I plopped some dough, and Benjamin patted into the space … one shape after another. “Make sure you can’t see any paper,” I told him, and he patted like a pro.

Next, Benjamin made sure the wax paper was in place on top of the cutter and, after I showed him what to do, he rolled and rolled.

Next, Gramma lightly pressed each cutout so it would release cleanly. Which each did.

Now, Benjamin would have loved frosting and making fancy all the cookies, but I convinced him it would be quicker to just sprinkle sprinkles this time—one of his favorite baking activities—promising we’d do fancy frosting and such on a future cookie-making day. So he sprinkled and sprinkled.

Once the sprinkling was done and Benjamin declared his cookies ready for the oven, I scooted the cookie-filled parchment paper on to the cookie sheet and into the oven they went.

And out they came … all puffed up and unrecognizable. Which was completely my fault for using my drop cookie recipe. Unlike the recipe on the cutter package, mine had an egg in it, which made the cookies rise and lose their awesome shapes. Ugh. Lesson learned.

Benjamin thankfully wasn’t too disappointed and cheerfully chose his favorite one for sampling.

BOTTOM LINE
One Smart Cookie cookie cutters are indeed that and all they claimed to be: A smart design that cuts down on mess and guarantees, as noted on the packaging, “perfect thickness, spacing, and shape. No more guesswork, no more mess!”

Perfect shape, that is, if you use the recipe on the package. Which Benjamin and I will definitely do when we try the Christmas cutter for cookies (that we’ll fancy frost after baking, as I promised).

One Smart Cookie cookie cutters are available in six holiday designs—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Gingerbread People, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter—for $12.99 each. Find them all (plus some other clever ideas for using the cutters) at OneSmartCookieCutters.com.

Disclosure: I received this product free for review; all opinions and photos are my own.