Rolling and cutting your cookie doughYou have carefully measured your ingredients and mixed them as described in the recipe. Now for rolling and cutting the cookie dough ready for your baking sheets.Before you start, note that some of the softer types of dough have to be rolled cold, that is they need some time in the refrigerator before you start and the extra should be kept there and not allowed to warm on the side. If it does it will become too sticky to work. For most types of dough, you can roll it at room temperature. Before you start, make sure your baking sheets are ready so that you can place the cut cookies straight on them and then they are ready for the oven. 
Your rolling pin can be of several different material types. I have both a glass one and a wooden one. I tend to use the glass one where the mix is very dry and the wooden one for the rest. With the wooden one I give it a good rub all over with a handful of all purpose flour to fill in the pores of the wood and so to prevent the dough form sticking. You may need to repeat this as you go if the dough is moist and starts to stick to the pin.You need a good sized space, about 18" to 24" (600mm) square as a minimum to work. You can use a normal work top, or a flat wooden surface. Many prefer the wooden one as they think is holds the flour better than the normal hard kitchen work surface. Test and see what suits you. RollingSpread a handful of flour over the work surface and take a piece of the dough mixture that is about the size of a baseball. Place it on the floured work surface and roll gently. If the mix is a dry one it will tend to split at the edges, just push them together again. Roll again at right angles to the first.Now turn the flattened dough mixture over and roll out on the other side. Use alternate rolls as right angles to each other, exerting only gentle pressure. It seems tricky at first, trying to keep the pin level, it just takes a bit of practice. If it goes wrong, just roll it up again and try once more. Cutting Out
Once you have rolled it out to the required thickness cut out your cookies with the special cutters. These come in all shapes and sizes. Here you see a collection ranging from 1" (25mm) up to 4" (100mm). These are double sided, one gives a plain circle and the other a fluted edge. Here you see a special cuter for making gingerbread men cookies. You can get these in a variety of sizes. Also you can get seasonal cutters, especially Christmas, Valentine's Day and so on. Lifting
To get your cut cookies onto the prepared baking sheet you need a palette knife or a cookie lifter. The palette knife has a long (about 10", 250mm) and flexible blade. Some have a straight cut edge, others are tapered at the edge. I find that the tapered type slide under the cut cookies easier than the straight edge ones.
Hints and tipsIn the instructions above I said to flour the work surface. This is the commonest method. However it can leave unsightly blotches of flour on the surface of your cookies, especially if the dough is a dark color to start with, for example when you are using molasses.To solve this you can either carefully rub the white flour into the cookie's surface so it blends in or use caster sugar instead. Using sugar does away with the flour discoloration and gives most cookies a sugar crunch as you bite into them. If you have difficulty rolling out evenly then you can obtain rolling pins fitted with disks that will act as spacers to give you a uniform rolling thickness. Personally I find that the disks get in the way and the evenness comes with only a small amount of practice. Go to the top of this page about rolling and cutting your cookie dough for perfect sugar cookie baking .
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But better than this is a specialist cookie lifter, This has a very thin stainless steel flat blade that can slide real easy under your cut cookie and fully support them as you place them on your baking tray.
