How do I prevent butter bleed on my sugar cookies?

How do I prevent butter bleed on my sugar cookies? Yet another very popular question I see. Once it happens, there’s no real way to get rid of it. But there are several ways to stop it from happening in the first place!

• Don’t let your cookies completely cool on the pan. Give them about 4 minutes after taking them out of the oven, then move them to a cooling rack.
• Place the fully cooled cookies on paper towels. Once your cookies have completely cooled, let them set on a layer of paper towels. If you can let them set overnight this is a great option. If you need to decorate sooner than that, it’s okay! Just make sure to keep them setting on paper towels through the decorating process. This way, the paper towel absorbs any extra butter instead of it seeping up into your royal icing.
• Use a new layer of paper towels if they’re sitting overnight. More often than not, I flood my cookies the same day I bake them. They set on paper towels once they’re cooled. They stay on those paper towels until I’m ready to put them up for the night. I line a large plastic container with new paper towels and move the flooded cookies to set overnight. The container does have a lid, but it isn’t airtight.
• Make sure where you’re working isn’t hot. You don’t have to keep the air conditioner blasting while working on your sugar cookies, but you definitely don’t want your work area to be hot. What happens to butter when it gets hot? It melts. Sugar cookies contain butter. My recipes in particular contain a lot. Side note: butter makes everything better! This doesn’t have to turn out to be a bad thing though! Just stay out of the direct sunlight and don’t overheat those gorgeous, delicious little things! 🙂

Following these tips has eliminated butter bleed for me!