Decorating Cookies with Colored Sugar

Colored sugar, called “sanding sugar,” is easy to sprinkle over cookies cut into a variety of shapes. You can create different designs by covering parts of the cookies with waxed paper while sprinkling different colors over them. If you want all the cookies to be the same color, just decorate them right on the sheet pan. But if you’re decorating them with different colors or in different ways (such as coating them with Royal icing), take them one at a time off the sheet pan and decorate them on the work surface so you don’t accidentally scatter a little of the wrong color sugar over them. Make sure the dough is very cold—stick the cookies in the freezer as needed—so the cookies don’t lose their shape while you’re moving them to and from the work surface.