The cookie dough is prepared, then rolled out, usually on a floured surface. Cookies are then cut out of the dough in the desired shapes, placed on a cookie sheet, and baked. While there is nothing to say that the cookies can’t simply be cut out with a knife in squares, a cookie cutter is almost always used instead to give visual appeal to the shape of the cookie.
Rolled cookies are more fragile than drop cookies. They end up thin and crisp, sometimes crumbly. The thinner the dough is rolled, the crispier they will be. They can be made chewier by rolling the dough out a bit more thickly, and undercooking the cookies a tidge.
One of the issues encountered can be the cookie dough sticking to the rolling pin. This can be mitigated somewhat by chilling the dough first for at least 30 minutes, ideally an hour. The dough is easiest to work with if instead of chilling it all in one great ball, you chill it in a few batch-sized balls.
You need to dust the work surface that you will roll the dough out on, but you need to use as little flour as you can get away with: too much flour rolled into the cookies will tip your cookies over the edge from crispy to tough. Consequently, some people advice the use of icing sugar instead of flour to dust the work surface with. Others say to bypass the flour and the bare work surface altogether, and to roll the dough out between silicone sheets. Rolling the dough out on plastic film, waxed paper or greaseproof paper instead of silicone sheets isn’t the answer that it seems it will be: the wrap just isn’t heavy enough to stay in place, and seems to roll right along with the dough, as the dough sticks to your rolling pin.
When the dough is successfuly rolled, and the cookie shapes successfully cut out, the next challenge can be to transfer particularly large cookies to the baking sheet intact. If you have an open-sided cookie sheet you can roll them out right on the sheet, cut them out, and just remove the dough from around them. Then, use a pastry brush to brush away all the flour and bits of dough that otherwise would just scorch.
Rolled Cookies are often highly decorated after baking.