Dolly Parton's holiday baking gear is just as magical as it sounds

Every year, without fail, my mom and I argue about the thickness of the holiday baked goods we make. Naturally, she wins. We bake her wafer-thin sugar cookies and I, inevitably, almost burn at least a third of the batch, but in the end I don’t care because we’re together and I’ll eat pretty much anything sweet. Since I won’t be able to make it to my mom’s house for the holidays this year, I needed to find a sugar cookie substitute.

Hello, Dolly (Parton)! The country music queen herself teamed up with Williams Sonoma to deliver a full line of holiday cookie products, including a cookie cutter set (currently sold out, but we're keeping an eye on stock), sugar cookie mix, holiday aprons, oven mitts, and more.

I tested the Dolly Parton Cookie Cutter Set and Dolly Parton’s Holly Dolly Sugar Cookie Mix to get the full experience.

What’s included?

The 26-piece Dolly Parton Cookie Cutter Set includes eight cookie cutters, 12 icing bags, four stainless steel decorating tips, a plastic coupler, and a storage box. Some cookie cutters are festive classics, like the wreath and angel, while others like the guitar and butterfly are quintessentially Dolly.

Dolly Parton’s Holly Dolly Sugar Cookie Mix contains one or two packages of the dry ingredients, for making Dolly’s favorite Southern-style sugar cookies. The ingredients are what you’d expect from a typical sugar cookie recipe: flour, sugar, baking powder, and sea salt, plus Bourbon vanilla powder (which I’m guessing is the Southern flare).

What’s not included?

My biggest qualm with both the cookie cutters and the sugar cookie mix is that neither includes a recipe for the recommended finishing touch, royal icing. I was able to easily source a basic royal icing recipe online, and fortunately I had the ingredients (egg whites, vanilla, and lots of confectioners sugar) on hand. With such highly curated items, it would’ve been nice to make Dolly’s favorite icing, assuming she has one.

For the sugar cookies, you’ll need one egg and one stick of butter per package. You’ll also need a good baking sheet—we recommend the Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet—plus parchment paper to ensure no sticking.

How it works

The cookie cutter set includes a recipe for classic sugar cookies, which is super convenient if you’ve opted out of buying the sugar cookie set and don’t also have your mom’s sugar cookie recipe memorized (sorry, Mom). Bonus: The recipe is also listed in French! Fancy!

After following the directions to make the cookie dough, you’ll need to chill for at least two hours in the refrigerator, then you’re ready to roll. Definitely allow your dough to come to room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling, and make sure your surface is well-floured.

Cut out your cookies, bake, cool, then decorate with the icing of your choice. Again, the directions suggest royal icing, but then fail to include a recipe for said icing...so dealer’s choice! I used this super simple Alton Brown recipe.

Is the Dolly Parton holiday baking line worth it?

The Dolly Parton Cookie Cutter Set is absolutely worth it. You can never have too many cookie cutters, in my opinion, and these are super easy to use. Even in the more intricate cutters, the cookie dough comes out no problem, so you aren’t left with cookies missing key details—there’s nothing fun about an angel missing its wings!

The sugar cookie mix is 100% unnecessary, but there’s something special about knowing Dolly approved this particular recipe. So if you’re giving this as a gift to a huge Dolly Parton fan, there’s a good chance they’d appreciate the sentiment.

Make an event out of it and throw on the new Dolly Parton Netflix special while you bake! If that’s not wholesome holiday fun for the whole family, I don’t know what is.

Get the Dolly Parton Cookie Cutter Set at Williams Sonoma

Get Dolly Parton’s Holly Dolly Sugar Cookie Mix at Williams Sonoma starting at $16.95