"Chill and rest your dough."
I have tried many different techniques to prevent my dough from spreading, the most radical one being altering my recipe. That was a disaster I will tell you about another day. Today I will discuss chilling and resting your dough.
After rolling out my dough between two pieces of parchment, I remove the top piece of parchment, cut my shapes and slide the entire slab of dough onto a cookie sheet. I chill for a minimum of one hour before separating the shapes and baking.
I have heard from more than one baker that they chill their dough, then roll it out and cut their shapes. That seems counter-intuitive to me - then aren't you trying to roll super cold/hard dough? I have excellent results rolling then chilling. Try it next time and let me know if you chill and rest, either before or after rolling.
