Interlock Cutters: Christmas cookie cutters that tessellate

Free 3D-printable Christmas cookie cutters

Four Christmas cookie cutters you can print at home, shaped so every cut sits right up against the last one. There is almost no dough left between the cookies, so there is almost nothing to re-roll. Play with the dough sheet below to see how much of your dough each design turns into cookies, then download the STL files.

Where this came from

This started several years ago with my friend Matt. We both love making cookies, and we both dread what comes after the first round of cutting: the scraps. You gather them up, roll them out again, cut a few more, then gather what is left and do it all over again. By the third or fourth roll the dough is warmer and tougher than when you started, and the cookies are never quite as good as the first batch.

So we asked a simple question: what if the cookies fit together? If a cutter’s shape tiles the way a bathroom floor does, each cut sits against the one before it, and there is hardly any dough left to re-roll. We wanted a tessellating cookie cutter.

We toyed with turning it into a Kickstarter, but it faltered, the way a lot of side projects do. The idea never really went away, though. All we ever wanted was for everybody to have infinite cookies in less time.

So here it is, finally: four designs you can print, and a way to see how much of your dough each one saves. Thanks, Matt.

Rolled dough sheet

× cm

Largest cutter, across

Cutter wall thickness

Four designs

Each swatch is the real tiling. One printed cutter makes every cookie in it. Numbers assume the best way to lay the pattern on your sheet, a 5 mm clear margin at the dough edge, and the settings above.

On the dough

Pieces in one press

of the dough becomes cookie

Side by side

Same sheet, same size setting for every concept. Select a row to open it above.

Sort by

Cutter	Presses	Pieces	Dough in cookies	Wall gaps	Edge scraps	Largest	Filament

A press is one push of the cutter. Pieces counts every cookie it makes, Edge scraps are dough you can re-roll. Wall gaps are the dough the cutter walls press out.

Dough thickness

Roll to 6 mm, which is about ¼ inch. The cutters are built around that number.

Rolled thickness	Cut through	Emboss depth	What to expect
3–4 mm	Yes	None	Thin, crisp cookies. The ridges barely touch the dough, so the embossed pattern will not show.
5 mm	Yes	1 mm	Light pattern. Good if you like a thinner cookie.
6 mm ★	Yes	2 mm	The design target: a clear pattern and a soft middle.
7 mm	Yes	3 mm	Deep pattern. The dough around the ridges gets squeezed, so go gently.
8 mm and up	Yes	4 mm+	Not recommended. The ridges crush half the dough, and it tends to tear when you lift the cutter.

The cutting wall stands 16 mm tall and the ridges stop 4 mm above the cutting edge. Emboss depth is the dough thickness minus 4 mm.

Roll it even. A tessellated sheet has no spare dough to hide a thin patch. Use rolling-pin guide rings or a pair of 6 mm strips on either side of the dough, and roll until the pin rides on them.

Chill it first. Cold, firm dough cuts cleanly and holds the pattern. If it softens while you work, slide the sheet onto a tray and back into the fridge for a few minutes.

Start in a corner. Press the first cutter 5 mm in from the edge. Set each next press so its wall sits on the line the last one left, and press straight down. The tree, house and present pyramid need every other cookie turned 180°, as shown on the sheet above. The snowflake needs no turning.

Lift, don’t drag. Slide a thin spatula under each cookie and move it to the pan with room around it, because the cookies are cut touching and will fuse if baked that way.

Printing the cutters

What makes a cutter tessellate in real life is mostly what is missing from it: no outward handle, no thick wall.

Wall: 1.2 mm, three lines with a 0.4 mm nozzle. Thicker walls raise the gap column in the table above.
Handle: A 4 mm lip inside the wall, plus a few 2 mm bridges across the opening to hold the ridges and give your thumbs somewhere to push. Nothing sticks out past the wall, so neighbors sit wall to wall.
Emboss: Ridges 0.8 mm wide hang from the lip and bridges and stop 4 mm above the cutting edge. On 6 mm dough the edge cuts all the way through while the ridges press 2 mm into the top.
Orientation: Print lip-down. The tapered edge grows upward and needs no supports.
Outline: Each outline is the wall's centerline, so every cookie comes out about half a wall smaller per side. The tables use that.

Cut touching, bake apart. The cookies leave the board touching. Lift each onto the pan with a gap, because they spread in the oven and fuse. Low-spread dough such as gingerbread or sugar-cookie cutout dough works best.

Half the shapes point down. The tree, the house and the pyramid interlock because every other cookie is the same cutter turned 180°. The emboss is upside down on those, and that is what lets the steps and tiers nest.

Three gifts, one cookie. The pyramid is a single stepped cookie. The three presents are only embossed ridges on top, so there are no inner walls to print or bridge.

Food contact. Layer lines in a printed part hold dough and moisture. Hand wash, dry fully, and consider a food-safe coating or a dedicated set. I cannot certify any filament or coating as food safe.

Download the STL files

Each design comes in three sizes. The size is the cookie’s longest side, the same number as the slider above, so a 70 mm file gives you the cookies shown on the dough sheet. Units are millimeters, and the files are already turned the right way up for printing.

Download all 12 files (.zip)

Material: PLA or PETG. Print one and see how it feels before you print a set.
Nozzle and layers: 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.2 mm layers. The wall is 1.2 mm, which is three lines, and the ridges are 0.8 mm, which is two.
Orientation: Already set: the flat lip is on the bed and the cutting edge points up. No supports or brim needed.
Thin features: Turn on your slicer’s thin-wall or gap-fill option so the ridges are not skipped.
Dough: Roll to 6 mm. See the dough thickness table above.

Cutting edge. The top 1.5 mm of the outer wall is already tapered to about 0.4 mm. If your first print has a rough edge, a pass of fine sandpaper along it helps.