With the Holidays in full swing, so is the baking! I love to bake and I try to make a variety of cookies for my cookie plates each year. I like to bring them as hostess gifts or to the office for everyone to snack on. Because, who doesn’t love a sweet treat in the middle of the day!
But when it comes to baking, you have to be careful. Some days you can make the best cookies in the world and others the same recipes just isn’t up to par. That could be for a variety of reasons. Here are some tips to help you bake better cookies.
But when it comes to baking, you have to be careful. Some days you can make the best cookies in the world and others the same recipes just isn’t up to par. That could be for a variety of reasons. Here are some tips to help you bake better cookies.
- Use the best quality ingredients--they'll produce the tastiest cookies
- Always use large-size eggs, unsalted butter and nuts, and pure extracts of vanilla or almond
- Soften your butter. Most cookie recipes call for softened butter. The butter should be starting to soften but still be slightly cool to the touch (it shouldn't feel like it's melting at all).
- Creaming butter. Beating together butter and sugar is almost always the first step in a cookie recipe. Start with butter that's softened and use a mixer to beat in the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. This usually takes about 3 to 5 minutes; just keep beating until it's no longer grainy when you rub it between your fingertips. As you cream the butter, you force in tiny air bubbles, which create the structure of the dough and will later help the cookies to rise.
- One egg at a time. Adding eggs one at a time to the creamed butter and sugar isn't just to slow you down. Like any other wet ingredient, eggs added all at once won't emulsify properly with the fat in the butter. If the egg isn't mixed in well before the next one is added, the emulsion could break. Patience at the beginning of the process will yield better cookies out of the oven.
- Add dry ingredients in batches. If all the flour is added all at once, the dough will be too stiff and difficult to mix together.
- Fold in chocolate chips by hand. Folding the chocolate chips, and other cookie add-ins, in by hand reduces the chance of over mixing the dough, which can result in a tougher cookie.
- Successful baking relies on the correct ratio of ingredients, so be sure to measure accurately
- Most cookie recipes call for all-purpose flour. For the best results, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Do not sift unless the recipe specifically says to do so
- Unless you are baking with non-stick pans and cookie sheets, use parchment paper for stick-free baking and easy clean-up
- Chill dough for cut-out cookies, and soften it up at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling out
- Use an ice cream scoop to measure out dough. This will ensure all cookies are the same size and will bake evenly.
- Leave at least two inches of space between cookies so they don't spread into each other
- Adjust baking times to achieve the cookie texture you crave. A little less time produces chewier cookies; a little more time makes them crispy
- Bake bar cookies in the pan size indicated in the recipe
- Cool cookies completely before decorating