|
 Cookie
dough usually contains perishable items such as eggs. For this reason,
keep cookie dough refrigerated if not using. Discard any that has been
unrefrigerated for more than two hours. |
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General pointers for
successful cookies:
TIP
#1: When baking cookies, use light-colored,
NON-insulated cookie sheets. Always
bake with an oven thermometer. Preheat the oven and prepare the cookie sheets.
 Q:
Can I eat raw cookie dough?
A:
I do not recommend it. Cookie dough usually contains perishable items which
spoil easily. Also, consuming the raw
eggs
in them carry a risk of your getting salmonella. |
Most cookies bake at about 350 degrees F, considered a
"medium" oven temperature.
Cookies bake nicely and brown
more evenly, but also bake faster in a convection oven. Lower the temperature by
25 to 50 degrees than the recipe states when going from conventional oven to
convection.
|
ALWAYS preheat your oven for about 20 minutes or until done before baking
your cookies. Cookies, as all baking recipes, are best baked in a
well-preheated oven.. |
Preheat the oven and use an oven
thermometer to monitor an accurate temperature. (It can be purchased from the
grocery store). Hang it on the middle rack.
If it runs hot, the cookies will
burn, if too low, they'll take longer to bake and melt before they hold their
shape. Adjust the oven's heat, if necessary, to get the right temperature.
TIP #2: Have all ingredients
at room temperature, prepare and measure them accurately:
Read through the recipe and make sure you have
all ingredients on hand. (Make adjustments when baking at
high altitudes.)
Have all ingredients at room temperature,
especially butter and eggs, unless specified otherwise. Cold, hard butter will
not cream as easily when you incorporate
it with the sugar resulting in flat, so-so
cookies.
Prepare any ingredients used in the recipe: when adding dried fruit like raisins
or currants to the dough, plump
them first to make sure they are soft, not hard and shriveled. Prepare
coconut,
chopped chocolate, etc.
Toast and cool any chopped
nuts or coconut before using.
It is important to measure carefully, as tiny
drops of moisture cause a cookie to spread or puff or too much flour makes a
cookie dry and flavorless. If a recipe calls for light or dark brown sugar be
sure you firmly pack it into the measuring cup for an accurate measurement.
TIP
#3: DO NOT OVERMIX the
ingredients:
|
 An
important step in cookie baking, that is often overlooked, is to properly
cream the stick butter and crystalline
sugar (white and brown sugar) together. Creaming is done to beat air
in the dough, so necessary for a puffy cookie. If this step is overdone, the
creamed butter loses air; the cookies will puff up in the oven and then
fall. If underdone, there isn't enough air beaten into the dough and they
won't puff up in the first place. This is ONE of the reasons why
chocolate chip cookies or
any cookie can turn out flat. |
Overmixing the flour with the liquid
ingredients, will cause the cookie to be tough and flavorless. The more wheat
flour is moistened and stirred, the more
gluten strands form an elastic network that strengthens as you mix.
While mixing the cookie dough or batter, do not
allow it to become too warm. If the dough seems sticky, refrigerate it rather
than add more flour. Excessive flour is the main culprit in producing hard, dry
cookies.
Q:
When making stiff cookie dough, does it matter if you use the paddle
attachment or the whisk attachment to a mixer?
A: Yes. I use the paddle attachment, unless the
recipe specifies otherwise. Stiff dough is hard on your whisk
attachment when mixing it and you'll risk bending the wires. Whisk
attachments also aerate the cookie dough too much. |
Cookies are essentially made by
several methods of mixing, the first one
being the most commonly used.
1. The cake
method (creaming
process). Be sure to do this thoroughly: work the
butter or other shortening against the side of the bowl until it is smooth and
softened, then incorporate the sugar, blending until the mixture is fluffy.
2. The
quickbread / muffin method: quickly combing wet and dry ingredients
together; and then gingerly combining together.
3. The
pastry method: the fat is cut into the flour. Once
the flour is added, the dough should be mixed well, but not beaten at length for
this will toughen the cookies.
TIP #4:
Form the cookie
dough on the cookie sheet(s).
THINK
COLD.
I have found that the best cookie
sheets are the ones that are: Non-insulated, shiny aluminum pans (light in
color, not dark) without sides, preferably non-stick. These pans bake cookies
the best and evenly: the cookies were lightly and evenly browned around its
edges, a hint of browning on top, experienced less spread and baked the
fastest.
 If
you have dark pans, they absorb more heat than shiny, aluminum ones, and can
easily cause burned cookie bottoms - you may want to reduce the temperature by
25 degrees F.
Don't grease your pans. Instead, use
parchment paper to line them or spray pans with vegetable oil spray. If done
with butter, it burns under high heat, perhaps causing the cookie bottoms to
burn underneath.
When a cookie
sheet comes straight from the oven, remove the baked cookies from it, clean it
by scraping off the stuck on crumbs with the side of a metal spatula, and then
cool it completely before using it again for the next batch. Any cookie dough
will spread immediately and may connect together when placed on a warm cookie
sheet because the fat in it melts. The ones with butter or margarine will spread
more than those made with shortening.
A half-batch of
cookies on a full sheet will absorb too much heat and are more susceptible to
burning. It's better to spread the half batch evenly over the cookie sheet
before baking.
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Cookies come in different shapes
and sizes. Cookie
dough can be spooned, dropped, rolled and cut out, molded, pressed from a
cookie gun and more. (Cookie types)
Note:
Keep the formed dough pieces the
same size and thickness on the cookie sheet. Doing so produces uniform
shaped cookies that are evenly baked, preventing some from being over- or
under-done.
1.
Drop cookies: Drop
cookies are made from dough pushed from a rounded teaspoonful onto a a cool
cookie sheet. They are the easiest type to make. Drop cookies usually spread
as they bake because of their ingredients, so be sure to allow about 2
inches between mounds of dough.
2. Rolled
& cookie cutter cookies: Rolled
cookies are made from dough that is chilled and then rolled on a countertop
dusted with as little flour possible. (Silpat
mats that don't require a sprinkling of flour on them, work well).
Shapes are cut from it, usually with cookie cutters.
|
A half-batch of cookies on a full sheet will absorb too much heat and
are more susceptible to burning. It's better to spread the half batch
evenly over the cookie sheet before baking. |
After you mix the cookie dough, most recipes require
refrigeration. This firms up the dough so it rolls and cuts more easily and
won't loose it's shape as much when baked. Pat the dough into a large,
1-inch thick rectangle and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough,
20 minutes to an hour, preferably overnight. When you are ready to roll it,
the dough will be somewhat flat, cold throughout and easier to handle.
Use a large rolling pin to
roll the cookie dough; it will keep the pressure even, which results in the
same thickness throughout. Roll it to the recommended thickness because
baking times and the finished texture of crisp or soft, are directly
related. The thinner the dough, the more delicate and crisp the cookie.
Cut-out cookies destined for hanging on the Christmas tree should be kept
fairly thick so they don't break. Poke a hole for string into the unbaked
cookie with the end of a drinking straw.
|
To
prevent very large cut cookies from losing their shape, roll dough
directly onto cookie sheet. Cut all your cookies and remove excess
dough. |
Before cutting cookies, dip the cookie cutters half way
into flour (knocking off any excess) or vegetable oil so that the edges
won’t stick while cutting.
Cut from the dough, from the center out, keeping the
cookies close together. After cutting, scraps from rolling may be gathered,
chilled, and rerolled, although cookies cut from them will not be quite as
tender as those from the initial rolling. Don't overwork the dough scraps.
After cutting or shaping cookies, put them on prepared
cookie sheets with the help of a flat spatula and slip them into the freezer
for a few minutes to help them hold their shape when they are baked.
| Cut
out as many cookies as possible, as re-rolled dough scraps can yield
tough cookies -- the more the dough is handled, the tougher the cookie.
Dip cutters half-way into flour each time you cut. I recently read that
a baker dipped their cookie cutter in vegetable oil, instead of flour. I
have never tried it;
let me know if
you do. |
3. Icebox
Cookie Dough (in a log shape): Some cookies are cut from a
cookie dough log. Often, the cookie log will flatten on one side as you cut.
For a round cookie shape, make sure that the dough log is very cold, and
every four to six slices, turn the dough log a quarter turn, to help
maintain its shape.
|
I have used my
sugar cookie recipe to make "cakes" by baking them in a pan and then
turning out and decorating. Just don't make them too thick and
bake at 325-degrees so the cookie dough bakes through in the middle. |
The other thing I do is to
cut cookie dough with WAXED dental floss. (Flavored dental floss can be used
because it does not leave a taste!!) You need a long lengths because you
need to wrap around your fingers, as well as making sure the exposed length
is a little longer than the circumference of the dough. Please note that as
soon as the floss gets sticky, it doesn't work.
4.
Bar
cookies are generally made from a batter that is spread in a
pan, then baked, cooled, and often stored right in the pan. In this way they
are the simplest of cookies, requiring little handling.
5.
Molded cookies are made from a
stiff dough that is formed by hand into little balls, crescents, canes, and
other shapes, or forced through a cookie press. Handle the dough as little
as possible and keep it chilled. |
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