Cookies may seem easy to make but in actual fact, they may not be as easy as it looks. However, there are a few tips and tricks you can master to bake really GOOD and delicious cookies :) Let's get on with these fabulous tips!
1. Measure Flour Accurately
This is the most important tip for any baker. Adding too much flour will make your baked goods tough and dry. And be sure to not overwork the dough; mix just until the flour disappears.
2. Reduce Flour by 3 Tablespoons to 1/4 Cup
Reduce the flour amount in most cookie recipes by a few tablespoons or up to 1/4 cup to make the cookies tender and to prevent them from drying out even after several days. When measuring out flour, use a scale if the recipe offers a weight equivalent. Otherwise, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and sweep a spatula across the top to level it off. Don't use the measuring cup as a scoop or it'll pack the flour and you'll end up with more flour in the cup than intended.
3. Chill the Dough Before Baking
Chilling the dough helps softer doughs keep their shape and makes the dough easier to work with. Chilling the dough also improves the flavor and allows the dough to relax a bit.
4. Use a Silicone Rolling Pin
With this new rolling pin, you won't have to use as much flour when rolling out doughs and your cookies will be more tender. Using a combination of powdered sugar and flour to dust the work surface will also help keep the cookies more tender. Also think about purchasing Rolling Pin Rings that you wrap around the pin so your dough is an even thickness and all the cookies bake at the same time.
5. Use an Oven Thermometer
Be sure that your oven is accurate with a thermometer, then bake cookies at a slightly lower temp. This small reduction in temperature ensures the cookies won't overbake and overbrown, especially on the bottom. With each batch of cookies, the baking time will be reduced because of the increased humidity in the oven from the cookies.
6. Soften Butter Properly
It's difficult to soften butter properly in a microwave oven; too often part of the butter melts, which will change the structure of the cookies. Butter and sugar form the basic structure of the cookies; the sugar cuts small air pockets into the butter, which are stabilized by the flour and filled with carbon dioxide from the baking powder. Soften butter by letting it stand at room temperature for a couple of hours. You can also grate the butter into a bowl, then it will soften in a few minutes.
7. Freeze Dough
Making and freezing doughs ahead of time not only is a great time saver, but it improves the texture of the cookies. Icebox cookies are shaped into a log, wrapped, and chilled or frozen until it's time to bake. You can form drop cookie dough into balls and freeze; bake from the frozen state, adding a few minutes to the baking time.
8. Use Fresh Ingredients
Make sure that all of your ingredients are fresh. Buy new baking powder and baking soda, vanilla and spices, flour and sugar. Most of us don't bake often during the year, and it's a good bet that your ingredients are more than a year old. You're putting a lot of effort into making these cookies so start with the best ingredients!
Eggs: Check your expiry date on your egg carton. Eggs should be at room temperature as the emulsion can be ruined if eggs or other liquids are too cold or too hot when they are added.
Flour: Don't substitute flour types. If your recipe calls for all-purpose flour, that's what you need to use. Cake flour and bread flour will not behave the same.
Nuts: Smell and taste nuts before using. Oils in nuts can turn rancid quickly. Store any leftover nuts in the freezer for longest shelf life.
Butter: Make sure your butter is at room temperature, otherwise it won't cream properly with the sugar. The terms room temperature, softened, and soft mean different things. The temperature of the butter can and will make a difference in the recipe. Most cookie dough recipes depend on the emulsion that occurs when you cream butter and sugar together. This emulsion will not happen if the butter is too hot or too cold.
Room Temperature Butter: It should be pliable enough that your finger can leave a mark in it, without being soft and greasy. Set the butter out at least one (1) hour in advance
Softened Butter: Will feel a little warmer to the touch, and it will be much easier to leave a deep indentation, but it should still be firm enough to pick up without falling apart.
Soft Butter: Will be too soft to pick up.
TIP: Do not try to microwave your butter as it will just end up too soft. If you don't have an hour's lead time, increase the surface area by cutting the butter into small pieces; It will then come up to temperature in approximately 10 minutes.
Unsalted Butter: Unsalted butter is generally recommended because some salted butters have more sodium than others. If you use salted butter, only use 1/2 the amount of salt called for in the recipe. Don't skip the salt, as salt brings out flavors and balances the sweetness in a recipe.
Shortening: Check vegetable shortening before using. Shortening can go bad, introducing off-flavors to your cookies that you worked hard making. It is best to store opened shortening in the refrigerator.
Sugar: The type of sugar used in your cookies can promote spread in baked cookies.Sugar is a tenderizer which interferes with the formation structure. Sugars with a finger granulation promote more spread . Powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar), when it contains cornstarch, prevents spread in cookies despite it finer grind.
9. Baking Time
Set the timer for 2-3 minutes less than the cooking time called for in the recipe and take the cookies out of the oven just as they're beginning to look done because the residual heat from the cookie sheet will continue to bake the cookies. Also, slightly underbaked cookies are more tender and moist.
10. Insulated Cookie Sheets and Cookie Scoops
One of the biggest problems with delicate doughs is they can get too brown on the bottom. Insulated sheets prevent that so your cookies turn out perfectly every time. And using cookie scoops means your cookies will all be exactly the same size.
Get your oven working and bake up a batch of delicious, yummy cookies:)
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