Cookies are one of my favourite things to bake. You just need a few basic ingredients and you can pretty much create any flavor cookies you like. But there are times when my cookies didn’t turn out the way I want them to. All the cookie’s disasters, whether it be burning them to turning six cookies into one big massive cookie because they all got stuck together when baked, I’ve encountered them before.
But after a bit of tweaking and learning as I baked, here are a few tips for you on how you can improve your next batch of cookies.
Always chill your cookie dough
I think this is the most important tip when it comes to making cookies. Not all the cookie recipes require you to chill your cookie dough before baking, but I really recommend that you do, even if it is only for 15 – 20 minutes. This is because chilling your cookie dough helps prevent spreading (meaning your 6 cookies won’t turn into 1 giant cookie on the baking tray or turned out too thin).
Not chilling my cookie dough gave me thin and crispy cookies
Not chilling my cookie dough gave me thin and crispy cookies
Cool cookie dough means the butter in your dough is cold and when you bake the cookies, the butter won’t melt as fast. This will give you thicker and more solid cookies.
If you chill your cookie dough overnight, you can let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before you roll them into balls and bake.
Stop excess spreading
Aside from chilling your cookie dough, you should line your baking trays with wax paper or a silicone baking mat. If you spray your baking tray with butter or cooking spray, it creates a very greasy and slippery surface, causing the cookies to spread. You will probably end up with very thin cookies or one big cookie.
Using silicone baking mat
Using wax paper
Another trick is to never place your cookie dough on a hot baking tray as this will start to melt the butter in the dough right away. If you only have one baking tray but have to make a few batches of cookies, make sure your tray is at room temperature between bakes.
Baking time varies
You don’t need to follow the time shown in the cookie recipes. You should look at the cookies themselves to see if they are done. This is because all ovens are different. Maybe your oven is bigger than mine and takes more time to reach a specific temperature or maybe your oven is a conventional oven and mine is a convection oven (oven with a fan). When you see the edges of the cookies are set and lightly brown, then the cookies are almost done, even if the centre is still a bit soft and gooey. Take them out of the oven and the residual heat from the baking tray will continue to bake the cookies to perfection!
Hope this will help in your cookie baking journey! Here are a few cookie recipes from SoTime that you can try making:
Chocolate Chips and Ginger Oatmeal Cookies
http://daydaycook.com/daydaycook/hk/website/recipe/details.do?id=178083
Lemon Oatmeal Cookies
http://www.daydaycook.com/daydaycook/hk/website/recipe/details.do?id=184509
For more cooking tips, kitchen ideas and recipes, follow me on my Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/charmainecooks
Charmaine Cooks 