I've decided to start a new feature on my blog. "Baker's Wednesday"! I figure that I upload cake photos on the weekend...so halfway through the week I will post some sort of baking and/or decorating tip that readers might find interesting.
Today's tip will be how to bake soft, chewy cookies ALL the time!!!!!
1. If you use a recipe calling for butter or margarine or shortening...use half real butter and half crisco or other vegetable shortening (not butter flavored). The butter makes it taste yummy, but the shortening will help keep it from spreading out too thinly during baking.
2. Use a cookie scoop for evenly sized cookies. The Restaurant Store in Bensalem/Northeast Philadelphia (for you locals!) has a good variety of different sizes so you can make anywhere from bite sized cookies to large, gourmet sizes.
3. Never overbake. Many bakers make the mistake of baking until the cookies are "golden brown". However, after they are removed from the oven, they still continue to bake on the hot metal sheet!!!!! Only bake the cookies until the top looks dry (not shiny like dough) and there is only the vague hint of golden around the edges. Take them out and let them cool on the sheet for 10 minutes, then carefully remove to a baking rack to cool the rest of the way.
4. Bake on parchment paper. It makes cleanup a breeze, and your cookies will never stick!!!! Again, locals--check out the Restaurant Store for great prices on basic metal baking sheets and parchment sheets the perfect size to fit.
5. If your cookies are still getting too brown, try turning your oven down by 25 degrees and see if that helps. Its best to actually put an oven thermometer in your oven to see what temperature its actually baking, and then make adjustments from there.
6. Sometimes the best cookie recipes are right on the back of the package!!!! I get awesome results just using the Toll House recipe, and the Quaker Oatmeal recipe. Otherwise, get trusted recipes from family or friends, or search Allrecipes for the most highly rated and trusted recipes on the 'net.
Happy baking!!!!
Wow! Great article. I really learned about baking just by reading your article. Thanks for sharing some tips
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you found it helpful!!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis article will surely help a lot. I like what you said on the first. Real butter plus the vegetable shortening so that you can have nutritions on the cookie. Thanks a lot for sharing this one.
ReplyDeletethank you for your tips,it helped out a lot,is it okay to use a silpat for baking the cookies?
ReplyDelete