- Remove cookies from baking sheets immediately because they will continue to cook on a hot sheet for a short time.
- Dark brown sugar has more flavor than light brown sugar, and is preferred in baking.
- To avoid damage to icings for toppings, especially on soft cookies which you wish to stack for storage, place a tray of cookies in freezer for a short while. Let harden. Then pack in plastic bags or containers, and return to freezer.
- Be sure to measure your flour correctly. This is the most important tip for any good baker. Adding too much flour will make your baked goods tough and dry. Be sure to not overwork the dough; mix just until the flour disappears.
- Chill your cookie dough before baking. Chilling the dough helps softer dough’s keep their shape, and makes the dough easier to work with.
- Freeze your dough. Making and freezing dough ahead of time not only is a great time saver, but it also 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. Then bake from the frozen state, adding a few minutes to the baking time.
- Be sure to soften your butter beforehand. It’s difficult to soften butter properly in a microwave oven; too often part of the butter melts, this 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 C02 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.
- Unless specifically stated otherwise, ingredients are best when used at room temperature. This is true except in very hot kitchens.
- To prevent the motor on your portable hand mixer from burning out, pay attention to how hard it is working. Cookie dough tend to be stiff. You can almost always stir in your final dry ingredients by hand if necessary.
- Always preheat the oven. Putting an item into a cold oven will alter the baking time and the consistency of the finished product.
- Use a timer to help keep track of cooking time. It’s easy to get distracted – and, if you do, your cookies can be overdone before you know it.
- Clean up as you go along so that your time in the kitchen can be enjoyable and kept to a minimum
