The quest for the perfect holiday cookie
- col-bobbie-randall
- December 5, 2024
- 452
The time for holiday baking is upon us. Traditional favorites like cookies, cakes and candies add a delicious aroma at Christmas. With a few tips, your next batch of cookies can be tastier than ever.
Start with fresh ingredients. Baking powder and baking soda will remain active for about six months. Cinnamon and other spices do not go bad; they just lose their flavor and potency after four to eight months. Real vanilla, not the imitation kind, gets better with age. Chocolate chips should be used within two years of purchase, but who can keep them that long?
If a cookie dough is particularly sticky, wet or greasy, chill the cookie dough before baking. Reducing the temperature to around 40 F enhances the flavors as the aromas mingle while chilling. The baked treats will be thicker, sturdier and denser. Chilling the dough will avoid the greasy puddle cookies that can occur.
Even if the dough is not sticky or greasy, cooling dough at least two hours or overnight will enhance the flavor. Lining the baking sheets with parchment paper helps to keep the cookies from spreading and promotes even browning. Do not place cookie dough onto a hot baking sheet.
Overbeating the ingredients and whipping too much air into the dough will cause the cookies to collapse during baking. Do not overmix the cookie dough ingredients unless the recipe calls for it.
Warm butter on the counter until soft before baking. Rock-hard butter cannot be whipped and creamed with sugar. Melted butter cannot be creamed. Take the chill out of eggs, especially the egg whites. They give more volume to the batter when at room temperature.
Butter is now being processed with more water whipped into it. So a cup of butter may be less butter and more water. This will affect your recipe. Butter from Ireland has more butter and less water. It’s more expensive but worth every gram of fat.
Cookies are very sensitive to temperature. Most home ovens are inaccurate. An oven thermometer assures the correct temperature. The size of the cookie, the temperature of the oven and dough itself determine the cooking time. Let the cookies tell you when to be removed from the oven.
Do not leave the room or become distracted while cookies are in the oven. Take the cookies from the oven when the bottoms are set and barely brown. The center will bounce back when lightly touched. They will continue to bake during cooling.
Ovens may have hot spots. Pay attention to which side of the baking pan gets brown first. Rotate the cookie sheets during the baking time. Move them from the top shelf to the bottom shelf if necessary. The key to making a perfect cookie is a careful eye and attention to the cooking time and temperature.
Baking is a lesson in food chemistry. A combination of leavening agents, temperature, size and ingredients determine the desired cookie. Measure accurately, use quality ingredients and let the cookie determine when it is ready to be removed from the oven.
Bobbie Randall is a registered, licensed dietitian. Email her at bobbierandallrd@gmail.com.