Jan's Dough

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Jan's Dough Tip #23:

Tips for Making Cookies...without burning them!

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Whatever cookie you are making, be sure that the cookie dough is "dry" enough. This affects how cookies bake. Although you might follow the recipe exactly, everyone has a different way of measuring ingredients. Some of us "eyeball" it and scoop up flour into a measuring cup, give it a couple of shakes to level it off, and look at it with the "that's close enough" thought in our head. Then some of us are meticulous and add flour to the measuring cup, bang it down to settle the flour in the bottom, and scrape it off level with a flat spatula or knife to insure that it is indeed one cup of flour.

Then there's the matter of eggs. Some large eggs are larger than others, some are smaller.

Did you have to add in a teaspoon of vanilla? Did you use a teaspoon that is meant for liquid measure---or did you just use the teaspoon that you use for salt, baking soda, etc.?

Does the recipe call for raisins? Did you actually measure it, or did you just plop a couple of handfuls in the bowl?

These types of measurement quirks can mean the difference between the perfect cookie and a cookie that bakes up thin and hard or fat and only half-baked in the middle.

When your cookie dough is done, and before you start dropping spoonfuls onto that cookie sheet, test the dough. The dough should be "moist" but not gooey. You should be able to drop it off the spoon just by giving the spoon a quick downward jerk. You might want to add in a tablespoon of flour, maybe two or three, to get the cookie dough just to the point where it sticks to the spoon, but will shake off by itself.

Make sure the oven is already at full temperature before you put in the first batch. If you aren't using an oven thermometer---you should be! Every oven bakes differently and almost none bake perfectly. If you've never used an oven thermometer, check Jan's Tip #1.

If you are using two racks in the oven, then be mindful that the top rack could bake faster/slower than the bottom rack. Plan on switching the cookie sheets at the midway point in your total baking time. Also, be sure to turn the sheets as well so that the "back" of the cookie sheet is now the "front."

Bake a test cookie! Put one (or just a few) cookies on a cookie sheet and bake. If the recipe calls for 15 minutes of baking time, then check at 8 minutes, turning the cookie sheet. Then check again at 13 minutes. Using a spatula, lift up one edge of the cookie. Does the whole cookie lift off the sheet? Is it just slightly brown on the bottom? If so, then it is probably done. If not, then return to the oven for 2 minutes, and check again. Follow this pattern when baking full sheets of cookies, as well.

Once cookies are "almost done" they will finish baking very quickly. The object is to get the cookies OUT of the oven when they are "just done"---and remove them immediately from the cookie sheet and onto newspaper, paper toweling, or a brown shopping bag to cool. Leaving them on a hot cookie sheet will cause them to continue to bake.

If you've got a little cookie tester (or even a grown-up cookie tester), then get a ruling on whether the cookie is "just right"---but do let the cookie cool for a few minutes before testing! My [grown-up] cookie tester states that testing cookies is best done with a small glass of cold milk.

Use these tips to help you make great cookies that everyone says are "perfect"!

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