The holidays. It is that time of the year when nostalgia comes into play and diets go out the window. Everyone has a favorite cookie, but not everyone is a professional baker, and that's okay. Here are some tips to help you get your best cookie results ever.
Tip#1: Recipe
Be mindful of where your recipe comes from. Martha Stewart, good. The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, good. Cook'sIllustrated, good. Some no-name "influencer" online... it's a gamble.  Many recipes that can be sourced online are no good and don't work. Be mindful of where your recipe comes from. Only use trusted sources for recipes.
That said, you can inherit a recipe from a family member who may not give the best details or instructions. Don't fear, dear baking enthusiast; if you have a solid foundation of cookie how-to knowledge under your hat, you can navigate Grandma's recipe cards like a pro. With the proper cookie foundation and practice, you will gain confidence to master core techniques that will free you from crumbled cookie dreams.
With mastery of the basics and starting with a recipe from a reliable source, you are more likely to bake better cookies and have more fun.
Tip#2 Ingredients
To ensure quality cookies, always use quality ingredients. For instance, always use the best vanilla that you can afford. If you stroll down the aisle in most supermarkets, you will notice that there are a ton of options out there, and they are not all created equal.
Take the vanilla, for instance. There is imitation vanilla, pure vanilla extract, vanilla beans, and vanilla paste. Imitation vanilla is made from chemicals and likely artificial colorings. Do you want to put that into your bakes? Let alone your body? Real vanilla will give your cookies more depth of flavor, and it's not full of chemicals, hence adding better flavor to your cookies. You get the idea.
Being mindful of where your food comes from is always important. Take a moment to read the ingredients of your ingredients to decide if they are worthy of your cookies.
In addition to quality control, it's always good to know what the ingredients in your dough actually do for your bakes.
A note about butter vs. margarine
In my years of baking, I have come across recipes that call for margarine versus butter. I noticed that some of them are from a particular geographical area or decade.....which may play into those recipe cards you inherited from Grandma. Don't do it! Just don't. There are so many reasons why margarine has absolutely no reason to occupy your refrigerator space. First, butter triumphs over margarine in taste; it provides a richer flavor. Second, margarine is mega-processed. The "poor man's butter" is laden with saturated fats processed from vegetables. Often, it is full of hydrogenated oils, emulsifiers, preservatives, colorants, and "other flavors," whatever that means. Butter ingredients: sweet cream, sometimes salt. Lastly, there are arguments for and against butter versus margarine. My golden rule is to stick with less processed, natural ingredients whenever possible. The EU has a ban on many food additives that we use in the US, and there are reasons for that. But that's another blog post.
Mise en place is a French culinary term that means" everything in its place." After reading through your recipe, take note of the ingredients needed and the quantities, as well as any special equipment beyond the usual suspects (for example, a cookie press for spritz cookies). Then, "shop your pantry". What I mean by this is to take inventory of what is required and what possibly needs replacement. For example, I recently helped a friend move, and I had the shock of packing up her spices....some of them have been there since the 1980s-lol. Generally, whole spices have a bit more longevity, but ground spices are only good for one to two years. So, if you have cinnamon from 1984, getting a fresh one may be a good idea. The same goes for flour and other ingredients.
Weighing In-
After you have procured your ingredients, ditch the measuring cups! Weighing ingredients is the best way to ensure the correct amount of each ingredient in a baking recipe. If three people measured a cup of flour, you will likely get three different results. If your recipe is written in cups versus weight, take a moment to convert the recipe over to metric.
Tip#3 Mixing
Cream the butter and sugar together for at least five minutes. This may sound extreme, but with every pass of the paddle, you are incorporating micro-sized traces of air into the mixture. This process is called aeration. To simplify, creaming adds air, and air is fluffy. Fluffy cookies are good. You want your butter and sugar to look fluffy before adding your eggs.
Don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically. Without scraping occasionally, your cookies will not be as homogeneous and denser in the final product.
Eggs-
Crack the egg(s) into a separate bowl and whisk with the extract (if using any) before adding it to the cream and sugar. This will save your dough from potential eggshells and protect the eggs from being "burned" by coming into direct content with the sugar. (Being "burned" means changing the molecular structure). Without whisking ahead, the mixture may wind up with little, hard lumps instead of silky, aerated butter, sugar, and egg mixture.
With your mixer on, slowly add the egg mixture in a steady stream. The eggs strengthen the bond of the butter and sugar and helps the mixture emulsify. Eggs contribute to a cookie's structure, flavor, texture, and leavening.
Dry Ingredients-
Before you add the dry ingredients, you should sift them to break up any clumps, ensuring a more even distribution of the dry ingredients throughout the dough, resulting in a smoother texture and preventing pockets of dry flour in your cookies.
Once you add the dry ingredients, mix until everything is just combined. Overmixing will develop the gluten in the flour and result in a tough cookie! Often, I fold the dry ingredients into the batter by hand with a spatula to avoid overmixing. After your dough is complete, some recipes recommend chilling and resting, so it is important to not skip that step and plan for those details.
Tip #4 Preparation
It's all in the details. All of the equipment and your oven will impact your cookies. In addition to the core items you need for making cookies (scale, bowls, spatula, whisk, mixer, measuring spoons, oven, baking sheets) take a moment to adequately prep the steps from the dough stage to the oven.
Prepare Your Sheets-
Line your baking sheet with parchment paper instead of cooking spray. Sometimes too much grease will enable your cookies to pool together.
Chill-
As I stated previously, take into consideration if your dough requires time to chill out-literally. Allowing the dough to rest in the refrigerator has many benefits. This step can improve the flavor, texture, and handleability. It is especially important for shaped cookies.
If you are making a cookie that is rolled and cut out with a cutter, chill the shapes for at least an hour. I like to make my cutouts ahead of time and freeze them before baking. This step ensures that the shapes will retain their shape while baking. It is especially important if you want to maintain an intricate shape like a snowflake or a piped dough like a butter cookie.
Most doughs will benefit from being rested and chilled before baking. The most obvious benefit is that the cookie will spread less when it is chilled.
Additionally, if you have cookies that have been cut with cookie cutters and you have created multiple shapes, for example, a tree, a santa and a reindeer, place them on separate sheets. Keep the trees, santas an reindeer on their own respective sheets. Why? They will bake at different rates and it will complicate the baking times if you have them combined on the same baking sheets.
Rolling-
Are you making dough that requires rolling?
Dust your workbench with flour. Chill your dough. If your dough is too warm, it may be more likely to stick to your work surface. Chilling the dough also allows it to relax.
If you have ever experienced difficulty rolling them out evenly, there are little bands (rolling pin bands) that you can add to your rolling pin to get your rolled out dough the same depth. They usually come in a pack of different depths and are easy to put on and remove from your rolling pin.
If you re-roll scraps to stretch the dough, be mindful of how you put the scraps back together. Most will have the inclination to knead the dough back together in order to re-roll out the dough. Try to avoid kneading the dough by stacking the scraps on top of each other and then re-rolling out the dough. If you overwork and knead the dough, you will run the risk of making those cookies tough. I have heard stories that more high-end bakeries will not reuse the scraps of dough at all in effort to avoid the risk of baking tough cookies.
Tip #5 Baking
Arranging Cookies on the Sheet-
When arranging the cookies for baking, do not place them in straight lines, one behind the other in perfect aligned rows. Instead, stagger them (cheerleaders). This detail is important for the airflow in the oven. Your cookies will bake better when staggered. Make sure that you leave space in between for the cookies to spread.
Know Your Oven-
Some ovens may not be calibrated correctly or be a little quirky. Take this into consideration when the recipe suggests baking time(s).
If your oven has a hot spot, you may need to rotate your cookies halfway through baking time to ensure even baking.
I like to pull my cookies from the oven just before they are thoroughly baked. As they are resting, they will continue to bake. A cookie is baked when it no longer appears glossy and if the edge stays firm and doesn't fall inward when pressing lightly with your finger.
Resting-
Make sure that the cookies cool on the baking sheet. I recommend using a spatula to scrape them off of the parchment paper.
Storing-
It is essential to store your cookies in an airtight container to avoid going stale.
With these tips, you're ready to embark on a delicious baking adventure. Remember, the key to perfect cookies lies in attention to detail and a bit of baking know-how. So, roll up your sleeves, preheat your oven, and let’s get baking! Happy Holidays!