Tricks to Bake Perfect Cookies Everytime
We LOVE cookies! And, baking cookies is almost as much fun as eating them. Almost. The Old Farmer’s Almanac has ten tips that every cookie baker needs to know to make perfect, delicious cookies every time. Turn on your oven, and let’s get baking!
1. Organize
Clutter is your worst enemy. You can’t bake if the counter is a mess, the bottle of vanilla extract is hiding, and there’s no place to put the cooling rack. Clear your work area before you begin, and get out all the ingredients. Put each one away as you use it so you don’t forget what you’ve used. Rinse bowls and utensils as you go.
2. Read Carefully
Read the recipe through before you do anything. As you read, check your supply of staples (flour, sugar, butter) and watch for any unusual ingredients, steps, or equipment that might trip you up. For example, if the dough has to chill for 12 hours, you should know this before you start in case you need the cookies by noon today.
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3. Fresh Ingredients
Insist on good, fresh ingredients. Spices lose their flavor over time; replace them if you’ve had them around since last December. Use fresh local eggs if you can find them. Unsalted (“sweet”) butter is preferable to salted; it tastes cleaner, sweeter, and fresher than salted butter—and often it is. Because salt acts as a preservative, salted butter can be warehoused longer than unsalted.
4. Room Temperature Butter
The butter must be at room temperature—not too cold, or your cookies will be too dense. If you forget to soften your butter ahead of time, cut the stick(s) into thin pats and place them on a room-temperature plate. Leave in a warm spot for 10 minutes or so until the butter yields gently to finger pressure. Not too soft, or it won’t hold up and make a greasy dough instead of a fluffy dough. Even if a recipe calls for softened butter, it doesn’t have to be squishy soft.
5. Properly Toast Nuts
When a recipe calls for toasted nuts, thoroughly cool them before adding them to the dough. (Incidentally, toasted nuts mean 8 to 10 minutes in a 350°F oven.) Adding hot nuts to a dough could melt the butter and drastically change the texture of your cookies, but probably not for the better.
6. Use High-Quality Baking Sheets
If you don’t already own them, buy yourself some good baking sheets. Thin, flimsy sheets don’t diffuse heat well or evenly and can result in scorched cookie bottoms. Tinned steel and anodized aluminum are two good material choices. Neither is inexpensive, but they’ll last. Look for them in gourmet kitchen shops. While you’re there, invest in a heavy-duty stainless steel cooling rack large enough to hold 2 to 3 dozen cookies. Letting your cookies cool directly on the hot pans can lead to over-browning on the bottoms and soggy cookies.
7. One at a Time, Please!
Generally speaking, bake only one sheet of cookies at a time on the center rack. Doing this allows for the most even baking! Cookies may burn too quickly if they’re too high in the oven.
8. Completely Cool Baking Sheets
If you own only one cookie sheet, let your sheet trays utterly cool to room temperature before baking another batch. This prevents the butter from melting out of the dough and puddling up on the sheet.
9. Cool on the Sheet
As a rule, let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 1 to 2 minutes. This is just long enough to firm them slightly and make it easier to slide them off the sheet and onto a rack.
10. Properly Package
And here’s a shipping tip! Most cookies ship well. For best results, however, choose a relatively firm or dense type of cookie. Wrap cookies individually in waxed paper and pack them snugly in a tin. Pack the tin inside a bigger box, cushioned on all sides, with additional waxed paper. And it never hurts to be nice to the postal clerk.
Cook Cookies With the Almanac
Enjoy this video demonstrating some cookie-baking tips—and get into the spirit!
Ready? Browse Our Delicious Cookie Recipes
Now, check out some delicious cookie recipes and enjoy trying out your baking skills!
Ken Haedrich
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If you use parchment paper, the cookies will brown nicely, are easier to remove from cookie sheets and will be softer.
9 out of the 10 Tips are good, however ... Tip #10 is unrealistic ! No one in their right mind would wrap each cookie separately ! I bake thousands of Christmas cookies annually which are shipped to family and friends and having been doing so for more than 30 years. Cookies just need to be placed in full containers where they won't shake around and break and then placed in a box for shipping. Put plenty of packing in the box such as crumpled paper or packing material. No Problems Ever !!!
I ALWAYS take the butter and sugar and cream/beat the HECK outta them! Until they are truly creamy and fluffy, then I add the egg - if the recipe calls for it- and beat that into it as well. Cookies always come out a little lighter. I do this for any recipe that uses these ingredients cookies, cake etc.
hi if i cut down on the quantity of chocolate chip in the recipe will it make it soft cookie..how to prevent too soft cookie. pls help. also, how freesing the dough affect the cookies.
Cutting down on chocolate will not make the cookies softer. If you want to make soft cookies, use shortening instead of butter.
Can you tell me the texture difference when using either butter, margarine or vegetable shortening/oil? My husband likes soft cookies and I need a good basic soft cookie dough recipe. Help!
If your husband likes soft cookies, we suggest you use vegetable shortening.
...I laugh to myself that many of the cookie tips I having been doing naturally over the years....it made feel so good inside like my cookies !!! I still enjoy making my cookies from scratch and other foods !!! Enjoy !!!
Do not store any "food" in egg cartons. Even egg producers will tell you, they can contain salmonella from broken eggs. Food producers now say NOT to taste uncooked batter because of those concerns, and more cooks are coming down with food sicknesses who do taste uncooked batters -- particularly store-bought cookie dough, etc. Some have died of it! Personally, I have always tasted my cookie (and even cake) batters. But today is different! Also, if any recipe calls for soy flour -- DO NOT TASTE! It TASTES hideous! But once it's cooked, it's good!...... Tips from a longtime cook and former food editor for a small-town newspaper.
Save margarine tubs, oatmeal boxes, cardboard containers from chips, cereal boxes .. Anything that can be used to protect cookies for storage and shipping .. Think how things are packaged ... Columns of crackers in waxed paper tubes in boxes ... Put round cookies in agg cartons .. Use plastic grocery bags to cushion ..
