Christmas: Baking, Storing & Freezing Cookies
Source of Recipe
Grandpoohbah
Recipe Introduction
12 Days of Christmas Cookie Baking Tips/2002...Day 8
Recipe Link: messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-fdcooking&msg=3925.1 Texture:
Flat - For flat cookies, try any of these tips:
> Use all butter, use all-purpose flour or bread flour
> Increase the sugar content slightly, add a bit of liquid to your dough.
> Bring the dough to room temperature before baking.
Puffy - For puffy cookies, try any of these tips:
> Use shortening or margarine and cut back on the fat
> Add an egg, cut back on the sugar
> Use cake flour or pastry flour
> Use baking powder instead of baking soda
> Refrigerate your dough before baking.
> Bake in the upper third of the oven.
Chewy - For chewy cookies, try any of these tips:
> Remove the cookies a few minutes before they are done, while their centers are still soft and not quite cooked through. The edges should be slightly golden but the middle will still look slightly raw.
> Substitute 1 to 3 tablespoons of liquid sweetener (such as honey, corn syrup or molasses) for an equal measure of sugar. Too much, however, will alter the liquid balance in the recipe.
> Use egg yolks instead of whole eggs, this will add some extra moistness to the cookies thus helping to be a bit more on the chewy side.
> Reduce the baking soda or baking powder slightly. Leaveners give cookies a more cakey texture. Reduce the leavening for a lower, flatter cookie that's chewier.
Crispy - For crisp and crunchy cookies, try any of these tips:
> Bake cookies a few minutes longer than suggested and immediately remove them to wire racks to cool.
> Make with all butter and a high amount of white sugar.
> Use bread flour. Bake in the lower third of oven.
Ingredients:
Have all your ingredients at room temperature. They'll mix better.
Fats most often used in cookies are butter, margarine, shortening and oil. Fats play a major roll in the spread of your cookie. In other words, they help to determine if your cookie spreads out into a thin mass on the cookie sheet or pretty much keeps its original shape. Shortening, margarine and spreads are fairly stable so they will help cookies keep their original unbaked shape. Butter melts at a much lower temperature than the other solid fats, so cookies made with it will tend to spread out. And oil, since it already is a liquid at room temperature, produces cookies that keep their shape. The amount of fat also affects the cookies, you can basically think of it this way: More fat equals flatter and chewier to crispier cookies. Less fat equals puffier and more cake-like cookies.
Flour also affects how cookies bake and behave. Flours with a high protein content like bread and all-purpose flour will help to produce cookies that tend to be flatter, darker, and more crisp than their counterparts made with cake or pastry flour. Unbleached all-purpose flour is recommended for the best spread on cookies. Bleached or chlorinated flours reduce spread.
Baking powder and baking sodas are both leaveners with one main difference, baking powder contains an acidic ingredient (cream of tartar) and baking soda is, well, just baking soda. Baking powder produces lighter colored and puffier cookies than baking soda does. This is due to the fact that one keeps the dough acidic (baking powder) and one helps to neutralize the acidity (baking soda).
Sugars: The type of sugar and how much you use also plays a big role. White sugar will make a crisper cookie than brown sugar or honey. In fact, upon standing, cookies made from brown sugar will actually absorb moisture, helping to insure that they stay chewy. This is the reason that most chocolate chip cookie recipes contain both brown and white sugars. If you lower the amount of sugar called for in a cookie recipe the final baked cookie will be puffier than its high sugar counterpart.
Eggs and liquids can either cause cookies to puff up or spread. If egg is the liquid it will help to promote puffiness. Just a tablespoon or two of water or other liquid will help your cookies spread into flatter and crisper rounds. One thing to remember is the different effects of egg yolks and egg whites. Egg yolks will help to add moistness whereas egg whites tend to make cookies drier. To make up for the drying effect of the egg whites extra sugar is added. This is the reason that cookies made with just egg whites tend to be so sweet.
Chocolate Chips - Regular chocolate chips retain their shape when baked. Chopped-up chocolate bars (which have not been tempered for baking) tend to melt and ooze, as well as lose their shape when baked.
Cookie Sheets: Air cushion baking sheets are quickly becoming the norm for baking cookies. Dual layered sheets allow air to better circulate under the cookie-baking surface. This reduces hotspots and results in perfect cookies all across the sheet not just in the middle.
There are some issues to note when using these sheets. Although you get consistent heat throughout the sheet you might not get hot enough heat. This would cause refrigerated cookies to cook a little slower and thus spread out. Drop cookies may not get as crisp as you would like around the edges. This makes it important to know your oven and its heating quirks. You may want to run your oven a few degrees hotter when using these sheets, but give them a first run at the temperature indicated in the recipe. Then adjust if necessary.
When baking cookies on the bottom rack of your oven, stack two baking sheets together. The extra insulation will prevent the bottom batch of cookies from burning. You can also do this for the top rack of cookies - if you are held up for a couple of minutes, the doubled sheets give you a little more leeway before cookie bottoms burn. Doubled-up sheets also allow the bottoms to stay just golden while the tops of the cookies finish browning.
Parchment Paper, non-stick liner or baking parchment? Call it what you will but the results are the same - great cookies with easy clean up! This paper is coated on each side, usually with silicone, and comes on a roll like wax paper. Just tear off a strip of parchment and place it on the baking sheet. Your baked cookies will lift off the parchment with ease. Also, you can reuse a sheet several times when you are making multiple batches of cookies. Using parchment paper gives cookies with an even rolled edge that is also more professional looking. A lightly greased baking sheet results in cookies with thinner, more uneven edges.
Freezing:
Freezing unbaked cookie dough:
Most cookie doughs freeze extremely well and can be kept frozen for up to 4 or 6 weeks. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the dough will absorb any odd odors present in your freezer if it's not properly wrapped and sealed. To prevent this smell-sponge effect - as well as freezer burn - wrap the dough securely twice. It's also a very good idea to write the type of cookie dough and the date it was frozen on the outside of the package.
When you are ready to bake simply let the dough defrost in the refrigerator. This will take several hours, so plan ahead. The cookie doughs that freeze best are shortbreads, chocolate chip, peanut butter, refrigerator, sugar, and brownies, just to name a few. The types of cookie doughs that do not freeze well are cake-like cookies and cookies that have a very liquidy batter, such as madeleines and tuiles.
Freezing already baked cookies:
Freezing baked cookies is a great way to preserve their freshness. Baked cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 weeks. As with freezing cookie dough, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you don't want your cookies to absorb any odors. Double-wrap the cookies securely and write the date and the type of cookie on the outside of the package. When you are ready to eat your frozen cookies, just let them come to room temperature, or, for you impatient types, pop them in the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. (Times will differ depending on the size of cookie you're defrosting.)
|
|
member logon
