Do you know which food combo feels like a warm hug that soothes our souls? A glass of milk and a warm cookie. This is especially true on winter mornings when you’re still in your PJ’s and when all you want to do is be wrapped up in your blanket while you spend the whole day relaxing.
And nothing tastes better than the cookies you bake yourself. I know you think it sounds like a lot of work. But trust me, you just need a few tips for baking perfect cookies, and it will be done in no time at all.
So, keep reading if you want to know more about perfect cookies!
What Are Perfect Cookies?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question because we all have our preferences. Some of us like crunchy cookies with a harder crust, while there are others why prefer soft ones. And then we have some who like crunchy on the outside but soft and soft on the inside.
Luckily, there are tips to get your desired texture in cookies. You will get your version of perfect cookies in no time at all. And the best part is, it won’t cost you a pretty penny for a bite of pure heaven.
Tips to Make the Perfect Cookie
Here, I’ll introduce you to my most effective tips.
1. The Temperature of the Butter
The very first thing we do while baking cookies is to work with the butter. Because the texture, temperature, and state of the butter actually play a big role in baking cookies. Some recipes demand melted butter, whereas some require cold butter. The output will change significantly based on which one you use.
Most of the time, you will be asked to use softened butter, which still has a shape, but it’s not solid. This is the best consistency to work with since it will cream very well with the sugar and will give you the best looking cookie dough.
However, when making chocolate chip cookies, you could also opt for brown butter. For that, you will have to melt the butter in a pan on medium-low heat until the milk solids in the butter start to brown. When you see a rich golden color, take it off the heat. Leaving in of the stove for too long will burn it.
2. Using the Right Sugar
Just like the butter determines the texture of the cookie, sugar plays a very important role when it comes to the texture as well as the taste of the cookie. Most of the time, we use white sugar, which is very affordable and available.
But if you are looking to make chewy cookies rich in flavor, brown sugar is the right choice. You can use a combination of white and brown sugar as well as that seems to balance the sweetness, color, and texture of the cookies best.
3. Leave the Dough in the Fridge Overnight
You know one of the reasons why the cookies we bake at home aren’t usually as good as the ones we get from bakeries or stores? We don’t let the dough rest long enough. And that happens to be one of the very important steps in baking we never seem to follow.
The longer the cookie dough rests in the fridge, the more flavors it develops; the butter hardens, the flour gets the opportunity to rest as well.
If you even try out an experiment by baking freshly mixed dough and dough that has rested for some time. You will see the difference in the depth of flavors.
4. Proper Measurement Is Needed
There is no such thing as acting on impulse when you are baking. You have to measure everything out so that the dough you mix is a perfect consistency. We typically use cups to measure our ingredients, but to get everything exactly right, the best idea is to get a kitchen weighing scale.
You can be exact about all your measurements, and the cookies you bake will be perfect each and every time without fail.
If you don’t have a weighting scale, then try to make sure the ingredients are packed properly in the cup. That will give you the closest and most accurate measurement in the absence of a scale.
5. Season with Salt
Adding salt to dessert is very common; it enhances the flavors of the existing ingredients. It gives your mouth something else to taste along with all the sugar. We tend to follow this when we are cooking something spicy. What we do is add a sprinkling of sugar to add more depth of flavor to our dish.
Don’t be shy about it; a dash of salt never really hurt anyone. And I promise you; you are not going to regret the decision.
6. Don’t Oil the Baking Sheet
So, the cookies have a lot of grease in them from the butter you added. When they bake, the butter will melt, and that will separate the cookies from the baking sheet. There is no need for you to add a layer of oil or butter to the pan.
Also, the additional grease has the ability to ruin your cookies, it will make the cookie too greasy, and it might even become too soft. So, to avoid this misfortune skip the oil.
7. Baking Time and Temperature
The temperature is very important when baking cookies. If it’s too high, then the outside of your cookies will burn, but they will not bake right if they are too low. Setting your oven to 180 degrees Celsius results in the best cookies. But, different ovens work differently, so keep that in mind while setting the temperature.
As for the baking time, it varies. Sometimes it might take 12 minutes; sometimes, it might even take 18 minutes. It depends on the size of your cookies. If they are very big, then it will take some time to bake. Keep that in mind when you’re baking.
8. Don’t Place the Cookie Dough on a Hot Sheet
Sometimes, when we preheat the oven, we have to leave the pan or tray so that the item we place on it gets heat at the bottom later on. We often do this when making pizzas. But do not do this when you are making cookies; you will be left with very sad looking cookies
The heat will burn the bottom of the cookies; you will have a very hard time taking it off the tray. That’s not it; the heat of the tray will start melting the butter inside the dough, which will make the cookies droop. Those are not the cookies we want with our milk.
9. Use Good Chocolates
There are many types of chocolate cars and chocolate chips used for baking. If you want the cookies to taste good, then you should get good quality chocolate. You will instantly notice the upgrade in the taste. Also, dark chocolate works much better with cookies than milk chocolate.
We often only use chocolate chips for cookies, but roughly chopped dark chocolate is a better alternative. Not only is the taste much better, but the aesthetic is also significantly better.
10. Bang the Tray on the Counter for Crinkled Top
This has more to do with the visual of the cookies rather than the taste. But I always think we eat with our eyes first. All you have to do to get the wrinkles is take the tray out of the oven and drop it on the counter a few times. Do it while the cookies are hot; if they cool down, they can’t be altered.
Conclusion
Here, these are my top tips for baking perfect cookies. Once you incorporate these into your baking, there is no going back.