A Few Tips Can Help You Make Better Cookies

Here are some cookie-baking tips shared by Judy Rosenberg, author of “Rosie’s Bakery Chocolate Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich, No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book” (Workman Publishing, 1996):

Know your oven, as oven temperatures vary. Use baking times as guidelines, depending on your oven. Be sure to thoroughly preheat the oven to the correct temperature (it’ll take from 5 to 10 minutes) prior to baking for best cookie results. Rosenberg prefers baking one sheet of cookies at a time.

Use very good quality baking pans, flat with slightly rolled edges. Shiny heavy-gauge aluminum is good, as is a nonstick surface such as Silverstone. Look for pans at a commercial restaurant supply store. Don’t use air-cushion pans, cautioned Rosenberg, as cookies don’t get enough heat and don’t crisp around the edges.

Know your dough. If you want cookies that are chewy in the center and crispy around the edges, bake the dough cold and high (do not flatten). Experiment and find out what happens when you bake the dough cold or at room temperature. That way you’ll gain more control of your baked goods.

If your brownies are coming out dry and crunchy around the edges, reduce the oven temperature.

Make sure you use the pan size specified in a recipe. Otherwise, you may end up with a different-textured product than expected.

Use butter in your cookies, but eat fewer of them. There is no substitute for butter in baking, Rosenberg said.

Realize that the best way to learn and become confident is by doing. “With every mistake you make, you’re educating yourself more about the chemistry of baking,” Rosenberg says. Analyze what impact a mistake has on the dough.

When it comes to freezing, Rosenberg recommends no longer than two to three weeks to avoid ending up with cookies that have freezer flavor and freezer burn.