Easy Cookie Baking Tips

These chocolate chip cookie baking tips are easy and when used will improve the quality of your cookies.

If you are looking for more cookie baking tips on other kinds of cookies, this is a really great link.

• Choose the right ingredients: for a really good cookie, "close enough" won't do. Using good quality ingredients makes a good quality cookie. There are no better cookie baking tips than this, because your ingredients is where it all starts.

• Use soft butter: softened butter makes the creaming stage much easier for whipping air into your chocolate chip cookie ingredients.
• Cream butter and sugar well: cream the sugars well until the mix looks lighter in color and fluffy. When it looks like this, you know that plenty of air has been whipped into your dough.

• Check expiration date on your leavening agents: outdated baking power and/or soda will not produce the gas needed to raise the cookie in the oven.

• Flour should be measured properly: you will be surprised to know that you are probably measuring your flour incorrectly. Scooping right out of your flour bag or jar and leveling it off is not correct. Flour settles, so measuring it this way packs more flour than you want into your measuring cup. This slideshow will illustrate how to properly measure flour.

• Sift all the dry ingredients: use a sifter and dump your measured flour and other dry ingredients through the sifter. If you don't have a sifter you can mix all dry ingredients with a wire whisk, but properly sifting is best.

• Pre-crack eggs into a separate bowl: this makes sure the eggs are good and without blemish BEFORE going into the dough. It is also easier to pick shells out of this bowl than your mixing bowl. This is not only one of my cookie baking tips, but a good baking tip in general.

• Mix eggs one at a time, mixing well in between:you want the egg to be well incorporated into the dough before adding the next. Just turn your mixer on and leave it on during this process.

• Add dry ingredients slowly: add dry ingredients approximately ¼ - ½ cup at a time mixing for a short time between each. This allows the flour time to absorb the moist ingredients allowing for even distribution and smooth dough.

• Mix in dry ingredients just until blended: mixing flour too long develops gluten strands and this will give you a tough cookie. The desired result is a tender cookie so just as soon as the last cup of dry ingredient looks mixed, turn off your mixer.

• Hand mix in the chocolate chips and nuts: using a wooden spoon evenly distributes the chips and nuts without breaking them. This also ensures that you will not over mix your dough.

• Use a cookie or ice cream scoop to make cookies the same size: there is nothing worse than cookies that don't bake at the same rate. This will also make your cookies prettier, and yes; food needs to be pretty.

• Use parchment paper: this silicone based product is a must have in a cookie baker's kitchen. Cookie bottoms turn out smooth and cookie will slide right off the sheet.

• CHILL THE DOUGH: This is the most important of all the cookie baking tips! Scoop the dough and toss it into your refrigerator instead of the oven. This does a couple of things to your dough that will improve the quality of your cookie. First, it solidifies that softened butter so that it will take longer to spread in your hot oven. This will make a chewier and somewhat thicker cookie. Second, it gives all the flavors in your dough longer to sit and soak into each other giving your final product a richer taste. Yum! It is the same principle as "Lasagna always tastes better the second day," only we are talking about cookies. 1-2 hours is sufficient.

• Bake just until cookie edges are brown: just the edges and not the whole cookie! This is very important. Brown cookies are pretty and that is why people like to leave their cookies in the oven until brown. But, this will leave them dry and crispy. More on baking chocolate chip cookies.

• Let cookies sit on cookie sheet: leaving them on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes makes them easier to scoop off the cookie sheet and gives them a bit of time to finish cooking.

• Start over on cool cookie sheet: starting the whole process over on a cool cookie sheet is important. Your dough will start the cooking process on a hot cookie sheet even though it is not in the oven. You don't want over brown tough bottomed cookies.

• Scoop cookie dough BEFORE freezing: baked cookies do not freeze well. Freezing them changes their flavor and their texture despite your very best air tight container. Fresh cookies are always ideal, so freeze chocolate chip cookie dough balls and put those in your air tight container. Scooping the dough before your freeze it will allow you to only bake 2-3 servings at a time. Great for after school and late night snacks.

• Buy a good oven thermometer: using an oven thermometer ensures that you are baking at the correct temperature. Ovens can be quite inaccurate. An oven thermometer can help you gauge how far off your oven temperature is and adjust your oven accordingly. Nobody wants burned cookies.

These cookie baking tips are easy to implement and take no time at all and will produce superior cookies.