Sunday, December 14, 2008

Cookie tips

These were from an email from, er, Cook's Illustrated I believe. I'm putting them here as reference.

  • By adjusting key ingredients, you can change the texture of any cookie recipe.
  • If you want chewy cookies, add melted butter. Butter is 20 percent water. Melting helps water in butter mix with flour to form gluten.
  • If you want thin, candy-like cookies, add more sugar. Sugar becomes fluid in the oven and helps cookies spread.
  • If you want cakey cookies, add more eggs. Yolks make cookies rich, and whites cause cookies to puff and dry out.
  • If you want an open, coarse crumb and craggy top, add baking soda. Baking soda reacts quickly with acidic ingredients (such as brown sugar) to create lots of gas bubbles.
  • If you want a fine, tight crumb and smooth top, add baking powder. Baking powder works slowly and allows for an even rise.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I sort of learned about the baking soda already, when I put it in the gravy, twice, thinking it was corn starch this Thanksgiving. That sucker rose up like a volcano both times!

LisaTV said...

That was my comment, btw. No idea why it ended up anon!