If you are ever in a situation where you find you don’t have a certain ingredient on hand, check the list below.  There might be something you are interested in. It doesn’t have everything on it but there substitutions and solutions you will find that come in handy in a pinch!!
                                                                                                                                                            1 square of unsweetened chocolate           3 T. cocoa plus ½ tsp. shortening (melted) 

1 cup honey                                            3/4 cup sugar plus ¼ cup liquid

1 T. cornstarch (for thickening)                  2 T. flour (approximately)

1 whole egg                                             2 egg yolks plus 1 T. water (in cookies, etc.)

1 whole egg                                             2 egg yolks in custards and such Mixtures

1 cup fresh sweet milk                             1/2 cup evaporated milk plus ½ cup water

1 cup fresh sweet milk                             powdered milk plus water (see pkg)

1 cup fresh sweet milk                             l cup sour milk or buttermilk plus ½ soda (decrease baking powder 2 tsp.)

1 cup sour milk or buttermilk                   1 T. lemon juice or vinegar plus enough fresh milk to make 1 cup

1 cup of canned tomatoes                       1 1/3 cups tomatoes, simmer 10 minutes
                                                                                            

5 regular marshmallows = ½ cup              l marshmallow = 10 miniature marshmallows

INCREASE RECIPES

To make a double recipe:

Use exactly twice the amount of each ingredient.  Add extra minute of beating for cakes.  If the increased recipe calls for uneven amounts of ingredients, it is a help to remember that:

2/3 cup = ½ cup plus 2 2/3 T.

5/8 cup = ½ cup plus 2 T.

7/8 cup = ¾ cup plus 2 T.

Use twice as many pans of the same size indicated for the original recipe or a pan double in area…so that the batter will be the same depth in the pan and same baking time and temperature may be maintained.

Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Add in the egg, peanut butter, salt and baking soda and mix well. Sift in the flour. Add the vanilla extract. Roll the dough into balls. Put on a baking sheet and flatten with a fork. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

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Jill Seader is passionate about baking and about helping people tell their stories. Visit her website at YourBakingStory.com to hear her baking stories and to tell one of your own.

Congratulations!  You are going to become an expert on controlling how your cookies crumble or don’t crumble after reading these helpful hints.  Just remember you are in charge of the whole process.  You know how to read a recipe and along with the helpful hints you are about to read, you can turn out wonderfully delicious cookies.  You can do it!

Each kind of cookie has its own identity and texture.  There are several kinds:

                1.  Bar                                          4.  Hand formed

                2.  Drop                                        5.  Icebox

                3.  Rolled                                      6. Pressed

1.  Bar cookies are made of soft dough, pressed into baking pan, baked, cooled and cut into squares.

2.  Drop cookies are dropped from a spoon of desired size onto baking sheet 2 inches apart and bake.  Larger cookies take more time than teaspoon size as suggested in most recipes.

3.  Rolled cookies are made from somewhat stiffer dough, rolled out and cut into desired shapes.  Stiffer dough does not mean it has to be like cardboard.  It simply means it should be of handling consistency before it is put in the refrigerator to cool.  After taking dough out of the refrigerator, be sure not to over do the flour on the board you are going to roll them out on. Lightly flour the board and add flour as needed until the dough can be handled and rolled. Too much flour will make them dry and tough.

4.  Hand formed cookies are made from a firm but not dry dough.  Dough should be chilled before using.  Pretzels, thumbprint, wreaths or ball cookies are usually made from this dough.

5.  Icebox cookies are made form very firm dough and can be kept in refrigerator for up to week.  You can then slice and bake as needed.  While mixing you can add chopped nuts, raisins etc before you refrigerate.  I have even rolled the dough out into a rectangular shaped size- not too thin and not too thick, and filled with date filling, you can use other fillings if desired.  Then I wrap in waxed paper, put in the freezer, and bake later.  Sometimes I have them in the freezer for 3 or 4 weeks but I am careful to wrap them very well.  Again, you can go through this same process and put them in the refrigerator for up to a week.

6.  Pressed cookies are put through a cookies press.  Do not chill dough before using.  Make dough just before using   Use only butter or real margarine in the recipe!!  Solid shortening or liquid oils will not work.  Also check you margarine packages to make sure there are no liquid shortening/oils added to the margarine.  Cookies will not come out of the press correctly if you use this type of ingredient. 

Check in with me again soon.  I am going to give you some valuable information on ingredients and how they affect your COOKIES.  Gogi

There are some basic cooking tips that anyone could learn and use to help out in the kitchen. With today’s busy lifestyles becoming more prevalent, learning and using these basic cooking tips will save you time and headache.

The following fifteen is just a tiny handful of the many basic cooking tips that you could integrate into your everyday life to save time and money.

• Bacon: Reduce shrinkage by running cold water over it before frying.
• Beans: Stop gas attacks by adding a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda in a big pot of beans while they are soaking.
• Boiled Eggs: Add some vinegar or a little salt to the boiling water when boiling eggs. This basic cooking tips will keep the egg in the shell if it cracks.
• Ripening Fruits and Vegetables: Put your unripe fruit and vegetables in a brown paper bag and place the bag in a dark cupboard for few day. Using this basic cooking tips is an excellent way to save money on fruits and vegetables that has to be ripened.
• Salads: Cut your iceberg lettuce into wedges instead of tearing salad greens to save some time making a salad.
• Spaghetti Sauce: Add a small pinch of bicarbonate of soda to your spaghetti sauce to lower the acid taste from the tomatoes.
• Corn: Place the corn directly into boiling water, and do not add salt. Do not boil corn for more than three minutes. Overcooking reduces the taste level.
• Frozen Vegetables: When they are stuck together, simply run boiling water over them.
• Grating Cheese: Freeze for twenty five minutes before grating. It will shred so much easier.
• Pancakes: Use a small amount of sugar in the batter and they will brown more quickly.
• Pie Pastry: Substitute one teaspoon of vinegar for one teaspoon of the cold water called for in the recipe and the pastry will be much flakier.
• Quick Sauces: Use condensed cream soups such as cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of tomato, cream of celery, to make fast and easy sauces.
• Quick Tenderizer: Use vinegar as a meat tenderizer. Add a tablespoon to water when boiling meat or ribs for stews. This basic cooking tips will help tenderizer even the toughest meat.
• Wilted vegetables: Soak wilted veggies in two cups water, one tablespoon vinegar to help bring them back to life.
• Wooden Skewers: Soak all your wooden skewers in cold water for twenty minutes to prevent them from burning.

Inspiration could be considered to be one of the key ingredients to writing. Only if one is inspired, can one get to writing on any subject especially like cooking.

Use some of these basic cooking tips to make your life in the kitchen more enjoyable.