PART 3                             

 Eggs

The protein in the eggs binds the dough together, and the moisture adds liquid.  Cookies that don’t contain any egg, such as shortbread, tend to be fragile and crumbly.  Cookies that contain lots of eggs, such as brownies and bars, tend to be puffy and cake-like. 

When recipes call for eggs, they usually mean the grade-A large variety.  The eggs are beaten into the butter and sugar mixture one at a time to keep the creamed mixture fluffy and to beat in the air.  Adding them all at once cuts down on beating time and makes the creamed mixture heavy.  Fresh eggs at room temperature hold the most air.  Eggs seldom need to be beaten before they are added to cookies.

Part three of six     

BUTTER, MARGARINE, OR SHORTENING

Most people don’t have a clue what makes a cookie crumble.  People love to eat them, but all too often their ideas about why one cookie is crisp and another is dry are pretty half-baked.  `All cookies begin with dough with the exception of macaroons, meringues, madelines, unbaked cookies or cake-like cookies. They begin with batters.

Understanding how each ingredient affects the dough is the first defense against cookie catastrophes.  It is also the best guarantee that your cookies will emerge like a county fair winner.

Butter, margarine, unsalted butter, solid shortening or lard is generally called for in a cookie recipe.  Usually they are interchangeable but each produces slightly different results.  Butter improves a cookie’s flavor, and margarine improves its texture.  Solid shortening creates soft, spongy cookies that stay soft for a long time but have little taste.  Lard creates flaky, slightly dry-texture cookies.  Butter cookies tend to burn easier and have a crisper texture.  If they are baked at too high a temperature they will develop a greasy film on the bottom.  

Many cookies have a combination of both butter and margarine which produces the best of both worlds.  Margarine makes the cookie hold its shape, and butter gives it that distinctive flavor.

Most recipes tell you to cream the butter, margarine or shortening.  This softens it and beats in air so that the cookie is lighter and fluffier.

There is a danger of overbeating, however — especially in warm, humid weather.  If the fat becomes too warm and soft, the dough loses its airiness and becomes greasy. The baked cookies are flat and flabby.

To avoid overbeating, the fat should be chilled before beginning to mix the dough.  Chilling the dough before the cookies are formed and baked also helps them retain their shape.

Avoid baking with shipped or diet margarine and whipped butter because they contain a high amount of water. Never substitute liquid fat for solid fat.  It just doesn’t work!!! 

Part one of 6

Watch for next tip!Gogi 

How do SUGAR and other SWEETENERS affect the way your cookies turn out?

Granulated sugar not only sweetens your dough but makes it soft if correct amounts are used.  If you use more than the recipe calls for, it can make your cookies brittle and glassy around the edges.

Brown sugar contains molasses.  It makes cookies darker, richer, and moist.  It can be substituted in most recipes.

Corn syrup produces a chewy cookie with a crisp exterior.

Molasses has a strong flavor, which is usually better tempered with other sweeteners.  Gingerbread cookies tend to be tough, hard, and dark.  This is an example of cookies made with molasses as a sweetener.

Honey (or molasses) can be used by themselves or with white or brown sugar.  Honey has a distinctive flavor and creates a chewy, moist texture.  When you substitute honey for sugar, use one third less honey and cut back on other liquids in the recipe.

1. ALL SWEETENERS should be added with the fat.  Creaming dissolves the sugar.  When mixture is fluffy, the begin adding the eggs and other liquids.

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