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