COOKIES

Make the World a Better Place

Cookies are my favorite dessert. I don’t need a fancy cheesecake, crème brûlée, or triple-layer this or that. Cookies are the best. They just make the world a better place. You can throw together a batch, put together a cookie care package to make someone’s day, or keep dough in the freezer in case you need to pop a couple in the oven for a fresh-cookie fix at 10 p.m. There are few things I love more than creating new, fun cookie recipes (except eating them, of course), and it’s the one activity in our kitchen that I usually don’t let Josh touch—until they come out of the oven. I don’t think there’s ever been a week that I haven’t made at least one batch of cookies, and our blog has over 200 recipes to show for it. Sometimes Josh will say, “Can’t we just have chocolate chip?” And to that I usually say something like, “Why would you do that when you could brown the butter and put toffee in it, or bake it in a skillet, or add a glaze or sprinkle it with sea salt…” You get the idea. He usually just rolls his eyes and thinks, Here we go again… That said, he’s also the first person in line to eat one of my new creations when they come out of the oven!

So, it’s very safe to say that cookies are my obsession. To stick a cookie recipe or two in the dessert chapter and call it day just wouldn’t cut it, which is why we’ve included a chapter devoted entirely to cookies.

Maria’s Tips for Cookie Success

Before you start baking, make sure you have all of your ingredients (it’s not fun to discover halfway through that you’ve run out of sugar) and that your baking powder and baking soda are fresh. (Check the dates—yes, they do expire!)

I use unsalted butter in my cookie recipes. While salt is a very important ingredient (a small amount makes sweeter flavors taste more balanced), I want to control the amount.

Make sure your butter is slightly soft, but not melted (melted butter will make your cookies flat and greasy). Softened butter will give slightly when pressed but still hold its shape. As a general rule, take it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before baking, but how quickly it softens will depend on the temperature of the room.

Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to beat butter and sugars together until smooth and combined. This usually takes 1 to 2 minutes, depending on the recipe—you don’t want to overbeat the butter and sugars and incorporate too much air; you aren’t making a light and fluffy cake!

Measure your flour correctly: First, use a spoon to “fluff” the flour and then scoop it into the appropriate dry measuring cup. Level off the flour with a butter knife. Never pack the cup with flour—adding too much flour to your dough can make your cookies puffy and too dry.

Always use pure vanilla extract. The richer vanilla flavor is definitely worth the extra money. It should say “pure vanilla extract” on the label.

Once you add your dry ingredients to the wet, don’t overmix! It will make your cookies flat and dense. Mix on low until just combined, then stir in the chocolate chips or any other mix-ins by hand.

Line your baking sheets with a silicone baking sheet (such as a Silpat). I love these because you can use them over and over again, your cookies will bake more evenly, and cleanup is easy. You could also use parchment paper.

I like to hand roll my cookie balls so the cookies are perfectly round, but you could also use a medium-sized (1½- to 2-tablespoon) cookie scoop.

This might be a (really, really) tough one because it means waiting longer for cookie time, but for some of these cookie recipes—and especially my chocolate chip cookies—chill your dough before baking! Chilling the dough in the fridge for 24 to 72 hours concentrates the flavors. It also limits how much the cookies spread while baking, which means a chewier, more “bakery-style” cookie. Even if you can chill it for just 30 minutes, it makes a difference. That said, you’ll still end up with a pretty tasty cookie if you decide to not chill the dough first.

Use light-colored baking sheets so your cookies don’t get too dark on the bottoms. I love Williams-Sonoma’s Goldtouch half sheet (13 × 18 inches).

Make sure you space out your cookies evenly on the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. This keeps them from baking into each other.

Don’t overbake your cookies! Remove them from the oven when they’re slightly underbaked in the center, then let them cool on the baking sheet for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. This will allow them to finish baking while keeping them nice and soft. Let them cool completely on the cooling rack. Or eat one warm—for quality control…

I love sprinkling sea salt flakes on top of most of our cookies after they come out of the oven. It doesn’t make the cookies taste super salty; it just makes the sweet flavors pop a little more, and the chocolate taste even more chocolaty. Don’t skip it—trust me!

Store your cookies in an airtight container on the counter. I like to store mine with a piece of bread—a trick my dad taught me! The bread will get rock hard but the cookies will stay super soft.

You can freeze most cookies after they’re baked, or you can freeze the cookie dough balls before baking them. Place the cookie dough balls on a large plate or small baking sheet and freeze until hard. Then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag and return to the freezer. To bake frozen dough balls, add a few additional minutes to the baking time. Frozen cookies and dough will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.

When I’m baking a lot of cookies for the holidays, I like to do a dough day and then a baking day. This helps make sure all of the cookies are fresh for delivering to friends and family or serving at parties!