Cookies, cookies, cookies. You know, there’s pie season in the Winter, and pumpkin season in the Fall, and cobbler season in the Summer. But cookies are just a year-round dessert. Today I’m focusing my tips on chocolate chip cookies, but some of the tips apply to lots of different types.
Whenever I need to make a good impression with someone, I take them one of my cookies. It’s not as grand and awkward as a cupcake, it’s just a cookie, right? That’s what they think, and then they bite into it and I become their new best friend. Now, there are lots of blog posts out their about the recipes and the baking, but this post is about the actual mixing of the cookies. Because let’s face it, if your cookie dough isn’t spectacular, your cookies won’t be either.
Butter:
-There are some recipes that call for melted butter, that will yield a more chewy cookie. But unless the recipe specifies that, cookie recipes need soft, room temperature butter. Don’t microwave it! Once butter melts, it can never go back to being just normal butter.
-I always like to use unsalted butter because you can always add a little extra salt if you like the taste… but you can’t really take out the salt.
Mixing the butter:
-Throw your butter into your mixer and beat it well to make sure there aren’t any lumps.
Sugar:
-Brown sugar is meant to be packed when measured, unless otherwise specified. For the seasoned baker, you may be thinking “Duh.” But I’m always shocked to find out that a lot of people don’t know that. If you don’t get the right amount of sugar in the recipe, your cookies won’t turn out how they’re supposed to.
Mixing Butter and Sugar:
–If you do nothing else, do this. Beat your butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes. Or more. Seriously. Let them cream together until they turn a lighter color and the sugar really starts to melt into the butter.
Room Temperature Eggs:
-“Ain’t got time for that?” …. Neither do I! Fill a cereal bowl with warm-hot water and put your eggs in there while your butter and sugar is getting’ crazy in the mixer. Dry them off and then crack them in. Ta-dah! Room temperature eggs in 3 minutes.
Measuring Flour the Right Way:
-How many of you dunk your measuring cup into the bag of flour and bring it out full of flour? Did you know that’s technically the “wrong” way to measure? You’re supposed to fill your measuring cup using a scoop (or just another measuring cup will do). Over fill it, and then….
-Use a knife to scrape off the excess. This way, they flour isn’t compacted. This is “technically” the right way because you don’t want Sue in Seattle compacting her flour just a little and Annie in Atlanta compacting her flour a lot. All of a sudden you two very different amounts of flour being used in the same recipe! Pouring flour into the measuring cup and leveling it off is more consistent.
–BUT here’s the thing. If you got a recipe from someone you think doesn’t follow this rule, then you might want to measure the “wrong” way. But whenever you read a recipe from a cookbook or a more professional site, measure the it this way!
Sifting:
-Why? Because you want to make sure you get your salt and leavening (baking soda and baking powder) evenly dispersed. It would would no fun to have one cookie extra salty 🙁
-Okay, there’s those fancy sifters with the squeeze handle but I love my $5 one from the grocery store! I use it to strain out raspberry seeds in purees and even as a colander for pasta when I’m in a rush!
Salt:
-Okay, you don’t have to do this one. But Kosher salt is the only kind I buy and use in cookies, cakes and everything. BUT did you know, when you measure coarse salt you have to add just a little extra because coarse salt doesn’t fill a teaspoon as well as the tiny stuff. Does that make sense? It’s like filling a cup of water vs. filling it with cubed ice, the ice just doesn’t lay flat. So when I measure Kosher salt I round the top of the teaspoon just a little bit.
Chocolate Chips:
-This is a big decision. Dark, milk, semi-sweet, white, chips or chunks? These are my two favorite chips to use. Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips are incredible because they’re velvety smooth and bigger than a normal chip so they really make a statement. The Trader Joe’s Semi-Sweet is my favorite Semi-Sweet chip because it doesn’t taste at all chalky or plastic-y.
Cookie Scoops:
-This is the best thing to have if you make cookies. It saves time and gets all your cookies the same size! Plus, they’re perfectly rounded! They come in different sizes, I use this blue cookie scoop to get rather large cookies. It can also double as a cupcake scoop! Get the yellow or red ones if you want smaller cookies (Size 20 or 24 in that same link)!
Extra Classy:
-Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the top of your dough balls! If you’re nervous, just do one and bake it and see how you like it. It adds another layer of of flavor when you eat the cookie and just makes it seem bakery perfect.
Time to Chill:
-Want thick cookies? Freeze the dough balls! You may need to increase the baking time by a minute or two, but this yields soft centered cookies that aren’t paper thin. (You just put a frozen dough ball on your cookie sheet to bake. I promise it works perfectly!)
Home Alone?:
-Love cookies but don’t want 30 sitting in your kitchen because you’ll eat them all? You, me and my mother are the same! So freeze your dough balls and then toss them in a freezer bag and keep them in them in the freezer! Only bake 1 or 2 at a time for a perfect treat! Have warm cookies ready for the kids after school every day and you only have to mix up the dough once a week (or month)! I always have a bag in my freezer and sometimes I just eat the dough frozen on hot summer days.
-Now, you may have to hide them behind the frozen vegetables so that the Mr. doesn’t break into them, but this is seriously the only way I bake cookies. If I wake up with a cold, I can bake myself a cookie to nurse myself to health. If my neighbor is having a rough day, I pop in a few cookies into the oven. So quick and easy!
Bottom’s up:
-One final tip! Bake your cookies on parchment paper! They will never stick again and the bottoms will be perfectly smooth. My brother used it for the first time and he called me and said “Lizzy, it’s just so easy…I feel like I’m cheating.” Also, use your piece of parchment several times before throwing it away! It doesn’t “go bad” after one use.
How do you go about baking these dough balls once you have frozen them? Bring them to room temperature first?
Bake them frozen! This is what makes the end product thicker!
I know that you don’t recommend this, but I DO nuke my butter. When taking it out of the fridge, I nuke each stick for 10 seconds. Do each stick separately. The butter won’t melt, but makes it soft enough to blend. Saves a load of time! My favorite chips are Ghiradelli 62% chips. They are bigger than regular chips. Even if I’m not freezing cookies, I scoop the dough balls onto a flat half-sheet pan, cover them with plastic wrap, and chill for @ least 2 hours before baking. You can actually chill them for a few days. Love your blog! It’s so great, and I love your cook books, too. Thanks for the joy I get from reading them!
Yes, you can microwave the butter BUT I never recommend it because every microwave is different and if you accidentally melt the butter, you can’t go back. And yes, Ghiradelli chips are usually my 3rd choice 🙂
I love baking so much that I literally keep 2 sticks of butter in an air tight container. If I think I might make cookies in the next 24 hours, I pop in a couple eggs. In my experience, room temperature butter is handy to have around any way and it stores well in a cupboard or bread box away from the oven or windows. It really works better than having to soften them in the microwave.
I totally agree! I’m always kicking myself for not putting out butter the night before!!
Lizzy, thank you for taking the time to share your baking tips. Most professional bakers would not think of telling amateurs their secrets. Just love your blog and both cookbooks too. Made soft lemon cookies, and chocolate cookies with mini chocolate chips this weekend using your recipes with cake mixes. Both recipes were so easy and delicious! Love soft cookies!
Here are some tips about butter – if you need to soften some, unwrap the butter and slice it into 8 or 16 thin pieces and spread them out a bit I spread them on the wrapper or on plate. Wax paper would do well too. Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, the butter will be ready in 10-20 minutes, long enough for you to get everything else ready-to-go. If it still isn’t ready, throw the butter in the mixing bowl first and beat it for a bit. Sometimes I beat it for several seconds, leave it along for a minute or so, then beat it again.
Also, I’ve started replacing the phrase “room temperature” with “softened” when a recipe call for butter because room temperature varies greatly in my kitchen depending on the season and other kitchen activities. Room temperature butter in the middle of summer is very near melted, compared to room temperature in the winter which is only slightly squishy. Instead, I like to think of it as “softened”, which is soft enough I can press a finger into it without applying much pressure, but not so soft that it is ready to melt where it stands.
One more — if you don’t have the time to form the dough into balls and freeze them, I’ve been known to fill a quart-sized freezer bag with dough and press it flat and toss it in the freezer. When I pull it out to bake, I cut the bag away and use a sharp knife to cut the dough into squares and bake them. If you want more circular cookies, roll them into balls, but I generally don’t bother.
Thanks for your tips – you’ve convinced me that I need to give Kosher salt a try!
Lizzy, which of your chocolate chip cookie recipes do you recommend to make a thick cookie? I love your blog and your recipes!
As long as you freeze the dough first, it will be thick!
Love your blog – keep baking!
Thank you for all your wonderful cookie tips! One question….with the larger blue handle scoop, how far apart do you place your cookies and approximately bake for ??minutes…plus as you mentioned longer when frozen. Thanks, Jan
P.S.you and Giada are my favorite two “Sweeties w/Kitchen Smarts”
It’s a complete honor to be mentioned with Giada in the same sentence! Blue scoop cookie dough balls I usually bake 3 or 4 inches apart. And Frozen dough balls take about 2 minutes longer in the oven. But that just depends on how large the dough balls are to begin with!
Thanks for all of the great tips! I pinned it immediately:)
What temperature should the oven be on and for how long? Btw I love your website!
Depends on your recipe!!
WOW thank you so much for your tips, love them, keep up the great work, absolutely love your site. Guess I’m making a ton of cookies this weekend 🙂
I have made many batches of your chocolate chip cookies over the last couple months. I followed your very helpful hints and your wonderful recipes!! I have gotten a wonderful reputation from all my friends at church for my delicious cookies! I always return the credit where credit is due…to YOU! Your recipes are simply DELICIOUS!!! Thanks for sharing….you make me look good! Blessings!!
Aw, you are so sweet! Thanks for your support!
First, thank you for sharing all of your tips here. They are amazing! You are amazing!
Secondly, Will these tips work for all cookie types? As a mom of 5 and employed outside the house as well, I find it growing stressful to bake as much as I used too. With holiday parties coming up, and a couple different cookie exchanges, I’m looking at dozens of cookies in different flavors.
Yes, these tips work for all cookies! If you freeze the dough, you make need to bake the cookies 1 or 2 minutes longer but that would be the only difference!
Hi! How long would you freeze the dough before putting them in the oven?
Thanks!
These are awesome tips. I bake all the time and I still didn’t realize some of these! Everyone should read this post!
-Katherine
http://kingsbakery.blogspot.com/
i JUST got a kitchen aid mixer and have been on a baking kick lately. I wasnt ever taught how to do anything in the kitchen other than wash dishes, so now after 5 years of marriage I’m diving in and trying to teach myself. I’ve had a lot of fails off Pinterest but your cookie recipe was perfect! My husband couldn’t believe it! Thank you for a recipe that I will continue to use forever and for boosting my self esteem a bit by having amazing cookies!
Is this recipe on your blog? That dough looks amazing!
I’m a TERRIBLE cookie baker! This looks so easy to follow and there is no way I could screw it up. I like the thicker ones that are chewy in the middle and this is perfect. THANKS!!
What other types of cookies can you freeze to make thicker cookies? My favorite to make are oatmeal and like you said I hate making a whole batch but I don’t know if the dough is good to freeze.
Could you give some information on the correct way to store the cookies? Mine bake up fine but get soggy after I let them cool down and store in a glass jar.
I would wager a guess that it’s the glass jar. Or that maybe your cookies aren’t completely cool when you put them in the jar. I store mine in a Ziploc bag or plastic container and I’ve never had soggy cookies. Maybe try a different container or ensure the cookies are 100% cool before putting them into the glass one.
I am curious with the blue scoop how large do the cookies turn out? I am clueless on scoop sizes so the higher you go the smaller they are? Please help. Is the blue one the size of an ice cream scoop?
Great post! So true about the butter! I’ve been baking for years and I find reducing the sugar doesn’t affect the cookie at all. In fact, a less sweet cookie really brings out the flavor of the chocolate chips!
Great instruction! You mentioned that you prefer course, Kosher salt instead of table salt. Can you explain this preference and also, do you put the salt in with the butter and sugar so that it can break down or how do you get the salt to break down? Thanks! P.S. I noticed a few typos in the text.
Sorry about the typos! Sometimes I just get so excited and I can’t even catch them when I read through because I’m always skipping ahead 🙂 I just prefer coarse salt for the taste, I think it’s because it doesn’t break down quite as much so when I eat a cookie, each bite can vary just a little bit. I’ve eaten a lot of cookies in my line of work, but the average person probably wouldn’t notice much of a difference!
Hello! The cookies look delicious!!!!!
Can You e-mail me the recipe with the measure of the ingredients… It will be very sweet of you…
Thank You
Monina
Hi Lizzy!
LOVE your recipes & tips! What color handle scoop do you recommend for cupcakes? I’ve read you suggest either yellow or blue colored handle….what is the difference? Also, if you’re halving a cupcake recipe that has odd number of eggs…what are your recommendations for the correct egg amount. Keep up the great work you do!
Cathy.
Yes I like red, yellow or blue handled scoops for cupcakes. They’re all just different sizes and it can depend on your own oven and how much cupcakes rise. If the recipes calls for 3 eggs… I’ll usually just put 2 in if I halve it 🙂
I love your green measuring cup. What’s the brand and where’d you get it?
Thanks!
Honestly, I don’t even know! I think I got it at target a few years ago!
The putting treats in the veggie drawer is a winner. Nobody but mom gets in there. Candy, cookies, cupcakes. No more hiding out in the bathroom with the door locked. Kind of takes away from the treat if ur sitting on the toilet.
My favorite way to measure flour, is to wait it… Most of us have a scale in our kitchen, and setting it to grams, and measuring it out by the weight ensures you always have the right amount of flour. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html
Great ideas! Don’t know why I never thought of freezing the dough like that!
Great post……..One more tip. Always use a dry measuring cup for dry ing. and a liquid measuring cup for liquids.
Hi, can I replace egg in this recipe? And what can I replace it with?
Hi Lizzy,
Thanks for your wonderful tips!!!!
Just one question, I have trouble finding the baking time for the cookies when I go through your article. Can I ask the time you are using? See I usually bake flat cookies not half sphere cookies, I do not know the regular time for that.
Thanks very much!
Regards,
Xue
hii
thank you for lovely information
thank you
zeena
If more recipes were printed with weights instead of measures, you have the correct amount of flour, etc. and you wouldn’t have to take all the precautions with measuring.