You don’t have to be an experienced pastry chef to bake the perfect cookies. The key to delicious cookies is preparation, which includes knowing the things that can go wrong. Below, we highlight seven mistakes to avoid when baking cookies to ensure that you get the perfect batch every time.
1. Not Creaming The Butter And Sugar Together Long Enough
When baking, many people don’t spend enough time beating the butter and sugar together. If a recipe calls for you to beat them together until you get a “pale and fluffy” mixture, this usually entails a couple of minutes of beating. In the baking world, creaming is the beating of the fats and sugars together, which adds fluffiness and lightens the texture of the mixture.
2. Don’t Chill The Dough
Most cookie instructions instruct you to chill the mixed dough anywhere between 30 minutes and one hour before your scoop and bake. Chilling the dough is an important step as it allows the fat (i.e butter) to re-solidify, which means that your cooking won’t spread so wide during the baking process.
3. You Don’t Roll Out the Gough With Enough Flour
Rolling out dough for your cookies sounds harder than it is, and if not done correctly, it will turn into a sticky mess. Many instructions over-simplify the instructions, as you should have flours on your surface, on your rolling pin, the cookie cutters, and your hands. You should also be continuously lightly flouring everything as you go.
4. Trying To Do Everything At Once
Whether you are an experienced baker or new to the baking scene trying to do everything at once, is a recipe for disaster. Working on your second batch of cookies while monitoring the ones in the oven, and making your frosting at the same time is a sure way to make a mistake when baking. Solicit a few extra hands if you need them, or give yourself enough time to ensure that each step is getting the attention it deserves.
5. You Don’t Give Your Cookies Enough Time To Cool
Many of us are guilty of skipping this step because the cookies just smell too good to wait for. Remember that good things come to those who wait and leave them alone before trying to rush the process.
6. Trying To Ice When They Aren’t Cool Enough
It is a necessary step as it will ensure that your icing goes on to your cookies and stays.
7. Too Much Liquid In Your Icing
Runny icing is a mistake that we have all encountered. The best advice is to start small by adding only ½ tablespoon of liquid at a time to your icing mixture until you get the desired consistency.
To satisfy your sweet tooth, come into Casa Romana. From a wide variety of pastries and desserts to choose from, you won’t know where to start.