A better batch of cookies every time

Attention, holiday bakers! While your ovens are preheating, take a quick spin through these reminders about ingredients and equipment. They’ll help you bake your best cookies yet.

Eggs

• When you need to separate whites from yolks, do so when the eggs are cold. It will reduce the chances of yolk breakage.

• Most recipes rely on large eggs for baking, says Joy the Baker, even if they don’t specify the size. A large egg translates to about 3¼ tablespoons; if you were to use extralarge or jumbo eggs instead of large, you would be adding substantially more liquid to the dough.

Nuts

• Toasted/roasted nuts have more flavour. When you bring home fresh ones from the store, toss them on a baking sheet, roast, cool and stash in a container in the freezer until ready to use. This will save you time when you are baking in multiple batches.

• Drizzle them with melted butter before toasting; be sure to freeze or refrigerate once they have cooled.

Flour

• Unbleached all-purpose flour has more protein and weighs slightly more than bleached flour. So if you are able to use bleached flour for cookies, which will help make them more tender and may make coloured dough brighter, do so.

Mixing

• A mixture of butter and sugar that is overbeaten can result in cookie dough that spreads, says cookbook author and Paris food blogger David Lebovitz. Even when a recipe says to beat until fluffy or “cream the butter and sugar together,” mix those two ingredients only until thoroughly blended.

Storage

• Put a slice of fresh bread into the container with your cookies. That’s the best way to keep them nice and moist, says Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi. It will breathe new life into your cookies for three or four days.

Pans

• “Air-cushioned” baking sheets do not conduct heat especially well. Use heavy, light-coloured ones when you can, or stack two lightweight pans on top of one another.

Ovens •

Make sure your oven temperature is accurate. Oven thermometers are inexpensive and helpful for monitoring. Consider getting the oven professionally calibrated before a big baking session if you are not able to adjust it yourself (check the manual).

• Hot spots and uneven heating are common in many home ovens, especially as the appliances age. That’s why rotating baking sheets full of cookies halfway through the baking time is generally a good idea even when you are baking them one sheet at a time. A telltale sign: cookies on one part of the sheet browning faster than the rest.

• For convection, the rule of thumb is to set a convection oven 25 degrees lower than for a conventional oven.

Mistakes

• Failed cookies are almost always edible. Reduce them to crumbles and freeze for topping ice cream, sundaes or for creating parfait layers.