Guide to cookies

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THESE FLAT MINI SWEETS

MOST POPULAR

France Macarons

United States Chocolate chip and snickerdoodle

Italy Amaretti

Austria Vanillekipferl

Denmark Småkager

Scotland Shortbread

New Zealand Rice Krispies

Australia Anzac biscuits

Israel Tahini cookies

FAILS

Too much baking powder leads to artificial or chemical flavours. Too much flour results in dry, crumbly and chalky cookies. Mixing ingredients all at once produces an inconsistent texture and flavour.

Insufficient flour will mean the dough is greasy and easily burnt.

Over-creaming results in hard cookies.

Without eggs, it will be too sweet and doughy.

Not enough sugar means it tastes like shortbread.

Overbaked cookies are dry and have a toasted flavour.

HACKS

Butter must be at room temperature. Butter needs to be unsalted.

Eggs should be at room temperature. Cream the butter and sugar together. Reduce the amount of flour to make even more tender cookies.

Chill the dough before baking.

Put coarse sea salt on top of chocolate chip cookies.

Flour your cookie cutters before use.

Invest in insulated cookie sheets.

Lower the oven temperature for thicker cookies.

Check on cookies two or three minutes before they are done.

TYPES

Moulded

Usually round and formed by rolling the dough with hands.

Peanut butter cookies

Dropped

Made by dropping soft dough by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. Chocolate chip cookies

Rolled

Rolled into a sheet on a lightly floured surface and cut into shapes.

Sugar cookies

Pressed

Made using a cookie press.

Spritz cookies

Refrigerated

Made by rolling the dough into a thick bar and chilling it; and later, cutting it into thin slices.

Pinwheel cookies

Bar

Baked in a baking pan, these are more like cakes.

Brownies

No bake

Cookies that don’t require the use of an oven and are more like rich candy. Chocolate oatmeal cookies

BASIC RATIO

Three parts flour to two parts fat (generally butter) to one part sugar gives you a very basic cookie.

FUN FACTS

• The word ‘Cookie’ comes from the Dutch koekje – which means ‘little cake.’

• Girl Scouts first began selling cookies in the 1920s.

• The Oreo – which is the best-selling cookie of the 20th century – was developed and introduced by Nabisco in 1912.

• Cookies that the Cookie Monster enjoys on Sesame Street are painted rice cakes.

• The world’s biggest chocolate chip cookie weighed over 40,000 pounds.

• Fortune cookies are mostly an American concept and aren’t served in China.