September 2009 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Nooner! (Or any baking pros...)
Every time I make chocolate chip cookies, they flatten out, get a little too crispy, and taste sort of bland. My cookies tonight sucked, and now I'm fed up.
How do I get them to have bakery-looking "wrinkles" in them and set up properly?
With any recipe, I use my stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar (and eggs and vanilla) and then stir in the dry ingredients. Could I be overmixing? I also use a cookie sheet like this. It tends to make my cookies brown on the bottoms too early though, whether I line it with parchment or not. Maybe I just need a different kind of cookie sheet, but I don't think that could explain the bland taste too.
Any pointers?
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Re: Nooner! (Or any baking pros...)
ok, you have a few options. First - you MUST refrigerate dough in between mixing and baking. Firms the butter back up so it doesn't melt as quickly. Flat cookies = butter melting too quickly.
But that wouldn't account for bland cookies. What recipe are you using?
I doubt it's your cookies sheets or how you line them, or overmixing.
Agreed with Neuner on all accounts. Other ideas:
Do you use salt in your cookies? Do you use white, light brown or dark brown sugar? Do you cheat a little and soften your butter in the microwave? Do you have an oven thermometer in your oven to make sure it is the temperature that it says it is?
When I cheat and soften my butter, my cookies always flatten and the edges are crispier than I like, even when I refrigerate the dough. You also need to refrigerate for at LEAST an hour between mixing and rolling cookies.
I also almost exclusively use dark brown sugar for chocolate chip cookies now- it gives them a really rich flavor.
Salt is also essential because it plays off of the sweetness and gives your palate a contrast that is needed for the "right" taste.
I always keep an oven thermometer because my grandma did, but some ovens I've used are up to 15 degrees off what they're set to- 15 degrees on the high side will fry your cookies.
As far as troubleshooting looks/ doneness, I like this site for tips:
http://theperfectchocolatechipcookie.com/instruct.php
ETA: it sounds like your cookies would be best described by 4- which says you may be using too little flour.
Stand up for something you believe in.
Thanks ladies! I don't refrigerate my cookie dough first, I will absolutely try that next time. Come to think of it, the last really awesome cookies I made were ones where I'd refrigerated the dough first, I don't know why I stopped doing that. And I do cheat and soften my butter in the microwave a little. I'll start setting it out in advance to soften.
And judging by that website, I think I did overmix the dough. I'll follow the mixing tips and try again this weekend.