Amount of Chocolate-chips in a Chocolate-chip cookie?

Question

I've been making chocalote chip cookies for a while and I just can't decide how many chocolate chips to put in each cookie. So maybe once and for all I can get a good answer to the question:

What is the best percentage of chocolate-chips for a chocolate cookies? And what are the pros and cons for putting more or less chocolate chips?

Asked by nayish

Answer

While it depends on your taste and recipe, I can tell you what's my favorite amount.

I tend to chop chocolate to pretty big pieces (cubes approximately 2cm long). I tend to put as many chocolate chips as it takes so that some of them fall off when mixed with the dough. I then additionally push leftover chips in dough when forming cookies. I try to avoid chips that are too small and chocolate powder; somehow the cookies are better when chocolate powder is not mixed into dough. I suppose the contrast between the dough and chocolate chips is what makes them tasty.

Answered by Domchi

Check more discussion of this question.

Can I substitute brown or confectioner's sugar for granulated sugar in sugar cookies?

Question

I'm making sugar cookies and I have ran out of granulated sugar. I only have confectioner's sugar and dark brown sugar left.

Can I substitute one of these for white granulated sugar? Which would be the better substitute?

Asked by jZompK

Answer

I've done this before, and you won't get exactly the same cookie as you got before.

Confectioners sugar: total bomb. Don't bother.

Dark brown sugar: darker cookie, with a chewier texture. Kept longer.

This isn't always a bad thing. Several of my cookie recipes that I thought were a bit dry were saved by DBS. It added a nice depth to the flavor, as well.

Answered by kcunning

Check more discussion of this question.

How to get rid of the taste of flour in homemade bakery?

Question

I usually get random cookie and cake recipes from the internet and try them. They are good but all of them have floury taste to me. Possible culprits are the flour I use and how I mix and bake dough. I use Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour and my hands to mix ingredients, having no mixer. What can I get wrong? Is there an easy fix?

Asked by puri

Answer

Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes I think it's one of a few things.

It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour.

It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. If this were the case though you'd likely have some cookies that weren't floury.

The most likely culprit though is packed flour. If you are using volume measurements (most likely given the source) for flour, it's quite possible to use nearly twice as much flour as the recipe intends simply because your flour is packed down more than the author's was.

I recommend using either a food processor or a sifter to sift your flour adequately before measuring. Don't undo your sifting by rapping your measuring cup on the counter either! Simply scoop, scrape to level and dump it in the mixing bowl.

See Also:

• What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate The Flour?
• How can I make sifting easier?
• Sifting dry ingredients

Answered by hobodave

Check more discussion of this question.

What is meant by “place 4 inches apart on cookie tray”?

Question

Does this mean place some cookie dough every 4 inches (i.e. 4 inches center-to-center), or have a 4 inch gap between each cookie?

Asked by jontyc

Answer

It means to have a 4 inch gap between each cookie. Of course, if you use less dough per cookie, you can put them a bit closer together.

Normally, if you put cookie dough on the tray, the surface of the cookie won't be very big (perhaps an inch). So it would not make a very big difference if you would've placed the cookies 4 inches apart center-to-center. Just be careful during the first batch. If you see you have a lot of space between the finished cookies, you can put the dough closer together for the next batch (if you use the same amount of dough per cookie).

Answered by Mien

Check more discussion of this question.

How long after baking do American chewy cookies get their normal texture?

Question

I just baked my first ever batch of American-style cookies (chewy chocolate chip cookies). I used the correct ingredients, including actual wet brown sugar, except for the chocolate - I had no chocolate chips, so I used chopped milk chocolate (I know, I know...).

I have experienced this type of cookies as a light, but not soft baked good. When I have had them, they have been slightly airy, but more tough than brittle. I suppose that this is the desired texture, as they are called "chewy".

I took my first batch out of the oven, and it seems that I reached too deep with the glove and touched a cookie. It was squished. All the cookies turned out to be puffy and prone to deflating. Also, they have a cracked surface, unlike the pictures in the recipe illustrations.

Is this normal? Will they get their expected texture later? How much will I have to wait for them to get the desired texture? Or did I make a mistake?

I didn't cool the dough, although I have read often that cookie dough should be kept cold. The reason is that this recipe directed me to melt the butter, and didn't include cooling steps, so I assumed that a warm dough is normal for the recipe.

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

The cookies will set (take on their final texture) about by 20 - 30 minutes out of the oven. Coming directly out of the oven, cookies will absolutely be soft and squishable; which is why you should wait a few minutes before moving them off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack (you can cheat this time if your cookies are all on a sheet of parchment paper, and you move the parchment paper as a whole).

Answered by KatieK

Check more discussion of this question.

How to recognize when American style chewy cookies are done?

Question

I made chewy chocolate chip cookies. The recipe gave baking time suggestions, but noted

check your cookies before they’re done; depending on your scoop size, your baking time will vary

and suggested to bake them "until the edges are lightly toasted". However, I used dark brown sugar, so my dough was much darker than in the pictures, it was an ochre shade. I didn't notice any changes in color, and I don't think I could in the dark dough, but my second sheet got rather hard after cooling, I suspect I overbaked them.

How can I notice the right moment to take cookies out of the oven?

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

Most cookie recipes (including the Nestle Tollhouse recipe) call for 9 - 11 minutes at 375 ° F (for a 3-bite sized cookie). Within this range, finding the exact time (and temperature) for your preferred done-ness and with your equipment can be a fussy business.

One of the best indicators is the darkening color at the outer edge of the cookie, as shown in the last picture in your recipe. (For what it's worth, substituting dark brown sugar for brown sugar may make a significant difference in the outcome of the cookie.)

You can also gently poke the edge of a cookie to test it. (Only do this if your fingers are used to enough kitchen abuse to be OK with poking hot cookies and gooey melty chocolate.) The edge of the cookie should be a little crispy and have a texture when done. When un-done, it will be liquid and gooey, like the middle of the cookie.

If no other methods prove useful, I fall back to the "test cookie" method, where I bake one cookie at at time at different intervals of time (30 seconds), wait until they cool, and then re-use the time from the best resulting cookie. (Same for dialing the best temperature.) Go with a slightly overdone cookie for a tie breaker; when baking your batches of cookies, the extra mass will take a little longer to bake to the same done-ness. Yes, this is a tedious and fussy procedure, but once you've got this figured out, you can replicate it ever time. And, as with all baking, practice makes perfect.

Answered by KatieK

Check more discussion of this question.

How does one invent a cookie recipe?

Question

My cookbook has dozens of cookie recipes and I can find hundreds more On-line.

• If I want to invent my own cookie recipes, unlike existing ones, how can I go about doing it, without wasting tons of ingredients on trial and error.
• How must I balance the ratios of the basic ingredients, such as flour, eggs, water, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda?
• Has anyone created any formulas or rules for creating cookie recipes?

Asked by Village

Answer

Yes, the original recipes involved an enormous amount of trial and error. People baked, swapped recipes, and the good ones were desirable and became widespread, while the bad ones died out. The advanced knowledge of food chemistry wasn't even available at the time - Hannah Glasse published her cookbook more then 100 years before Mendeleev published the periodic table.

Luckily, you don't have to go through the same process if you want to invent a good recipe now. There are only a few basic ingredients in baking - eggs, sugar, flour, water - and you can be sure that all possible ways to combine them, as well as most secondary additions and substitutions, have been thoroughly explored. People have distilled the knowledge of this exploration in books, and you can use this basic knowledge to build new recipes which will function with a high probability.

Before you develop a baking recipe, there are four things you have to know.

1. Technique. If you want to create a cookie recipe, you will have to use creaming. If you want to make a new kind of eclair, you have to know how to prepare a basic pate a choux. There are cookbooks teaching these techniques, some of them are explained in questions here on SA.

2. Base ratio. For most baked goods, there are ratios which give you the best results. For example, for a crepe you want 1 part flour, two parts egg and two parts liquid. As long as you keep that, you can let your imagination run free by using different liquids, or adding spices, or even plopping pieces of fruit in the pan and pouring the batter over them. You can learn about this from Ruhlman's book Ratio, or use a known-good recipe for a plain variant of the good you are trying to make as your starting point.

3. Flavor combinations. You can add any ingredients you want, but there is no guarantee they will work well together. Choosing the right ones is a combination of talent (being able to imagine what a combination will taste like before you have had it) and experience. You should try to be more analytical about the flavors of things you eat - which tastes can you distinguish? Which aromas? What makes them go well together? Is it their similarity, or the contrast? - and when you have done that long enough, you will be able to predict the goodness of a combination. A book to help you along is The Flavor Bible, which describes good combinations. You can also take popular combinations and transfer them across types of food. For example, if you like apple-cinnamon pie, you can try to make cinnamon cookies glued in pairs with apple butter.

4. Ingredients' structure and their role in the baked good. This knowledge is maybe the least usual among home cooks. When you create new recipes, you will always dilute the base formula, or use substitutions. If you don't have this knowledge, it will be hit-or-miss whether your new recipe will work or not. It is a bit like rebuilding a house's interior without knowing which walls are load-bearing and which aren't. If you know what each ingredient does in a recipe, you will know when a substitution is possible and when it isn't. For example, many people will tell you that applesauce is a substitute for eggs. And you can indeed bake a cake with applesauce instead of eggs, but don't try to whip a mayonnaise with it. This is because eggs have a different role in cake and mayonnaise. Learning about these roles requires a lot of effort, and a curiosity about these things. Most people will find it easier to just try whatever they feel like, and live with the occasional failed new-recipe attempt. If you would rather learn about them, I can recommend two sources. One is Cooking for geeks by Jeff Potter, which is short and doesn't go into the depth of things, but offers lots of useful information and is easy to read, or the really exhaustive book called On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, which runs to about 800 pages and goes into detail most people don't want to know about, but is a must-read if you are fascinated by food science.

And, of course you can always just run into the kitchen and experiment. Don't forget to document along the way so you can reproduce your results! Basically, you can always have luck and hit a good new recipe, the knowledge I listed above (combined with some baking experience) helps you increase your first-try success rate from about 2-3% as a full amateur to somewhere about 80% or more. It is your decision how to divide your time between reading and baking, any combination can function, depending on your learning style.

Answered by rumtscho

Check more discussion of this question.

Can you re-use parchment paper when baking batches of cookies?

Question

I just finished making cookies. The dough was enough to make multiple batches. I only have one baking sheet. Every time a batch was ready, I used new parchment paper on the baking sheet. Is this necessary or could I just re-use the same piece of paper till all my cookies are baked?

Asked by Mien

Answer

You can reuse parchment paper several times for your cookies (it also works for other dry dishes), depending on cooking time and temperature, with no problem. Change the paper when it gets dirty, dark and/or brittle as it may crumble beyond this point. I always do so with no difference in the results, saving both on money and waste.

Answered by Heidi Larsen

Check more discussion of this question.

What's the best way to stick sprinkles to cookies without icing?

Question

I am making sugar cookies that I want to decorate with sprinkles, but I don't really want to mess about with making royal icing, which is what the recipe calls for. In the past, I've used clear corn syrup as a flavourless sprinkle "glue" and it's what I'd use now, except that I haven't seen it in the grocery store here in the Netherlands.

Are there any other easy to make options for "sprinkle glue"? I've seen references on the web to using some sort of glaze, but in my experience, this wouldn't set up hard enough to hold sprinkles to a cookie. Maybe it needs special proportions for this application?

Asked by Allison

Answer

If corn syrup works, it seems to me that simple syrup (i.e. a saturated solution of sugar and water) ought to work, too.

Answered by Marti

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I speed up the preparation time for chocolate chip cookies?

Question

I've been charged with the task of making 100+ chocolate chip cookies every other day. As it stands, it takes me over 10 hours to do this. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to cut down the time for this?

My recipe is here and workflow (with time) is like this:

1. (make) 6x the dough (this takes about 25-30 minutes)
2. let the dough chill in freezer for about 30 minutes
3. preheat oven to 325F (this takes ~ 20 minutes, but I let the oven sit at 325 for another 20 minutes)
4. bring out dough (in parts), measure and compress dough into 56g (~2 oz.) balls (this is the time sink)
5. Once I have 18 balls, I rip them according to the recipe's instructions, place 9 on one cookie sheet, and 9 on another.
6. Bake the cookies for 24 minutes (swap racks and rotate sheets at 12 minute mark), simultaneously "process" more dough.
7. Take cookies out, let sheets cool for another 10 minutes, and put another batch of 18 in the oven.

Since it's clear that I can't make my cookies bake any faster, I think my bottle neck is the "processing" of the dough. I'm okay with getting cookies that are 56g +/- 3g, anyone have any time-tested suggestions?

Asked by StevieP

Answer

Preheat while doing other things. That's not a step that should take any effective time.

Don't measure so obsessively. Unless these need to be immaculate cookies, just accept a little variety. Scoop roughly with a spoon, or just your hands, and form into balls with your hands if necessary. If you desperately want precision, you could use a cookie dough scoop. But 56±3g sounds kind of over the top to me. Given that you said this is the main time sink, I'd suggest loosening up a bit.

Are you filling your cookie sheets fully? Do they fill your oven? Following a recipe's instructions to the letter, baking only 9 per sheet, is obviously the wrong thing to do if your cookies or baking sheets aren't the same sizes as those in the recipe. Note also that if you have many cookies per sheet, you can often fit more by tiling in triangles instead of squares.

And finally, reconsider your recipe. I'm sure this one is great, but keep in mind that most standard chocolate chip cookie recipes bake at 350F or 375F, and times more in the 8-12 minute range. If your recipe gives you exactly the cookies you want, and others don't, then stick with it, but if you're unnecessarily sticking to a recipe, try something else.

Edit: one more thought! Chilling the dough is probably important to your recipe, but you could measure/scoop while it's warmer and easier to work with, then chill in balls, and do the final forming once chilled.

And another, having seen your comment: given that you increased the baking time upon filling up the oven more, and are using insulated pans, you might actually want to increase the temperature to 350-375F and see if you can get back down to the 15-18 minute baking time. They may end up closer to the originally-intended consistency!

Answered by Jefromi

Check more discussion of this question.

Hamantaschen just wouldn't pinch and hold tight

Question

I made a pretty simple and easy hamantaschen recipe last night, and it came out really well. The only substitution I made was to flex 3 eggs for 3 tablespoons milled, gelled flax seed in 9 tablespoons water. I am essentially unfamiliar with the dough, and wasn't sure what to expect. It had a great crumb, shortbread texture, but I ran into the dough unfolding/unpinching while baking.

The dough was good to work with, streched well and didn't break apart. However, it was very dry. Two main problems that may have stemmed from this were that the pockets wouldn't pinch at the edges, and when I left them to cool they dried out very quickly. In the second batch I tried moistening the edges with water to see if it would help glue them together, but to no avail. In the third the dough was becoming very inflexible and I used some canola oil to loosen it back up, but this did little to help.

As it is spoken of as a stiff dough (the author recommends chilling dough overnight), the dryness of the dough itself may not have inherently been a problem. Also, whereas the author says to "mix" the five and a half cups of flour with the liquids, I found I needed to fold cup by cup then knead toward the four cup mark, ultimately shorting the recipe by a half cup of flour. Since the drying out while cooling had no actual affect on the dough (in terms of taste, texture), I am mostly concerned about why the pockets ended up flat upon baking in many cases, instead of little pockets of plum preserves.

With a dough and recipe like this, what could I have done to ensure better pinches?

• Is the amount of baking powder appropriate? The recipe didn't call for any salt, but I added some for flavor; could this have been problematic in causing over-rising?
• The flax egg substitution would have had an equal amount of moisture to the egg, but would it have caused such dryness while mixing? The dough results were good in taste, just not structure.
• Could over-kneading have been the problem; does too much kneading inhibit flour's ability to adhere to itself?
• I do not typically use oil only doughs due to their dryer results, would subbing/splicing some heavier fats or apple sauce have improved the sticking?
• Doubtless from the image above, I have not formed these before. Could my pinching technique have been to blame? Is there a secret to it? I have also seen them folded; does folding the corners yield sharper edges than pinching?

Asked by mfg

Answer

It seems Hamantaschen cookies unfolding and leaking is not an uncommon problem. Of course the flax egg substitution can very likely also contribute to the unfolding but here are some tips from someone who has been baking Hamantaschen cookies for a while.

Tips for Creating Perfect Hamantaschen

1) Find a great dough recipe. Often, the problems people have with baking hamantaschen can be traced to an inferior dough. Here are two foolproof, tasty dough recipes that I highly recommend. They are easy to handle and shape, and they provide great results when baked:

Dairy Free Hamantaschen Dough

Buttery Hamantaschen Dough

Of course you can use your flax egg substituted in for the eggs that the recipes ask for.

2) Roll your dough out to 1/8 inch thick (or less). You want your dough to be as thin as possible, while still being thick enough to maintain the cookie’s structure. 1/8 inch seems to be the magic number; sometimes I roll mine out even thinner than that. For a more doughy texture you can roll it thicker, but remember– the thicker the dough is, the harder it will be to handle and shape. Thick dough is also more prone to opening/spreading in the oven.

3) Use a thick filling that won’t run/weep from the cookies while baking. Knowing the proper consistency of a hamantaschen filling takes experience, because each type of filling is slightly different. Poppyseed filling has a very different texture than fruit filling, for example. A good filling should be somewhat thick so that it doesn’t run.

4) Cut your hamantaschen dough in 3-inch circles (or larger) before filling and folding into triangles. Anything smaller than 3 inches will be difficult to fold around your chosen filling.

5) Most fillings can be chilled before using to fill hamantaschen. I’ve found that fruit, poppy seed, and cream cheese-based fillings tend to be easier to work with when they’re chilled in the refrigerator. The chilling process thickens the fillings and makes them less sticky, which makes them easier to handle with when you’re assembling your hamantaschen. Not all fillings are helped by refrigeration, however– particularly chocolate-based fillings like Nutella, which will harden with prolonged refrigeration. Check your filling recipe to see if refrigeration is recommended.

6) Do not overfill your hamantaschen. Use 1 teaspoon of filling per hamantaschen cookie. Do not use more than 1 teaspoon. However tempting it might be to put lots of delicious filling in the middle of your cookie, using more than 1 teaspoon can cause your hamantaschen to spread open and leak in the oven. 1 teaspoon is plenty, especially when you cut your dough circles to 3 inches… it’s the perfect amount of filling.

7) Fold your triangles the right way! Using the proper folding method will help your hamantschen hold together and create a beautiful shape.

Please that the sides are folded down so that each "side" has an "end" that is above and an "end" that is below in the fashion of folding the top of a box. This will help in preventing the cookies from unfolding.

Also note in Step 5, to pinch each of the 3 corners gently but firmly.

Source: http://theshiksa.com/2012/03/01/how-to-make-perfect-hamantaschen/

Answered by Jay

Check more discussion of this question.

Why do chocolate chips stay softer after being baked?

Question

I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that after baking chocolate chip cookies, the chocolate chips are still melted; or at least a lot softer than before you bake the cookies.

It's logical that the chips melt, when they are in the oven, and even half an hour later. But why are they still softer the day after? What's the explanation behind this? It's as if the melting point has lowered.

Or am I imagining things?

Asked by Mien

Answer

Chocolate is in is most essential form made up of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. The chocolate you buy is tempered, the crystals in the cocoa butter are aligned and properly formed, this is what keeps it shiny and gives it a snap.

When the chocolate melts, without tempering, in the cookie the crystals in the cocoa butter melt but do not form properly again, this means the chocolate becomes soft, dull and 'blooms' fat which is where the cocoa butter rises to the surfaces forming a white layer (this will disappear upon melting).

Also in a cookie there will be a high proportion of fat and when the chocolate melts it combines with the fats (in the butter) and will create essentially pockets of chocolate glaze, which obviously doesn't set hard.

Answered by Sebiddychef

Check more discussion of this question.

Adding lemon to cookie recipe

Question

What is the best way to add lemon flavor to a cookie recipe? I know lemon juice is highly acidic, I don't want to throw off the PH of the dough. Is lemon extract the same way? Lemon zest? Is there a way to compensate for that?

Asked by Yamikuronue

Answer

Try using lemon zest (lemon peel shavings) and lemon or lime juice. You might try sprinkling the zest over the top of the cookies right before you put them in if you don't get enough flavor from adding it to the batter

Answered by It Grunt

Check more discussion of this question.

What are macaron “feet”?

Question

This question mentions macaron "feet". What are macaron feet?

Answer

Take a look at this photo:

The feet is the ruffle on the edges.

Check more discussion of this question.

Are there a better ways to crush biscuits/cookies than a rolling pin?

Question

Can the old trick of putting biscuits (cookies or crackers to Americans) in a plastic bag and hitting them with a rolling pin be improved upon?

Answer

Generally, I've only heard of the plastic bag or the food processor.

I have seen people who just bash the packet of biscuits on the kitchen top. Jamie Oliver likes to do that with slabs of chocolate!

Otherwise use a heavy duty snack-lock bag or else wrap the plastic bag in a tea towel.

It helps to have a small hole for the air to escape.

Check more discussion of this question.

What's a good way to crush biscuits?

Question

Can the old trick of putting them in a plastic bag and hitting them with a rolling pin be improved upon?

Answer

Generally, I've only heard of the plastic bag or the food processor.

I have seen people who just bash the packet of biscuits on the kitchen top. Jamie Oliver likes to do that with slabs of chocolate!

Otherwise use a heavy duty snack-lock bag or else wrap the plastic bag in a tea towel.

It helps to have a small hole for the air to escape.

Check more discussion of this question.

Cookies called monte cows?

Question

A family member recently inherited a recipe for some simple but delicious crumbly cookies from her grandmother. They consist of flour, sugar, and canola oil with cinnamon on top.

The grandmother in question calls them "monte cows". No one knows the correct pronunciation, meaning or origin of the name. Does something by a similar name exist? What is it really called and why?

Answer

The way my French boyfriend and French roommate (both with Spanish grandmothers) pronounce the name, it does sound like "Monte Cows," or "monte cailloux." As far as I have been explained this cookie have resulted from a mix ofMuslim/Ottoman cuisine and Spanish cuisine; it's definitely not French. It is also affectionately referred to as a "poor person's cookie" because of its super-simple ingredients.

The recipe is a simple ratio of 3:2:1 -- 3 parts flour, two parts sugar, one part oil (we've used canola or peanut, both work well). We've used measuring cups or just regular mugs or even small bowls and it has worked every time. If they're a tiny bit dry and crumble too easily when you're shaping them, adding a tiny bit more oil helps keep everything together. Cinnamon sprinkled on top is great, and I tried adding a tiny half-teaspoon of almond extract once.

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I “save” my Christmas Cookies (Venetians)?

Question

I am making my favorite Christmas cookie. They are called Venetians. They are a layered marzipan bar cookie.

Here is a recipe.

So, I just took them out of the oven -- and while the tops are perfectly cooked -- the bottoms got too toasty. I have taken them out of the pan and put they on cooling racks. I expect to let them cool well before putting on the jam and layering. I will then let them set overnight before putting on the chocolate top and cutting.

But darn-it -- the bottoms are too toasty. In fact they are just this side of being burned. I am not sure why. The oven must have gotten way too hot, or the greasing pan before I put the wax paper on must have gotten too hot too fast. Whatever -- now I need to figure out what to do. And they are suppose to be delicate -- not have a crunchy layer!

I would "cut the layer of burn off" -- but there isn't a layer to do this. The layers are less than 1/4 of inch think as it is. I honestly don't think I can without wrecking it. I could try to "scrape it" -- but they are so delicate. I could add some sweetened whipped cream to the toasty side. I could . . .

Ideas? What should I do to save these delicate "masterpieces" so that I can still enjoy the results (even if I don't give them away anymore).

Answer

Well, here is what I did to "save the cookies" --

With one batch I put them together with the jam, pressed them overnight, cut them in squares, put them in a pan with EggNog, let them soak overnight,turned them over and soaked them a little more.

With a second batch I did the same as above-- but I also added some Amaretto during the soaking process.

I served them with a sprig of mint. and a drizzle of dark chocolate. They were a hit. The overcooking created a biscotti-ness prior to the soaking-- and left the final desert, yummy, and of a firm enough texture to still hold together as a dessert!

So, that is how I ended up saving the over-cooked Venetians.

Check more discussion of this question.

How to Rescue Too-Soft Cookie Dough Made with Butter Substitute?

Question

The other day I made a batch of sugar cookies intending to roll them out and cut into shapes. I used the standard Martha Stewart's recipe, but didn't have butter, so I used Smart Balance Lite Margarine. Needless to say the dough didn't get stiff enough to cut or roll, even though its been refrigerated for more than 24 hours. Is there anyway to either use this dough as is OR to add ingredients to the dough to make it more stiff?

Answer

I don't believe you will be satisfied with any cookies you roll out and cut from this dough. That said, there are three options that may allow the dough to find a tasty future.

1. Make a 'Mega Cookie': roll the dough out and fit it onto a pizza tin and bake. This can be decorated as one large cookie/pizza.

2. Make 'Brownies': work the dough into an 8"x8" or 9"x13" pan and bake.

3. 'Cupcakes': scoop a spoonful of dough into each compartment of muffin tin and bake.

Of course you will have to watch to get them done enough as the standard bake time probably won't apply.

If your recipe doesn't include eggs (or you are not concerned with the risk that raw eggs may pose) adding it to homemade ice cream would be a fourth option.

Good luck.

Check more discussion of this question.

Recipes for cookie cutters vs drop cookies

Question

Today I made a batch of sugar cookies using my new snowflake-shaped cookie cutters; when I pulled them out, they had puffed so much they became flower-shaped instead. What should I look for in a recipe to use cookie cutters on versus one that would be better for drop cookies or a sliced log? Specifically, I suppose I don't want them to rise much after cutting - do I want less leavening? Smaller flour to butter ratio? How much?

Answer

A couple of things will lead to less spreading:

Shortening instead of butter - butter contains up to 20% water. When it reaches 212F/100C, it turns to steam, expands, and causes things to rise/puff. Also, shortening, as a more processed/refined fat, has a more even melting point, which would cause it to spread less. If you want the flavor of butter, consider butter-flavored shortening. If you must use butter, use clarified butter instead, as it has most of the moisture removed.

Refrigerate the dough -- the fat will melt later, causing less spreading by the time the starches and proteins set.

Egg whites -- stiffens a dough.

White vs. brown sugar - brown sugar contains more moisture than refined white sugar.

Check more discussion of this question.