Have A Cookie Baking Christmas Season Cookie baking is one of the holiday season's most fun traditions. Not only is it a fun family activity that parents can do with their children but you get a tangible result in the form of lots of cookies! Kids love baking cookies, it's an acitivity where learning, fun and family collide into one joyous and fun time. To get the most out of your cookie baking, here's a few tips: Supplies You'll need some basic supplies to bake cookies. Make sure that you have the following on hand: * Cookie sheets - You'll want to have at least 2 so you can be baking one batch while you are preparing another batch on another sheet. Non-stick pans work great, but you might also consider a silicone baking mat which goes on top of a cookie sheet. Silicon baking mats make cleanup easier but also tend to result in less burned cookies as the heat distribution is better. * Measuring devices - You'll want a Pyrex glass cup for wet ingredients such as oil and water. You'll also want to have a set of plastic measuring cups that range from 1/4 cup to 1 cup for dry ingredients such as flour, sugar and chocolate chips. Lastly, a set of measuring spoons ranging from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon will be needed for things like baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla. * Mixing bowls - You'll want a set of sturdy mixing bowls. Metal or plastic will work fine. Have at least one small, one medium and a couple larger sized bowls. * Mixing devices - Make sure you have several sizes of spoons on hand. You'll want a couple large wood spoons as well as some smaller mixing spoons. For most cookie recipes, you won't need a mixer but you should have one on hand anyway. * Cookie cutters - At the very least, you'll want to have a biscuit cutter so you can create round cookies but for any Christmas cookie baking session, you should have a set of Christmas themed cookie cutters. Made of metal or plastic, you can find them at any grocery store or even dollar stores. * Spatula - To remove the cookies from the sheet, you'll need a spatula. A plastic one will work best and won't scratch your nonstick surface like a metal spatula would. * Cooling rack - To cool your cookies properly, you'll need a cookie rack. Usually made of metal, you might need several depending on how many batches of cookies you will be making. * Frosting tools - If you will be decorating your cookies, you might want to pick up a pastry bag as well as several pastry tips so you can make great looking designs with your frosting. You can also use a plastic baggie with one small tip cut off or a piece of waxed paper rolled into a cone and taped to stay together, with one small end cut off. Ingredients * Flour - Your standard all purpose flour works great. You'll find there are sales for bags of it around the holidays too! * Sugars - You'll want to have at least 1 bag each of white sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar. * Cocoa - A can or box of cocoa powder is called for with some chocolate cookie recipes, so you should have one on hand. * Eggs & Butter - A dozen large eggs are fine. Most cookie recipes call for regular salted butter, but you may want to check the recipes you will be baking to make sure they don't require unsalted butter. * Oils - Some recipes call for vegetable oil, canola works great but just about any vegetable oil will do. * Flavorings & Colorings - Many cookie recipes use vanilla extract, get the real kind, not artificially flavored for best taste. Also, almond is another extract used quite a bit. For colorings, you'll want these for your frosting too. You can usually get a set of coloring bottles around the holidays on sale. * Decorations - Sprinkles, nonpareils, candies, kisses, hard candies, cinnamon candies etc. Whatever your recipe calls for or whatever you like, get a bag or two. Preparation Make sure your kitchen is clean and you have plenty of empty surface to work on. Make sure the sink is empty so you can put dirty dishes and bowls into the sink as soon as you're done with them. To be super organized, you can get all your ingredients ready and put them into small bowls ready for you to use, cooking show style. If a recipe calls for softened butter, leave your butter out for an hour or so before you will start baking. Cookie Baking Tips Always preheat your oven, it should be one of the first things you do. Also, doublecheck that you have set the right temperature. When placing the dough on the cookie sheets, try to make every cookie a uniform size. You can even use a measuring cup, spoon or ice cream scoop so you can get the same size cookie, this is important for proper and even baking. Keep a close eye on the first batch to test the doneness and adjust the temperature and baking time if needed, as every oven tends to be different. During baking, try and rotate the cookie sheets, turn them around and switch racks for more even cooking. Once one batch of cookies is done and you have removed the cookies from it, let the cookie sheet cool for a minute or two before placing the next batch of dough on it, this keeps the dough from spreading too much due to the heat from the last batch. You'll want to leave the cookies on the baking sheet for a minute or so before removing them to lessen the chance of breakage when you remove them and place them on the cooling rack. Saving & Storing Cookies Lastly, store your cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. Let's face it though, if you make the cookies right, you won't be storing them for long! |
