If you run a search for How to Make Cookies, you’ll come back with tens of thousands of results. The first page is, invariably, filled with specific cookie recipes. Oh no, not here, my friends. Here you shall find the top-secret formula for making basic drop cookies. Adjust it as you wish to create sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles…you get the idea.
If you follow the steps below, you will end up with basic cookies. They won’t have much flair, but you could sprinkle sugar on the top before baking or, like my 4 year old suggested today, add ginger and cinnamon for a twist. There are no measurements except “about that much.”
The Ingredients
- Unsalted butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Flour
A few notes
- The amount of butter you add determines a lot about the loft of the cookies. A little whipped butter = fluffy cookies. A lot of butter = dense cookies.
- I always use granulated white sugar, but brown sugar, or even molasses or jaggery might work. Play around.
- You have to add salt. Period.
- I shoot for about 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
- Be careful with the flour. Whole wheat bread flour will yield tough, tough, tough cookies unless you accommodate with the baking powder. You can use oatmeal or rice flour, but the dynamics will be different.
The Method
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Add the butter to a large mixing bowl, preferably for a stand mixer like a KitchenAid. Start whipping it up (KitchenAid users: the paddle attachment works better in my opinion).
- Add enough sugar to make a nice, glossy paste.
- Crack in the eggs and beat until smooth.
- Add the salt, baking powder and whatever other spices will be in there. Save large ingredients like chips until last.
- Add the flour in heaping spoonfuls and mix just enough to form a dough.*
- Mix in large ingredients.
- Taste. Does it taste right? If it doesn’t, figure out why and adjust.
- Spoon onto a large, foil lined baking sheet. Pop in the oven until the edges are brown and/or the tops are firm.
* You add the flour last to keep the gluten from getting all tough and nasty. Many cookie recipes ignore this basic tenet of baking science. Unless you specifically want the gluten to toughen up (some breads, for example) always work the flour as little as possible.
In the Wild Example
I made cookies using this method this afternoon.
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 cup white flour
I baked them at 350F for 12 minutes. They were a bit on the sweet side for my tastes, so I’ll drop the sugar to 3/4 cup next time. However, they were the perfect cookie consistency. Chewing edges with a soft, fluffy middle.
My daughter and I whipped the batter up in less than 5 minutes, and 15 minutes after we popped them in the over her sisters were home and we were all nomming on cookies.
Storage
Do not store homemade cookies. If you use an airtight container, you may get a day or two out of them, but they’ll get hard very quickly. This is why it’s important to not follow recipes exactly. Make only as much as you can use within the next 48 hours (preferably, as much as you need for the baking occasion). The above recipe created a dozen cookies, which will all be gone as soon as The Husband sets foot in the door.
Conclusion
Bake cookies often, and enjoy. =)
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