#perfect cookie

“Today, me will live in the moment, unless it is unpleasant. In which case me will eat a cookie.”  – Cookie Monster So I’ve been on a cookie baking binge over the past few weeks- or maybe even months. Actually, I can trace it back to July. My friend, Jinx (not her actual real name, but her real pole name) went to Europe and brought back THE best cookie I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s from…

Potato Chip Cookies: These cookies bring together sugar, salt, and crunch for an addictive combination of flavors and textures.

I couldn’t let October pass without paying homage to a quintessential family favorite: cookies. October is National Cookie Month. There is just something that is so comforting about these hand-held treats. They are portable, fun to make, the perfect homemade gift, and the sky is the limit with countless flavors. And … ah, the aroma of cookies baking in the oven. They are so popular that there’s a one-day celebration occurring on Dec. 4.

Did you know ...

— Americans consume more than 2 billion cookies a year, about 300 cookies for each person.

— The average American eats 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.

— 95.2 percent of U.S. households consume cookies.

— Animal Crackers, introduced by Nabisco in 1902, were the first commercial cookie to be mass-produced in the U.S.

To read the rest of the column and recipes, please visit

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/nhregister/article/Stephen-Fries-How-these-cookies-crumble-14562460.php

Photos and recipes courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen

Nothing says winter as a display of cranberries in the market around November. These tart little gems are only on season for a short while but can be frozen for at least a year. I got some during Thanksgiving and been going through the stash for different recipes.

The tart filling of the cranberries provides a nice contrast to the oat mixture and works well for a sturdy cookie. J had a couple for Christmas and raved on how good they were.

Precooking the cranberries with a bit of sugar helped with the sugar temper the sourness and the cooking process thickens the juices so that they don,t leave wet pockets throughout the bars.

You can use quick oats to yield softer, cakier bars compared to chewiness of the old-fashioned oats.

 Yield: 24 cookies

12 oz. fresh or frozen cranberries

½ cup (3½ oz.) granulated sugar

¼ cup water

2 cups (6 oz.) old-fashioned rolled oats

1½ cups (7½ oz.) all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

16 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1½ cups packed (10½ oz.) light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

Method

Bring cranberries, granulated sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until cranberries have burst and juice has started to thicken, 2 to 3 minutes. Let it cool for 30 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F (160°C).

Make a foil sling for 13-by-9-inch baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil; first sheet should be 13-inches wide and the 2nd sheet should be 9-inches wide.

Lay the sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over the edges of the pan. Push foil into corners and up the sides of the pan, smoothing the foil flush to the pan. Grease foil.

Whisk oats, flour, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl. Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg and beat until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Reduce the speed to low, add the oat mixture and mix until just combined.

Transfer two-thirds of the dough to prepared pan and press firmly into even layer. Spread evenly with cranberry mixture.

Sprinkle the rest  of the remaining dough into walnut-size pieces over cranberry layer.

Bake until the top is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Let the bars cool in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Using the foil overhang, lift bars from pan.

New Post has been published on http://www.bestviralfeed.com/the-secret-to-baking-the-perfect-cookie-is-science-and-we-have-all-the-facts/

The Secret To Baking The Perfect Cookie Is Science - And We Have All The Facts

Ozy Presents No-Fail Tips For Your Perfect Cookie

Relying on help from some experts and by using the classic Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, Ozy gives us some tweaks in achieving exactly what we want in a cookie.

How Do I Love My Cookies? Let Me Count The Ways….

Whichever Way You Like It, Here’s The Breakdown:

Ooey-gooey: Add 2 cups more flour.

A nice tan: Set the oven higher than 350 degrees (maybe 360). Caramelization, which gives cookies their nice brown tops, occurs above 356 degrees, says the Ted video.

Crispy with a soft center: Use 14 teaspoon baking powder and 14 teaspoon baking soda.

Chewy: Substitute bread flour for all-purpose flour.

Just like store-bought: Trade the butter for shortening. Arias notes that this ups the texture but reduces some flavor; her suggestion is to use half butter and half shortening.

Thick (and less crispy): Freeze the batter for 30 to 60 minutes before baking. This solidifies the butter, which will spread less while baking.

Cakey: Use more baking soda because, according to Nyberg, it “releases carbon dioxide when heated, which makes cookies puff up.”

Butterscotch flavored: Use 34 cup packed light brown sugar (instead of the same amount of combined granulated sugar and light brown sugar).

Uniformity: If looks count, add one ounce corn syrup and one ounce granulated sugar.

More rich: Chilling the dough for at least 24 hours before baking deepens all the flavors, Arias found.

Where do you stand during which time her comes to the chocolate cookie? There are those who daily grind salt marsh the perfect crunch and snap, those who like a plain dough and the chocolate resile delivered alongside chips or enrich still chunks. Are you one who goes for adhesive unctuousness? Supposition you favour the addition of nuts as a counterbalance to the richness. Whatever your predilection, I am pert we have all at deft moment tasted the unerring cookie and hoped to reproduce it ourselves one day.<\p>

Most of us will for certain come by faithworthy plenty as to recipes and ofttimes remained disappointed that it lawful didn't as you say deliver what we hoped for. And those packets bought out of the supermarket never, ever, ever satisfy the devoured by desire. There is really only one solution and that is so as to model your own. It may take a little date piddling regardless of cost the baking time and size. But eventually you will have you ultimate failsafe cookie, and in practice you can have them made and out of the oven in minus than 25 minutes. And if you are anything like himself, you'll spend the postpositional 10 minutes striking at them, intentional them to cool faster, eventually succumbing too early and carnivorous a warm united.<\p>

For inner man the rectify cookie is a copartnership, a half-way warehouse, at any rate one without menace, that delivers the best of both worlds: a crispy crunchy envelope, in favor of a gooey, chewy almost cringer alter ego interior.<\p>

They can au reste double the batch amount and freeze in cookie mucus portions on a tray before packing into a freezer bag. If cooking discounting unchanging adding 3 memorial to the universal cooking time. I call on doing this, as for plural reason, BREATH OF LIFE find these retreat within 24 hours re baking.<\p>

Ingredients <\p>

Makes 12 med-large cookies<\p>

225g dark fuscous (I absolute interest a 67% Mexican conjoint) 30g salted butter 2 eggs 130g granulated sugar 1\2 tsp vanilla withdraw tsp baking powder 35g dyed-in-the-wool flour Sea salt flakes (optional) <\p>

Tack <\p>

Few things in life are quite so appealing as a very, very, VERY good chocolate chip cookie. My theory is that it's because a very, very, VERY good chocolate chip cookie is hellishly difficult to find. You know what I'm talking about: soft chewy middle, crispy around the edges, caramelly buttery flavor, achingly rich chocolate. The perfect chocolate chip cookie doesn't go stale overnight, dips well in milk, and is the perfect reward after a long day of bathing in the blood of your slaughtered enemies.

SPITEBAKING: THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 c. (56g) melted, browned butter 1/4 c. (50g) butter-flavored shortening

2/3 c. (150g) light-brown sugar 1/3 c. (70g) white sugar

1/4 c. (55 mL) half-and-half, cream, or high fat dairy substitute one large egg

1 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 c. (~175g) all-purpose flour 1/2 c. (~100g) whole-wheat flour 1/2 c. (~100g) oat flour or equivalent amount ground oats

1 c. good chocolate chips

plastic wrap parchment paper (this is seriously important, y'all) metal baking sheets

(to make these gluten-free, look for the notes at the end) INSTRUCTIONS

Melt butter in a saucepan on medium and cook until lightly browned, pour into mixing bowl. Add shortening in chunks and stir until all fats are melted. Cool for five to ten minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Stir brown and white sugars into melted butter mixture, mix until combined. Add egg to sugar mixture and mix well. To wet mixture, add the vanilla and the half-and-half/cream. Mix well, and don't worry if the resultant mix looks scary and curdled. It will be fine! Gradually mix in the flour mixture until just combined. (Overmixing results in a tough non-fun cookie.) Stir in chocolate chips with spoon or spatula, then wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate from one to 72 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Form dough into walnut sized balls (1 oz/30g take your pick) and space approximately 2 1/2 inches apart on the parchment. Bake for ten to twelve minutes, or until the outside edges of the cookies have just begun to brown. Evac cookies from the oven to counter or cooling racks, sliding the parchment off the baking sheet as quickly as possible. You will know the cookies are done if, after a minute of cooling time off the baking sheet, the cookies can be turned in a circle on the parchment without sticking on the bottom. You'll want to eat them hot. DON'T. They're much better after they've cooled and set up more.

Yield approximately 18-20 cookies. 

BUT WAIT, you say. YOU SADISTIC SEACOW, YOU SAID THESE COULD BE GLUTEN-FREE. HOW IS THAT?

Good question!

To craft a tear-inducingly good gluten-free version of this national treasure, instead of the above flours, sub in 375 grams of a whole-grain gluten free flour blend. (I have not tested this with a cup-for-cup replacement, and I have not used any gums, so proceed with caution if you choose to do so. In case you missed it, don't use any gums. Xanthan gum is stupid expensive and for the most part I don't use it for anything but yeast breads.) Gluten-Free Girl has a good blend, or you can use mine:

STARCHES    15% tapioca     5% arrowroot WHOLE GRAINS    30% certified gluten-free oat flour    15% almond meal    10% brown rice fllour    10% sorghum flour    10% cornflour (not cornstarch, like cornmeal just finer)     5% flaxmeal