Please help me with cookies

[newbakerman]

Quick question

When I put the dough in the oven how do I shape the dough? What I did was use spoon fulls and shaped then in a circle shape. I think I did it wrong.. should I have rolled them into balls and then put them into the oven?


I am just starting to learn how to bake (from google!). I made my first batch of cookies the other day and they didn't turn out the greatest, I liked them but others said they were too hard (especially around the circumference). I used the best ingredients and followed a recipe I found online that had 3500 reviews and a 4.5/5 rating. Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Baking is not as easy as I thought. I should have payed more attention in home ec. But I can only get better right?

Up next I'm going to make a lemon meringue pie!

Thanks for any tips on how to put cookie dough into the oven to have that soft chewy cookie that everyone craves.

[Addie]

Originally Posted by newbakerman

Quick question
When I put the dough in the oven how do I shape the dough? What I did was use spoon fulls and shaped then in a circle shape. I think I did it wrong.. should I have rolled them into balls and then put them into the oven?

I am just starting to learn how to bake (from google!). I made my first batch of cookies the other day and they didn't turn out the greatest, I liked them but others said they were too hard (especially around the circumference). I used the best ingredients and followed a recipe I found online that had 3500 reviews and a 4.5/5 rating. Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe - Allrecipes.com
Baking is not as easy as I thought. I should have payed more attention in home ec. But I can only get better right?
Up next I'm going to make a lemon meringue pie!
Thanks for any tips on how to put cookie dough into the oven to have that soft chewy cookie that everyone craves.

Well, you probably baked them too long. Or your oven hadn't reached the proper temperature yet. I would suggest that you get an ice cream scoop #20. The less you handle the dough, the better your cookies will turn out. You don't have to shape the cookies before you put them in the oven. They will shape themselves into nice little rounds.

Before placing the tray into the oven, place it with the dough into the fridge for about 5-10 minutes. When you remove your cookies from the oven, the residual heat will continue to bake them. So you need to look at them a couple of minutes before they have used up the stated time. If the recipe says bake 10-12 minutes, then take a peek at nine or ten minutes. The edges should just be beginning to show a slight browning on the edge of the cookie. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Then remove to a cooling rack. Oh, one more thing. Make sure your oven is calibrated to the right temperature. Get a small thermometer and set your oven to 350ºF. When you oven reaches that temp, see what the thermometer says.

Good luck on your new endeavor.

[jessica.]

In addition to the above, consider the amount of flour you're using. I was gifted the William Sonoma baking book which also gives the metric equivalent for their ingredients. I took a digital food scale and calibrated it with my measuring cup. Filling it with flour as I always did, I found out my so called cup of flour was almost a 1 1/8 cups. I find baking is not forgiving as much as cooking. I'm new to baking and cooking but I've found flour messes things up more than not. I also like to use parchment paper but I don't think that does anything for baking, I could be wrong.

[Addie]

Originally Posted by jessica.

In addition to the above, consider the amount of flour you're using. I was gifted the William Sonoma baking book which also gives the metric equivalent for their ingredients. I took a digital food scale and calibrated it with my measuring cup. Filling it with flour as I always did, I found out my so called cup of flour was almost a 1 1/8 cups. I find baking is not forgiving as much as cooking. I'm new to baking and cooking but I've found flour messes things up more than not. I also like to use parchment paper but I don't think that does anything for baking, I could be wrong.

Good point Jessica. Baking is very much a science. It doesn't give you room to experiment or alter a recipe. And no, parchement paper doesn't make a difference except to keeping your tray clean. The only thing it might affect is the browning on the bottom. The darker the tray, the more browning. I use recycled parchment paper. It is brown and contributes to the browning.