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Holiday Baking Tips 0 comments

Secrets to Soft Cookies: Tips & Tricks!

Difficulty Easy

To get soft cookies, there are a few (easy!) secrets. After using these easy baking tips, the soft cookies will be perfect for your cookie jars. Plus, these secrets to soft cookies are very easy to apply to your baking adventure.

Secrets to soft cookies

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Secrets To Soft Holiday Cookies
Cream cheese sugar cookies: One of the softest cookies

Secrets to Soft Cookies

  • Add extra fat: fat = dairy-based or non-dairy base
    • Dairy-based fat in baking: eggs, egg yolks, heavy cream, cream cheese, cheese
    • Non-dairy based fat in baking: seeds, coconut milk, animal protein for savory baking
    • Fat = color, flavor, and richness. It adds smoothness to the taste of your cookies
    • Want proof? Make my cream cheese sugar cookies

  • Add invert sugars: inverted sugars = Simple sugars (a combo of sucrose and fructose)+ water + heat.
    • Simply, it is liquid sugar = light and dark corn syrup, molasses, and honey are the most popular.
    • Adding inverted sugars (AKA inverted syrups) help retain moisture in the cookie. Making ’em super soft and have a long shelf life
    • Make these super-soft gingerbread cookies to see inverted sugar in action

  • Add cornstarch: Endosperm of corn + finely ground = cornstarch
    • Normally, it is used as a thickener for puddings and pastry cream
    • But…it makes cookies (and crusts!) extra crumble-y and tender.
    • It softens any harsh proteins found in flour
    • Powdered sugar = cornstarch and white sugar. That’s why you see many shortbread and sugar cookies made with powdered sugar

  • Underbake Cookies: Cut down the cooking time 2-3 minutes
    • More time = more crispy. Less time = more gooey center
    • Depending on how gooey you want your cookies, shave off 2-3 minutes.
    • The cookies will look slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven

  • Use light-colored cookie sheets: Think gold, silver, or bronze color
    • Light colors = less caramelization from the sugar. So….the bottom of the cookie will be light and golden.
    • Dark color cookie sheets = dark bottom. Better for crispy style cookies like biscotti or tuiles

Apply all tips or one or two to your holiday cookie baking. Enjoy your baking season!

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