COOKIE BASICS

THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF COOKIE RECIPES in circulation. Over the years, we have made many of these recipes in our test kitchen and we have come to one startling conclusion. The simplest cookies are usually the best. Chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter cookies are popular for a reason. They may not be much to look at, but they usually taste better than a fancy cookie that requires a rolling pin, complicated shaping, and icing.

This book explains how to make these classic American cookies, everything from snickerdoodles to molasses-spice cookies. We have tested every variable to come up with recipes that will work every time.

KEY INGREDIENTS

Keep the following items on hand and you will be prepared to make most of the recipes in this book.

BAKING POWDER AND BAKING SODA Cookies are leavened with either baking powder or baking soda. Although cookies do not rise as much as cakes, the leavener does provide some lift and can affect the texture of the cookie.

Baking soda is only fully effective if there is an acid component, such as buttermilk, in the batter for it to react with and create carbon dioxide. In an alkaline (low acid) batter, a teaspoon of baking powder is a more effective leavening agent than an equal amount of soda. Many cookie doughs do not contain acidic ingredients, so baking powder is the most commonly used leavener. Some cookie doughs do contain acidic ingredients, such as brown sugar, molasses, or cocoa, and baking soda may be used in these recipes.

BUTTER We do not recommend using margarine or shortening in most cookie recipes. These fats cannot give cookies the same rich flavor as butter.

We tested eight brands of butter in a variety of recipes to see if the brand or the fat content would make a difference. Higher-fat, European-style butters do make a creamier, richer buttercream frosting, but when making cookies (and most other dishes), we found that freshness is more important than the fat content or a specific brand.

Exposure to light and air will make butter rancid (that's why some sticks are wrapped in foil not paper), as can warm temperatures. The butter compartment on most refrigerator doors tends to be warmer than the rest of the refrigerator and is not the best place to store butter. If you don't use much butter, store it in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer and pull out individual sticks as needed. Butter will maintain peak freshness for several months in the freezer, but no more than two or three weeks in the refrigerator.

One final note about butter. We use unsalted butter when making cookies. We like its sweet, delicate flavor. Peanut butter cookies are the exception to this rule. Salted butter helps bring out the flavor of the peanuts. Otherwise, we prefer the cleaner, fresher flavor of unsalted butter.

CHOCOLATE CHIPS Most cookie recipes rely on semisweet chips to supply the chocolate flavor. In our testing of major brands, we found that the chips that tasted best straight out of the bag tasted best in cookies. Nestlé, Guittard, Ghirardelli, and Tropical Source (a brand sold in natural food stores) all received high marks.

COCOA In its natural state, cocoa powder is mildly acidic. Many manufacturers, especially European ones, add an alkaline solution to neutralize the acidity. This processing, called dutching, mellows some of the bitterness and harshness of natural cocoa.

We have found that the choice of natural or dutched cocoa powder often makes a difference in the flavor and appearance of a cookie. In our tests, cookies made with dutched cocoa had a rounder, richer chocolate flavor than those made with natural cocoa. Also, cookies with dutched cocoa were darker and judged more attractive. In a blind tasting of twelve brands of cocoa, we particularly liked dutched cocoas made by Van Leer, Pernigotti, Valrhona, Droste, and Merckens.

EGGS We used large eggs in all the recipes in this book. Cold eggs can cause batters to separate and are harder to mix with other ingredients, so let the eggs sit out on the counter for an hour or two, or warm them in a bowl of hot tap water for five minutes.

FLOUR Cookies are generally made with all-purpose flour. Bread flour is too high in protein and will make cookies dry and tough. Cake flour is too low in protein and will make sandy, crumbly cookies. There are two kinds of all-purpose flour, bleached and unbleached. Bleached flour is treated with chlorine to whiten it and some sources suggest that this process gives the flour a faint off flavor. We wanted to find out, so we tested bleached and unbleached flour in various cookie recipes.