Butter and sugar can be creamed by hand, but an electric mixer (either handheld or standing) is quicker and more efficient. Most cooks don't cream the butter and sugar long enough and don't get as much volume as they should. The beating times for recipes in this book are for an electric mixer. If you beat the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon, the times will be several minutes longer, depending on your hand strength and speed. When the butter and sugar have lightened in color and become fluffy, you can stop.

Once the butter and sugar are creamed, most recipes call for the addition of eggs and vanilla or other liquids. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature so they don't cause the batter to curdle. At this point, the dry ingredients can be stirred into the batter. You can use an electric mixer—just make sure the speed is set to low.

In many old-fashioned recipes, the flour, leavener, and salt are sifted together before being added to the batter. This was necessary when flour was often lumpy straight from the bag. However, modern flour is presifted and we find this step unnecessary for making cookies. We simply whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl to make sure that the leavener and salt are evenly distributed in the batter.

The final step in the dough-making process is to add solid ingredients, like chocolate chips and nuts. These should be stirred in by hand since a mixer might break them apart.

SHAPING COOKIES

There are several ways to manipulate a finished dough in order to change the appearance or texture of the baked cookies. In order to inhibit spreading in the oven (and thus prevent the cookies from becoming too thin), chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

How the dough is shaped into small pieces will also affect the appearance of the cookies. The cookies in this book all rely on simple shaping methods. (Cookies that require a rolling pin and cutter are not considered.) The doughs in this book are handled in one of three ways.

DROPPED This is the quickest way to get the dough into the oven. The dough is dropped from a spoon directly onto a cookie sheet. Because the pieces of dough are not round, they spread unevenly in the oven. The result is cookies with thin, crisp edges and thicker centers.

MOLDED For molded or shaped cookies, each piece of dough is rolled into a ball or otherwise manipulated by hand before being placed on a cookie sheet. When rolled into a ball, the dough is often rolled in sugar before being baked. Shaping the dough into a ball promotes even spreading and thickness in the baked cookies.

ROLLED AND SLICED The dough is rolled into a log using a piece of plastic wrap, refrigerated until firm, and then sliced into thin rounds and placed on a cookie sheet. These cookies are called icebox, refrigerator, or slice-and-bake cookies. Sandwich cookies are made from thinly sliced cookies that are cooled and then filled with jam or chocolate and sandwiched together.

BAKING TIPS

To make sure that all the cookies on the baking sheet are done at the same time, follow these general rules:

Always preheat the oven.

Measure the batter so that cookies will all be the same size.

Make sure to leave enough room between pieces of dough for cookies to spread in the oven. Two inches is usually a safe distance.

Halfway through the baking time reverse the top and bottom sheets and also rotate each sheet from back to front.

Watch the clock and check the cookies a few minutes before the recipe indicates they will be done. Ovens vary (you should check yours with an oven thermometer) and cookies will go from underbaked to overbaked in a very few minutes.

Consider underbaking the cookies a bit, especially if you like them soft and chewy. Allow them to firm up on the sheets for several minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

When making second and third batches, do not place dough directly onto hot cookie sheets. This causes excess spreading and uneven baking because it will probably take you a few minutes to get all the dough on the sheet. You may arrange pieces of dough on parchment, slide the parchment onto a hot cookie sheet, and then place the cookie sheet immediately in the oven. The hot cookie sheet isn't a problem as long as all the pieces of dough get onto the sheet at the same time and the sheet is immediately put in the oven.

STORING COOKIES

If you want to keep cookies for several days, we suggest storing them in a metal tin at room temperature. You can restore just-baked freshness to chewy cookies by wrapping a single cookie in a sheet of paper towel and microwaving it until soft, 15 to 25 seconds. Cool microwaved cookies before serving. This technique works best with oversized cookies like peanut butter and oatmeal that should be chewy and a bit soft. Do not try this with cookies that should be crisp.

If you know you can't finish off a batch of cookies in a few days, consider freezing part of the dough. Almost every dough can be frozen either in individual portions or as a block. If you have frozen the dough in balls, simply transfer them to a cookie sheet and bake as directed, extending the time in the oven by a few minutes. If the dough is a solid mass, let it thaw in the refrigerator before shaping and baking it.