For some reason I still don't understand, I decided to try my hand at baking cookies this weekend. Being a first time baking geek (already a fairly accomplished dinner geek) I thought I'd start small, with some simple sugar cookies.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of margerine or butter-flavored shortening
1 cup of sugar
1 and 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt.
1 egg
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of almond extract
1 tbsp of milk
Tools:
Mixer
Baking Sheets
Baking parchment, or in my case, SILPATs. (You can also grease the cookie sheet.)
Bowls for mixing ingredients.
A fork
A Whisk
Measuring spoons & cups.
Disher
Directions:
Start heating the oven to 375°
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer, until light and fluffy.
Add the egg, milk, and extracts. Mix thorougly.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix thoroughly.
Scoop balls of the mixture onto the papers and place on the baking sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Yield:
About 18 to 24 cookies.
Results:
Less than spectacular. The cookies were tasty, but not quite done all the way to the center. The bottoms were considerably more done than the rest, being a light shade of brown. Instead of regular, flat sugar cookies, I ended up with more dome shaped cookies. The freshness of the cookies was short lived, and they were a bit stale by early next morning, when the remainder were consumed.
Theory:
I would guess that the shape of the cookies was due to the fact that I used margerine (Smart Balance, to be exact) rather than regular unsalted butter. Butter has a very sharp, and somewhat low melting point, which means it spreads very easily during baking. Margerine, or shortening, has a higher melting point, so it will stay solid and in shape much longer. This accounts for both the shape of the cookies, and their relative doneness. Smooshing the balls down in two directions with a fork, similar to peanut butter cookies, allowed for better heat distribution throughout the cookies and yielded better results as far as doneness. I can live with a slightly more done bottom, all it really is, is carmelization, after all. Which is darn tasty.
As for the staleness the next morning... I have noticed that the seal on the container I put the cookies in was cracked. So equivalent to storing them out in the open, the cookies gathered up a little more moisture than they needed. Still tasty, but the texture left a little to be desired.
Next Steps:
I may try this recipe again, with butter instead of margerine. After that, my two favorites await: Oatmeal Rasin cookies, and Peanut Butter cookies.
See you on the next go-around.
CS
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