Walking into a gathering with a freshly baked batch of cookies is a no-brainer, especially during the holiday season. But achieving the perfect cookie is trickier than it sounds. As any home baker knows, while the ingredients and mixing process are pretty straightforward, the perfect cookie texture is surprisingly elusive. This is because pinpointing exactly…
Knowing When Your Cookies Are Done
That’s where this game-changing baking tip comes in. To determine the perfect time to take your cookies out of the oven, wait until the tops lose their wet, shiny appearance. This signals that the batter has set, as it’s no longer wet enough to reflect light. The cookies will still look very soft, but remember that cookies continue to bake on the sheet after they’ve been removed from the oven. Because of this process (called “carryover cooking”), cookies should look slightly underbaked when they exit the oven.
If you still feel uncertain, you can combine this trick with other visual cues. Most reliably, wait until the edges of the cookies just start to turn golden brown. The key phrase here is “start to.” If the edges have been golden brown for some time, the cookies are most likely going to be overbaked.
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If you want your cookies to look as good as they taste, try this: As soon as they come out of the oven, place a biscuit cutter or wide-mouthed glass over each one. Swirl it very gently to achieve perfectly round cookies. This motion smooths out any irregularities and shapes the cookies into neat-looking circles. Make sure you do this as soon as they come out of the oven, or they won’t be pliable enough.
