<p>Alright, I come from an Indian family and let me tell you my mom is an AMAZING cook, but not so much on the American side lol. So, today we’re going to try baking cookies (and yes we’re the family who usually goes out to Jewel and buys them, so this is all new to us) and if i recall past times we have tried baking them they always turned out burnt on the bottom. Why is this???</p>
<p>It’s so annoying!!! How can prevent this?</p>
<p>FYI - we’re using a premade mix so nothing really special. Tips are really appreciated :)</p>
<p>The easiest way to produce good cookies is to go buy a package of Nestle chocolate chips and follow the recipe for Tollhouse cookies on the back. </p>
<p>If they are burning on the bottom, you are cooking them too long. or you are placing the pan on a rack too close to the bottom of the oven. Or you are not preheating the oven. Or some combination of the three, although simply cooking too long is the most likely issue.</p>
<p>One way to protect the bottoms from burning is to use the type of cookie sheet with an “air” cushion. It helps.</p>
<p>(I really can’t imagine using a mix for cookies…I didn’t even know there was such a thing.)</p>
<p>Use the Betty Crocker packets. We think the chocolate chip mix is almost as good as homemade from the Tollhouse recipe! When the suggested time is, say, 9 to 11 minutes. Start out with the 9 minutes and check carefully. Maybe your oven bakes ‘hot’–you could check it with an oven thermometer. Another option is to bake them in a slightly cooler oven than is suggested. Just add more time and watch carefull.</p>
<p>Use a light-colored cookie sheet, preferably one that is heavy (which means thick). I use aluminum pans from a restaurant supply store - you don’t have to get something expensive to have it work well.</p>
<p>To be really sure that the bottoms don’t get too dark, you can tear off a long sheet of parchment paper and lay it on the bottom of the pan - plop your cookie dough on the parchment instead of directly onto the pan. This isn’t needed for something like a chocolate chip cookie, but it will help with a delicate butter cookie.</p>
<p>Make sure your oven is heating to the temperature you think it is. Use an oven thermometer if you have one.</p>
<p>If a recipe says “Bake 10-12 minutes”, always take them out at 10 minutes and check the bottom of a cookie. Often what you want is for the bottom and the sides to be just golden - not dark. If the cookies still seem very soft, you can leave the cookies on the pan for two or three minutes to firm up before putting them onto cooling racks. They will continue to cook while they are cooling.</p>
<p>I love making cookies :-).</p>
<p>(Oops - I somehow missed all the great advice above. Never mind!)</p>
<p>You can also make sure to chill the dough thoroughly beforehand – this will help them stay nice and round instead of spreading out. This way, they have less surface area and will not cook through as quickly.</p>
<p>And, hardworker, since you have gotten some good cookie-baking advice, I hope you will post some good Indian cooking advice for the American cooks! :D</p>
<p>I bake mine on the bottom of an edged cookie pan (upside down). It allows the air to circulate under the pan instead of sitting directly on the rack. Sometimes it works…sometimes not </p>
<p>I also have better luck when using Crisco rather than butter. I thought good old fashioned butter would be best…like “grandma used to make”, but I’ve never had much luck w/ it.</p>
<p>I also heard some interesting advice on a recent NPR episode that it helps to mix a little water with the flour first, or to refridgerate the dough first. Neither prevent burning. Rather, though some chemical reaction (non-chemist here), they help create cookies that are not “crumbly”.</p>
<p>Preheat the oven for a long time. Try not to leave it open when you put the cookies in–the goal is to maintain the temperature, not have the bottom burner come on, which is what is burning the cookies. I put a couple of granite tiles–just ordinary granite tiles–in the bottom of the oven to act as a thermal reservoir. The same thing is accomplished by using an expensive pizza stone.</p>
<p>The New York Times had a great article on butter and cookies just a few days ago.</p>
<p>I second the advice about using a light-colored cookie sheet. We have an old darkened one, and the cookies always brown much more on the bottom when we use it, instead of one of the new light-colored aluminum ones.</p>
<p>Most of these are good tips, but they’re not solving your problem of being “burned”. Take them out while they still look glossy in the middle, but when the edges start to turn golden brown.</p>
<p>The reason you’re burning your cookies is that when you take them out of the oven, they experience something called “carryover”… they’re still cooking for a good minute or two after you take them out. So if they look done when you take them out of the oven, they’re not done… They’re way <em>more</em> than done. You don’t know it yet, but they’re already burned because they’re going to continue to cook past that perfect-looking “done” point even after you’ve taken them out of the oven.</p>
<p>After they’re out of the oven and have been cooling on the cookie sheet for a bit, when they look like they’re done enough that you can pick them up using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. They should be chewy and delicious. You don’t have to change anything else… not the pans, not anything. You can experiment with changing out the pans later, but you should be able to produce non-burned cookies on any baking surface that you have available.</p>
<p>Baking is more of a science than cooking. When you cook you can experiment, taste as you go along, etc. With baking you have to follow the recipe exactly.</p>
<p>One thing to make sure of is that you are measuring correctly. Dry ingredients need to be measured in dry measuring cups, whereas wet ingredients need wet measuring cups. </p>
<p>As someone above noted, it is crucial that the oven is preheated. </p>
<p>Decent pans are a must, but more important is using parchment paper. Nothing sticks to parchment paper and you don’t have to deal with buttering the cookie sheet.</p>
<p>I tend to bake cookies just slightly less time than recommended. That way they tend to be a little more chewy and moist instead of crisp…just don’t undercook too muh or they will be gooey and yucky.
I am wondering if your over needs to be calibrated ?
Sometimes the temperature is just too far off. Do you notice other foods tha you are cooking are not working out right either ?
BTW, lots of very good advice in these posts !</p>
<p>I have a baking question: Some recipes call for unsalted butter. What difference does it make to the final product? If I use regular salted butter, will they come out wrong?</p>
<p>Unsalted butter lets you salt to your own preference. Also, and possibly more important, salt is a preservative and is sometimes added to older butter to cover its losing flavor as it ages. Never buy salted butter, or so says Martha Stewart.</p>
<p>Baking certainly needs to be more precise than cooking, especially proportions, but there’s no need to stick to a recipe exactly. It’s a good idea when you’re starting out, but once you get the hang of making cookies, don’t be afraid to experiment. Using butter vs. margarine vs. shortening will give a very different flavor to the same cookie recipe. Adding more vanilla, almond extract, or other flavoring will make a cookie your own. Using regular sugar, light brown sugar or dark brown sugar will also change the flavor.</p>
<p>I just made the Deluxe Double-Chocolate Cookies from the Scharffen Berger web site. It’s a recipe from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, and the cookies are amazingly good, very rich and fudgy.</p>
<p>This is a recipe that demonstrates very well how cookies keep cooking after you take them out of the oven. I followed the recipe exactly as written; it says to take the cookies (which are pretty big) out of the oven after only 7 minutes. The cookie top looks like it’s beginning to be set, but the whole cookie looks completely undercooked. You don’t leave them on the pan at all - you take them off immediately to put on racks. They end up perfect. Really, really good.</p>
<p>About butter - I always use unsalted butter because it has a fresh, clean taste. I use only kosher salt because it seems to taste better too.</p>
<p>Here’s an easy cookie that doesn’t last long at our house:
But slice and bake peanut butter cookie dough. Put into the freezer long enough to make it somewhat hard. Slice into approximately 3/4" slices and then quarter those pieces. Put into mini-muffin pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 9 minutes at 350. As soon as these come out, place a miniature Reese’s Cup into the cookie and chill until cookies are firm. Like anything with peanut butter and chocolate, my preference is to keep them cold.</p>
<p>Another easy one that is lower in fat - we call them Forget 'Em Cookies:
Beat 2 egg whites until foamy and add a dash of salt. Add 3/4 cup of sugar one teaspoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Add 6 ounces of chocolate chips and 1 tsp. vanilla and spoon onto cookie sheets covered in aluminum foil. Place in oven that has been preheated to 350 and turn off the heat leaving the cookies in at least 8 hours, preferably overnight. Like any type of meringue, they are best made when it isn’t damp/raining.</p>
<p>2VU0609: We make these too, only we call them forgotten cookies. S1 and D1 have already eaten the first batch so are making another batch this evening.</p>
<p>OP: If you have a convection oven, remember that everything heats much faster than just a regular oven. If a cookie recipie says 10-12 minutes, I usually need to take mine out after 8 minutes (a lot of the newer wall ovens are convection with a fan for more even cooking and baking).</p>
<p>Can someone help me with my problem? Lately my cookies have been really flat. I haven’t changed the recipe or anything so I don’t know what could be causing it. Also, does changing the butter to shortening really help make them taller?</p>
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