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Tips for baking Christmas cookies that are the
best ever
How to make great cookies
every time
Preparations for cookie baking
Baking a lot of Christmas cookies all at once
Freezing cookie dough
How to make great cookies
every time top
There are three keys to baking Christmas cookies that come out delicious
ever time:
One key is in the ingredients.
If you buy quality chocolate, real butter, and genuine vanilla extract
your cookies are always going to taste better than if you get generic
chocolate, butter-flavored shortening, and artificial vanilla. Make
sure your baking powder and baking soda are fresh. They lose their
effectiveness after a few months.
Another key is in having the right
tools. Buy an oven thermometer and make sure that your oven temperature
is accurate. A heavy-duty KitchenAid stand mixer will make things
go much easier and quicker than using a hand-held, and it will cream
cold butter, eliminating the need to soften it which improves the
texture of your cookies. Invest in a couple of quality insulated,
non-stick cookie sheets to prevent your cookies from burning on
the bottom or sticking to the pan. Get a good cookie press for making
spritz, a real springerle roller for making springerle, and a nice
assortment of interesting cookie cutters. These will turn out cookies
with a professional look that will wow your guests.
The last key is technique. Practice
makes perfect, after all. Learn how to roll out your dough without
using too much flour or over-handling it, which can make your sugar
cookies and gingerbread cookies turn out dry and tough. Rolling
the dough out between two sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap
can help with this. When you bake your second batch, never put your
cookie dough on a hot cookie sheet. This will make your cookies
spread. Use a cool cookie sheet every time.
Preparations for
cookie baking top
Experienced bakers know that successful cookie-baking requires
good preparation. Last minute, frantic baking often does not turn
out as well as we hoped, but in these days of hectic holidays, that
is all too likely to occur. Here are some tips to help you plan
your baking for maximum results:
- Set aside a specific time to bake your cookies.
Plan a special day and time that you're going to do this, so that
you can make arrangements for small children to be occupied (hint:
let them help with one recipe - they won't have the patience or
attention span for more than that) and you won't be bothered with
other unexpected interruptions.
- Select your recipes a day or two beforehand.
Make sure you know exactly what you're making; this will help
you with step #3.
- Make a list of everything you need, and go shopping
for the ingredients or equipment you're missing. This may seem
obvious, but we've all experienced the horror of finding that
there are no more eggs in the refrigerator after the butter and
sugar are already creamed!
- Read the recipe all the way through several
hours before you plan to bake. This will aid with step #5.
- Perform any advance preparations needed, such
as taking the butter and eggs out of the refrigerator so that
they will warm up to room temperature by the time you plan to
start preparing the batter.
- Before starting to bake, set out all the ingredients
and equipment needed so that it will be at hand when you need
it. You will save time if you're not constantly running back and
forth to the pantry.
- Read the recipe all the way through one more
time. Make sure you understand the steps that need to be taken
and the order in which they need to be performed.
- Pre-heat your oven.
- Relax! This is supposed to be fun. Put on some
Christmas music and make yourself a cup of coffee. Don't rush
through the process. Make it a special time, and an opportunity
to unwind a bit during the hectic holiday season.
Baking
a lot of Christmas cookies all at once top
If you have many different kinds of
cookies to bake, set out all your ingredients on the counter and
make the dough assembly-line fashion, creating one after another.
This will make the whole thing go faster because all your cookies
will contain essentially the same ingredients. You will have them
all at hand, and in most cases you can re-use the same tools without
washing them between batches. Wrap each dough in plastic wrap, place
it in a plastic re-sealable freezer bag, and put it in the freezer.
When you're ready to do your baking, select similar cookies to bake
at one time. For example, if you have dough for gingerbread cookies
and sugar cookies, bake those at the same time because you will
already have your floured board, rolling pin, and cookie cutters
out. Thaw the dough at room temperature inside the plastic wrap.
Then, bake as directed and decorate as desired.
Freezing
cookie dough top
We have been asked if we have any good tips for last-minute baking.
The answer is yes! Make the dough ahead of time and then bake them
when you need them. This is a big time saver that can allow you
to do half the work ahead of time and then have several different
kinds of fresh cookies ready for your holiday get-togethers. What
kinds of cookie dough freeze well? Most cookie doughs for drop cookies,
rolled-out cookes, or refrigerator cookies can be frozen for weeks
or even months (properly vacuum sealed) before you bake them. Make
your dough ahead of time and freeze it, then thaw it at room temperature
and bake and decorate as the recipe instructs. This is a huge time
saver when you know you have a lot of cookies to bake and not much
time to do it in. Make your dough before the holidays begin and
relax a bit more during the holidays.
Want to know more about baking
Christmas cookies? Check out our Christmas
cookie cookbook recommendations!
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