I bake a batch of cookies each Monday to have throughout the week for lunches, as well as a sweet treat after work. This week, while in the process of making my weekly bread loaf, I remembered that my new flour sifter came with a cookie recipe on the bake of the label! I decided I wanted to try this new cookie recipe and thought I would share how I approach baking any new recipe!
Recipe on the back of the label:
First, make sure you have all the ingredients (or a good substitute) before you get started. You wouldn’t want to get half way through the recipe and realize you don’t have baking soda, etc.
Second, follow the recipe as close as possible/record what you changed – why?
1.
Because if you like it, you’ll want to be able
to reproduce it,
2.
If you don’t like it, you’ll want to be able to
change what you didn't like about it in the future.
But you can’t do either of these things if you don’t know what you did to begin with.
For example – I usually don’t measure vanilla (because more is better, right?) in my regular go to chocolate chip recipe, however I measured for this new cookie recipe so the amount of vanilla isn't a factor in how the recipe turns out.
For my first time baking these chocolate chip cookies, I used butter instead
of margarine because I don’t use margarine.
Also, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to use sifted flour or packed flour. Since the recipe came on the back of the sifter label, I sifted it and measured how I do for my bread. On average, sifting flour causes the measurement to be less than when it is packed.
I made a note of both of these "changes", so I had notes for next time.
Third, when ready to bake, run a First Article of your cookie dough through the oven. Never heard of a First Article before? It is a term used in manufacturing when you change a process or mix and you want to see how it turns out before running the entire batch. I do this with new recipes so I have the opportunity to make a quick change if possible.
To do this, you just put a few scoops of dough on one pan to bake first, so if there is any issue (burning, spreading, etc) you don’t ruin the whole batch.
I thought the cookies spread out too much while baking my first article, so I put the dough in the fridge to firm up a bit.
After another round using the firmed dough, I thought the cookies were still a bit large, so I decided to use a smaller scoop.
Fourth, write down any changes or notes from baking the batches and any changes you would want to make in the future.
I thought these cookies are extremely thin which makes for a good cookie when warm, but after they cooled they were extremely crunchy. Still good, but not my target cookie consistency.
I prefer a bit of a softer cookie, so next time I make this recipe, I am going to try packed flour instead of sifted and see if that makes a difference!
