Making cookies at home is truly a great satisfaction. You can prepare homemade biscuits for snack and breakfast, for example shortbread, but also biscuits to give, perhaps using special molds, depending on the occasion.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himMaking at home i cookies it is really a great satisfaction. You can prepare homemade biscuits for snack and breakfast, for example shortbread, but also some cookies to give as gifts, perhaps using special molds, depending on the occasion. Preparing cookies is not that difficult, but it will be even easier after following our tips to improve the result of your experiments in the kitchen. Here are the mistakes to avoid to bake crunchy and crumbly biscuits that everyone will like.
Index
Too wet dough
It may happen that the dough is too wet. The problem is an excess of the liquid part of the ingredients used, for example vegetable milk, tea or water (milk and eggs if the recipe is not vegan). Self the dough is too wet, it may be difficult to shape your cookies which, among other things, may struggle to cook well inside. The trick is to add a little flour - of the same type indicated in the recipe - or some corn starch, potato starch or rice flour.
Too dry dough
THEtoo dry dough it becomes impossible to work well. It can be dry and hard. When you try to roll it out, it crumbles and falls apart. The same thing could happen to your cookies once they are cooked. So adjust the consistency by adding a tablespoon at a time a little of the liquid ingredients indicated by the recipe (for example vegetable milk or water) to improve the consistency and knead better.
Sticky dough
Perhaps there is too much butter in your dough (or oil, vegetable butter, margarine - better prepare it at home so it will be palm oil free and hydrogenated fat free). The dough could be sticky too due to honey, malt, maple syrup or agave and other sweeteners of similar consistency. If you can't work the dough well, fix the situation by adding a little more flour. If you are preparing a pastry and the surface is very sticky, it probably means that you will have to work it for a long time.
Ingredient substitutions
Maybe you are trying to make gods vegan cookies. So you are trying to replace eggs, butter or milk starting from a traditional recipe. This operation is not always very simple, if you are a beginner. You will need to balance the consistency so that it is as similar as possible to that of a classic dough. So the result will be really satisfying. Follow our tips for alternatives to butter and for replace the eggs in the kitchen.
Read also: How to replace eggs in sweets and savory recipes
Using the mixer to knead
Do you use the mixer to knead? Remember that this tool is useful for rather creamy doughs - for example for biscuits to be modeled on the pan with the pastry bag - but not for more solid ones, unless you have the appropriate kneading tool available. In any case, for more consistent doughs, such as those of shortbread, better to work everything by hand towards the end, to best shape the dough, which will be lightly greased with oil before resting in the refrigerator.
Wrong consistency for the recipe
When choosing your recipe, check the indications relating to the consistency of the dough. The result of your cookies can change a lot based on this characteristic. For example, the dough must be creamy (you will have to work it with a whisk) for the biscuits to be prepared with the pastry bag or with the cookie cutter. The shortbread dough, on the other hand, must form a compact, soft and elastic dough, easy to roll out with a rolling pin and cut out with the molds.
Rising times
Some cookie recipes have a precise leavening time before rolling out the dough and / or putting it in the oven. Try to respect it and store the dough in a warm place, sheltered from drafts, perhaps by covering with a cloth, or in a cool place, for example in the refrigerator, depending on the recipe. If your cookies don't rise enough, they may be too thin and dry.
Oven temperature too high
It is one of the most common mistakes when it comes to baking cookies. Perhaps some recipes report higher values, but in order not to risk the temperature of the oven for cooking the biscuits it should never exceed 160-180 ° C so as not to risk drying them, or worse, burning them. Better then a slightly longer cooking, at a lower temperature.
Cooking times
Cooking times are closely related to temperature. Keep in mind that, if you have preheated the oven to 180 ° C, you are normal biscuits such as shortbread will cook in about 10-12 minutes. Pay attention to the cooking times indicated by the recipes: if you exceed them you risk drying or burning the biscuits. If you bake more cookies, the oven temperature will be more uniform and will tend to rise from time to time. You will find that the cookies in the subsequent batches will brown more quickly. In this case, you can reduce cooking times. Sometimes the cookies are still a little soft, even if they are already golden. It's time to take them out of the oven: while they cool down they will tend to dry on their own. If you continue cooking when the cookies are ready, you risk ruining them.
Final preparations and advice
A few last tips. Before baking the cookies you can lightly moisten the parchment paper, so that it adheres better to the pan and helps prevent the bottom of the biscuits from burning. Check the cookies from time to time while they are in the oven, also paying attention to the part resting on the pan. If there are two cookie sheets in the oven, invert them once or twice during baking to get one uniform browning. When you take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool preferably on a rack. Wait for them to cool well before decorating them… and before tasting them |
Marta Albè
Read also:
- 10 biscuit recipes without butter and eggs
- Making bread at home: the mistakes to avoid and the most common problems
