Cookie Preaching
If I were a cookie preacher this is what my sermon would be. Gather all ingredients. Start with good ingredients. By that I mean if you add mediocre butter into your cookie, the oven does not make it miraculously gourmet. Buy the best that you can afford. Watch for sales, and then buy a little extra. Check the sell by date. Be sure to bring all of the ingredients to room temperature. Now this is the opposite if you are making pastry, or biscuits, or scones. Keep those as cold as possible. But, today it is all about the cookies. If you don’t use parchment paper or a Silpat your cookies may bake ok, but if you do use it your cookies will not burn, and the cleanup will be so much faster. If you use a dark metal pan you must adjust the temperature, but if you bake with a light colored baking sheet you will not have burnt cookies. If you use an ice cream scoop you will have uniform cookies – if they are not the same size some will be burned and some will still need some extra baking time. If you use a scale you will have the same cookies you made the last time you made good cookies. If you have an oven thermometer use it because ovens have a reputation for not always being accurate; sometimes the oven will go rogue. If you have a timer use it because when you bake cookies people will distract you. Let your cookies cool and then move them to a cooling rack so they will stay crisp.
This is the one time I will advise you not to taste each batch that comes out of the oven, because sometimes you get a stomach ache by the time you finished cooking them all. I have a best friend who tried a couple chocolate chip cookies with each pan that baked. She told me she suddenly felt ill and had to lie down. When her husband came to check on her she did not want to confess so she had to take the aspirin he brought her. She tells me she will never do that again. I have not told her story before, and if by chance she reads this I will not name names. I have to protect her marriage because I am a cookie preacher, well a wannabe cookie preacher.
These are just a few things I wish someone had told me. It would have saved some sacrificial cookies.
Here is another warning. These are crispy cookies, so if you like soft and chewy this is not your recipe.
You can freeze some.
If you have tea, now is the time. Oh, and take some to your sister who will like these very much.
Did I leave anything out to the sermon? Let me know so I can amend otherwise let me just say amen.
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 7 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup of slivered almonds or pecans
- ½ cup of raisins - optional
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare cookies sheet with parchment.
- In a small bowl whisk flour, soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a medium bowl cream together the butter and sugars.
- Add egg, vanilla and extract.
- Add flour mixture, a little at a time, just to incorporate.
- Stir in dried fruit and nuts.
- Drop ice cream scoop of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced at least two inches apart.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-13 minutes or until edges are starting to brown.
- Allow to cool on baking sheet for ten minutes; then move to wire racks to cool completely.
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