For many, baking is a chemistry experiment gone horribly wrong, or just maybe, wonderfully correct. The variables of oven heat, local water properties and each manufacturers subtle differences in oil and flour quality can turn the best recipe into a kitchen nightmare. The true secret is to never give up and to keep adjusting your recipe to your own taste.

One of the most common problems with cookie recipes, is what to do with the butter. Butter has amazing properties and flavors that cannot be duplicated by other oils. It does however have one of the lowest melting temperatures of all of the baking oils and can cause your cookie to flatten into a gigantic mess. Solution, integrate some equal parts of shortening into your recipe. For every ounce of butter taken away, add an ounce of shortening. Also ball and refrigerate your cookie dough before putting it onto a pan and into the oven. Lastly double pan your cookies, so the heat is more evenly distributed and no too hot on the bottom side of your cookie. This will eliminate cookies that get burned on the bottom.

I have yet to see a cookie recipe made with all purpose flour that could not be improved by substituting some cake flour into the recipe. Start with a one third substitution and see if this makes your cookie a little lighter and easier to chew. For some super added flavor, use a premium cake mix. I use a spice cake mix in one of my recipes for the most amazing Christmas cookies you will ever taste. Chocolate and vanilla cake mixes do an amazing job as well. If you have a favorite cake mix, it would be a perfect candidate to try in a cookie recipe.

Thirty years ago it would have been very hard to find a chewy cookie. Famous Amos made a fortune selling a nice tasty chocolate chip cookie that was neither soft nor chewy. Today chewy cookies are all the rage. If your recipe doesn’t have any brown sugar in it try substituting a portion of brown sugar for regular white sugar. The key is to keep experiment until you have to exact consistency that you desire.

These three baking tips will help you make your perfect cookie. Everyone’s taste is different from each others, so don’t be disappointed if someone does not care for your baking masterpiece. Remember, never give up and keep experimenting until you have the perfect cookie.

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