Finger on the Shutter

By: Jill Finger

Dec 03 2016

Category: Uncategorized

1 Comment

One of my favorite pastimes is recipe reading. Whether it’s a cookbook, an old or new magazine, or an on-line website, not to mention Pinterest , if there’s recipes to be perused, I’m there.  And, this time of year when there’s all kinds Christmas cookie recipes out there, I’m in heaven. On a recipe blog I was reading, the author wrote about how she used a cookie scoop to get uniformly sized cookies. (She also wrote about test baking–more on that in a minute)

Thursday night, before going to my quilting group meeting, I stopped in Bed, Bath, and Beyond to investigate cookie scoops. Using my 20% coupon, I bought the smallest Oxo scoop, which scoops two teaspoonfuls.  It operates like an ice cream scoop, expelling the cookie dough when I squeeze the handle. The recipe I tried first was white chocolate spice cookies. The recipe directed me to form one inch balls and place them on the cookie sheets. One scoop formed a perfectly sized ball that measured one inch in diameter. It was easy, easy, easy, and fast to get all the cookies scooped and rounded onto the cookie sheets.

I popped one pan in the oven and set the timer for the minimum time listed in the recipe.  The cookies came out a bit too well done, making me wish I had baked a test cookie, just one solitary cookie, to test oven time, as directed on the baking blog.  i dropped the baking time down a minute and the rest came out perfect, except for the second pan I baked on the original cookie sheet that came out a little too done.  Mystery solved– it was the cookie sheet, that has now been demoted and will not be used for cookie baking again.  Now, I have to purchase another one, which means a trip back to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, where there is also another cookie scoop sized 1 1/2 tablespoons. Hey, you never know when you’re going to want to bake bigger cookies and it’s good to be prepared.

Notice the uniform size of the cookies. I’ve achieved cookie perfection.