Now it starts again, the cheerful Christmas baking: butter cookies, gingerbread, vanilla croissants.
To guarantee baking fun and tasty results, there are a few mistakes you should avoid.
For most people,
cookies
belong to the
Christmas season
like decorations, mulled wine * and gifts.
Homemade pastries usually taste a hundred times better than when they are bought.
There are countless
recipes for home-baked cookies
, depending on the time and skill of the baker: from simple butter cookies to coconut macaroons and cinnamon stars to rascals with jam.
Depending on the recipe, not all cookies are always as easy to prepare as you might think.
The process often takes a little more care than just mixing the ingredients and putting the tray in the oven.
Cookies are prone to a variety of mistakes, especially for
beginners
- Baked too short, burnt or dough that is diverging, to name a few examples.
Fortunately, all of these problems are 100 percent preventable.
Here's a list of the most common
cookie baking mistakes
that can occur - and how to avoid them.
Mistakes in baking cookies: They don't whip butter and sugar until frothy
Often you will find the instruction “
Beat the butter and sugar until frothy
”
in recipes
. But what does that actually mean and is it really that important for the end result?
The answer is yes!
Regardless of whether you whip the butter-sugar mixture by hand or with a
hand mixer
, one thing is important: you don't just mix the ingredients.
The whipping creates a fluffy, foamy texture, which ultimately affects the consistency of the cookies: You definitely want light, airy cookies instead of rock-hard, flat ones?
You can easily recognize whipped butter
because it becomes lighter, almost white.
Take at least
five minutes to whip
- with the mixer, it takes even longer by hand.
Also read:
Avoid making a mistake so that your cookies stay fresh for a particularly long time.
Mistake when baking cookies: You use cold ingredients instead of room temperature
A classic among
baking mistakes
: you want to start baking straight away, get the
butter and eggs from the refrigerator
and off you go with the dough.
But wait: if the recipe calls for “room temperature” or “soft” butter, you should stick to it.
Butter, at the perfect temperature for baking, is not about to melt, nor does it feel ice cold and firm.
Why is it important?
Overly
warm butter will
instantly melt in the oven and
cause your cookies to diverge flat
.
If a recipe calls for butter, eggs, or milk at room temperature, take them
out of the refrigerator
about
half an hour before you are ready to start baking
.
When these ingredients are mixed together at room temperature, they emulsify and better trap the air, which in turn results in fluffy cookies.
Mistakes in baking cookies: You are baking the cookies in the oven for too long
Some cookies are actually meant to be
crispy
, while others are meant to
stay
soft and sticky
.
If you want the second of your cookies, you shouldn't leave them in the oven for too long and stay close by.
As soon as the
edges of the cookies start to color
, you can get the good pieces out, even if it is a little before the end of the baking time specified.
Don't be irritated if the surface gives way when you gently press it on: The
cookies continue to bake on the hot
tray
and harden as they cool down
.
Let them lie on the baking sheet for about 5-10 minutes before lifting them off the sheet, otherwise there is a risk of breakage.
Also interesting:
oatmeal biscuits made from just three ingredients - quickly baked, easy and delicious.
Faults in baking cookies: you leave no space between the cookies
A typical but unpleasant mistake,
especially with cut
butter cookies
: If you
do not
leave
enough space between the cookies
on the
baking sheet
, there is a risk that they will become larger in the oven and run into one another.
Then at the end you have a large mosaic of cookies and you have to break the individual parts apart.
So leave enough space!
This usually means that you
need
two baking trays
instead of one.
But that's better than placing the new batch of cookies on the hot tray from the first batch anyway.
Mistake when baking cookies: you forget the pinch of salt
It is not for nothing that many cookie recipes
say
something about a
pinch of salt
to add to the dough.
Have you always left that out?
It
actually makes a difference,
especially with
sweet pastries
:
Salt enhances the aromas of sweet sugar and vanilla
.
This will make your cookies even finer.
Mistake in baking cookies: you are using too much flour
This error affects not just cookies, but all types of pastries in which you use flour.
Many hobby bakers use
a measuring cup
to
measure the flour
, but it is actually quite difficult to measure flour by its volume.
This means that
too much flour is
often used
for a dough
and that it is not in proportion to the rest of the ingredients.
To counteract this mistake, it is better to
measure
the flour with a
kitchen
scale.
A talking kitchen scale for the visually impaired
Help with cooking and baking for senior citizens, blind people and people with poor eyesight is provided by digital, speaking kitchen scales (promotional link).
The measurement result is given loud and clear in grams or milliliters.
Operation and menu navigation are also voice-controlled.
When rolling out dough, one likes to use flour to dust
the work
surface
and to prevent the
rolling pin from sticking
.
However,
too much flour can get into the dough
, making the dough too dry.
As a trick, you can roll out your dough on a sheet of baking paper or cling film instead.
(mad) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
Further baking:
Coconut macaroons - the quick and popular pastry in Advent and Christmas.
Christmas cookies with a wow factor
Christmas cookies with a wow factor
This article contains affiliate links.
List of rubric lists: © Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa