Sweet Ricotta Italian Peach Cookies Recipe - The Finer Cookie (2024)

FAQs

How to flatten cookies with a glass? ›

How to flatten cookie dough with flair. So you've made the dough for sugar cookies and the recipe tells you to drop it in tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet, then flatten each cookie with the bottom of a drinking glass (dipped in sugar so it doesn't stick).

Use ice cream or cookie scoops

Fill the scoop with dough, scrape the excess off by using the edge of the bowl, and just press and release onto the baking sheet. Each cookie will be exactly the same size and round!

Butter keeps cookies fluffy in two ways. First, creaming cold butter with sugar creates tiny, uniform air pockets that will remain in the dough it bakes up. Second, cold butter naturally takes a longer time to melt in the oven.

The most common culprit behind non-spreading cookies is too much flour. This may seem counterintuitive—after all, isn't flour a key ingredient in baking? Yes, but if you add too much flour, your cookies won't spread as they bake.

Milk – A splash of milk added to the dough also helps to create flatter cookies by adding more moisture to the dough, so it spreads faster in the oven. Baking soda – Make sure your baking soda is FRESH for this recipe. It's critical to the spread and browning of these cookies which gives them their crispy thin texture.

Using too much butter in your dough can lead to flat and greasy cookies. As previously noted, baking is a science, and it is essential to closely follow recipe measurements to ensure the best results.

Baking at 325° also results in an evenly baked cookie, but the slower cooking will help yield a chewier cookie. The outsides will be a little softer, too. If you love slightly underdone cookies, 375° is for you. You'll get the crisp edges while maintaining a doughy, fudgy inside.

Overcrowding the pan

This results in the cookies being too close together and not having enough room to spread out. This causes them to be overcooked and can even cause them to burn. If you're using a small cookie sheet, make sure to only put a few cookies on at a time, so they have plenty of room to spread out.

Cookie temperatures fluctuate, with some recipes as low as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and a few as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but most recipes land on 375 or 350 to evenly bake the entirety of the cookie.

“The metal sides acts as a heat conductor and those cookies placed close to the edge can over bake because they bake faster than those placed in the middle of the baking sheet,” said Usher. “Baking on the bottom of the pan can help prevent this from happening.”

Should you rotate cookies when baking? ›

Rotate. Even calibrated ovens have hot and cool spots, with temperatures falling within a 50-degree range. Cookies, pies, tarts, and all but the most delicate cakes should be rotated during baking to achieve even browning and baking. The halfway point or shortly thereafter is generally a good time to rotate.

Cookbook author Julia Usher also recommends flipping a sheet pan upside-down to bake cookies evenly. Usher explains that when you bake cookies on the "right" side of the pan, "The metal sides act as a heat conductor, and those cookies placed close to the edge can overbake because they bake faster".

As you cut your dough log into individual cookies, give it a quarter-turn every three or four slices to ensure that the knife doesn't flatten one side repeatedly against the cutting board. And voilà, perfectly round Maple Pecan Shortbread, World Peace Cookies, and Pistachio-Crusted Icebox Cookies.

To help cookies keep their shape, freeze them! I freeze each batch of cut-out cookies for 5 to 10 minutes before baking. They rise just slightly higher and keep their shape better. This really helps when using an intricate cookie cutter, but I do this even when baking circles.