Baking Tips: Turning the Crunchy Cookie into a Chewy Cookie

Cookies are always a tasty treat that everyone loves, both kids and adults. There are so many recipes for cookies to choose from and people are always coming up with new ideas all the time.

Cookies are also a great gift idea. People often bake their own wedding cookies or baby shower cookies. But the question of what kind of cookie to make can be dictated by the following three considerations: the occasion or party theme, the choice of flavors for the cookies and the desired texture of whether they are crunchy or chewy or something in between?

A baker will usually know all kinds of recipes and can bake specialized cookies for any event. They should be able to make the cookies either crunchy or chewy. Most people who bake at home don’t know how to do control the texture and softness of the cookie, but it is not difficult to do. Here is a simple cookie baking tip that you can use to control a cookie’s texture:

Cookies are usually made from butter, shortening, eggs and sugar and then there are the added ingredients. Look at the recipe first and take note of the sugars used in it. There should be two ingredients that are commonly found: white and brown sugar. The secret of the texture is in the sugar and simply changing the ratio between white and brown will easily make a crunchy cookie into a chewy cookie.

To achieve a crunchy cookie, white sugar should have the heavier concentration than brown sugar. If the recipe calls for brown sugar, eliminate it completely and substitute with white sugar. For example: an oatmeal cookie recipe might ask 2 cups of white sugar and 2 cups brown sugar. To achieve a crunchy cookie, do away with the brown sugar and simply use 4 cups of white sugar. This is going to be a really crunchy cookie.

Semi-chewy/crunchy cookies will need another sugar measurement ratio. Again, going back to 2 and 2 between white and sugar, to make it a little more chewy use three cups brown sugar and one cup white sugar, but if you want it more crunchy than chewy then reverse the ratio to three cups white and one cup brown sugar.

The chewy cookies are going to be achieved by doing away with the white sugars altogether. So if the recipe calls for the half and half do away with the white and use the same measurement but this time using brown again. So use 4 cups of brown sugar and the gooey chewy cookie will be achieved easily.

Now, an added secret: to add more of the gooeyness to the cookies by adding honey, molasses or maple syrup. Use the same amount of brown sugar minus 1/4 cup. Use that amount for the substitute. That should make the cookie gooier than ever before.

Fun Cookie Ideas for Any Occasion

Making cookies can be as fun as eating the cookies itself. You can add different ingredients, cut them out in different shapes and it takes just a few minutes to prepare them, bake them, and definitely less time to eat them. For some, making cookies is a delicious hobby, while for some this is an incoming generating business. Whether you will be feeding a brood of five or a community of a hundred, there are many ways on how you can make your cookies more delectable, more exciting, and tastier.

If you have your basic cookie recipe, try adding walnuts or almonds to make your cookie nutty. That bite that you get form the cookie will definitely leave you wanting for more as the saltiness of the nuts complements the sweet taste of the cookie mixture.

If you’ve had your fill of nutty cookies, try having fruity or chewy cookies next time. You can add raisins or dried cherries or grapes to your mixture. Have these small fruity treats give an exciting new twist to a plain cookie. For a healthier alternative, oatmeal cookies are not just tasty but they have a different texture altogether. It has a clean taste as well and is truly delectable if the cookie is buttery.

Give your cookies a new look. While most would expect round brown cookies in transparent plastic containers, give your cookie treats a makeover. Use a special cookie cutter such as wedding cookie cutters or a Christmas cookie cutter to give a whole new look to the plain round cookie. Cookie cutters are available in various shapes that can please the young and the young at heart. Cookies that are shaped as hearts, stars, or elf hat or elf boots will be more fun looking and therefore more appetizing than your average round shaped cookies. You can also place your cookies in tin cans that you can design with ribbons, lace or sticker labels. Cookie cutters can be used to create wedding cookies, baby shower cookies, or cookie treats for just about any event or occasion.

Making these baked goods can be fun with the kids too. They can help in mixing the ingredients, in cutting the cookies into different shapes, in designing or putting toppings on the cookies, or in placing them in their containers. Because baking cookies is a lot simpler than any other cooking or baking method, cookies can be a real treat from baking them to eating them.

Make Your Own Personally Designed Cookie Cutter

People of all ages, around the world, definitely enjoy homemade cookies. Considered as a comfort food, cookies do tend to bring a sense of childhood and familiarity. Whether buttery, chewy or chocolatey, cookies are always a fun treat.

If you are proud to have your own delightful cookie recipe, why not come up with fun shapes as well for these yummy goodies? Apart from the usual round bookies, you can make animal or any object as a shape for your cookies. You can make your own cookie cutter using simple items and in a few minutes, you can already bake some goodness using your own cookie cutter shapes.

These are the materials you will need in creating your unique cookie cutter:
-The image of your desired shape for the cookie cutter
-A straight ruler
-Scissors – or if what you have is a heavy gauge aluminum you can use tin snips instead
-A knife
-Clips
-Sheet Aluminum – make sure that the aluminum can qualify as food grade which means it is okay to come in contact with food. Certain aluminums are made in such a way that chemicals used in them are not safe to be used with food. See if the gauge is stronger, the stronger it is, the harder it is for you to bend or mold your cookie cutter in its shape.
-Adhesive – also check if they are again safe to be used with food

Now here are the steps on how to assemble them:
-Place the photograph or the image you want on the table. Using the twine, follow the lines of the image using it. Use simpler shapes in the beginning and as you get the hang of it, you can use more complex shapes.
-To measure the length of the aluminum you can use the length of the twine as a gauge as well.
-Cut the aluminum depending on the width that you want.
-Mold the aluminum according to the shape of the desired cookie cutter (the image on your table, just its outline).
-Place adhesive at the ends of the cutter.
-Use clips to hold the ends together as you allow it to dry.

If you have empty soda cans, you can use them instead. And if something goes wrong in your first attempt, you can simply discard it and use another one. Cheap and easy. As long as you have old cans or aluminum in the hardware, there is no limit to what you can do. It’s just simple items and a little bit of creativity to come up with fun shapes everyone will love. Add to that a great recipe and you are off to some yummy snack that you can enjoy at home.

Create various designs of cookie cutters that you can use or give as gifts during Christmas or in any other occasion – you can even give wedding cookie cutter favors out as party favors.