Dear Julia: Cookies!

Tags

chocolate, cookies

Watch what happens when I mix all this together!

Ok, you know I’m not the world’s best baker. I mean, I can achieve a decent baked good, but it is by no means what I am known for. After all, that’s what you are for, right? That is why Mom and Dad brought you into this world after that surprising… nightofpassion… there. I said it. Because they needed a good baker in the family. One who could take over the bread baking after Mom gave it up because Gordon was just too much to handle. On top of having a Wendy Byrd already. But finally, I’m starting to become a decent enough baker.

Usually my cookies look flat and runny, like the clocks in Dali’s painting:

Mm, moustache cookies

Sometimes they end up like rocks, and don’t flatten out at all.
But this time I have achieved the perfect cookie, thanks to Betty Crocker’s handy book that tells you exactly how to avoid these problems!

Case in point:

The perfect cookie! The bottoms aren’t even burnt! Success!

The end results.

"…the most delicate of foods among barbarous nations, and one which distinguishes the wealthy from the multitude at large." -Pliny

Tags

baking, butter, cookies, margarine, New York Times

I’m not generally much of a baker. I’m a cook. Bakers like the precision of when to add a certain ingredient and how long to stir it. They are focused. They are scientists. Cooks often tend to be more impulsive, more free sprited about what goes into a dish when. Not that both aren’t creative. They are. But a cook makes me think of an artist splashing paint onto a canvas, watching the colors blend and take shape as a work of art. Bakers are like draftsmen, creating a beautiful work from carefully orchestrated lines, shadings and delicate etchings. But occasionally something sparks my interest in finely crafted baked goods and I want to dedicate my weekend to mastering the dough.

Often though, I know little about the food science behind baking. For instance, did you know that “For clean edges on cookies and for even baking, doughs and batters should stay cold — place them in the freezer when the mixing bowl seems to be warming up. And just before baking, cookies should be very well chilled, or even frozen hard.” or that creaming the butter is not just softening it but also beating in air bubbles that will help your dough to remain light and fluffy? Sugar adds to the air bubbles and baking soda and baking powder will help but they can’t make the bubbles bigger if they aren’t there. How did I learn all this about baking? The NY Times article about butter.

Apparently this stuff is IMPORTANT. I knew butter was better than margarine, and although I try to limit it in my cooking I would never give it up altogether in favor of margarine. Um, hello vegetable oil. Not on my English Muffin. And yes, I can believe it’s not butter. If loving butter is wrong I don’t want to be right. I’ll stick with all of those European elitists who, somehow seem to eat butter and not die of heart attacks. Moderation, perhaps? Now that’s a butter philosophy I can live with.