Tips from a baking blogger: 4 tips for the best cookies

Most biscuit recipes only contain a handful of ingredients. “Care should always be taken when adding eggs,” says Judith Erdin. Using 45 grams or 65 grams of egg plays a very important role in the consistency of the dough. “If this is not specified in the recipe, you should either know from experience what kind of consistency the dough should have at the end, or it would be better to choose another recipe with specific gram information.” Too many eggs will cause the dough to be soft and uneven. According to Erdin, too little egg means the dough may become dry and crumbly. Erdin recommends size M if you’re not sure what size eggs are needed. Their weight is between 53 and 60 grams.

“It’s important to warm freshly cut cookies in the oven first,” says the trained baker and pastry chef. “On the other hand, if you place raw cookies on a hot, preheated baking sheet, the butter in the dough will start to melt before the cookies are baked.” For Mailänderli, Sablés or Schokotaler, for example, this means that they lose their shape before baking and look less beautiful. That’s why Judith Erdin recommends always preheating the oven to the correct temperature and allowing the trays to cool between baking cycles.

To get the best cookies, most recipes call for a certain thickness of the dough. “You have to stick with it throughout the cooking time to make it work,” says Erdin. However, it is often difficult to roll out a uniform dough that is exactly four millimeters thick. That’s why the baking blogger and baking course instructor recommends using simple tools like dough sticks. These are available in different thicknesses for a few francs. Dough sticks can be placed to the right and left of the dough mass and used as rolling aids. “This allows the dough to thicken evenly.” If you roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper, you won’t have to add extra flour to the work surface. “This means that the consistency of the dough does not change any further.”

Butter Guetzli dough – for example for Mailänderli or Spitzbuben – must be cold so that it can be rolled out and cut well. So you usually need to refrigerate them for at least an hour. If the dough is already too soft after rolling out, Erdin recommends placing the dough back in the freezer on a flat surface. “When the dough is rolled out, it gets nice and hard again in just ten minutes. “This makes cutting easier and keeps the cookies from losing their shape when you move them from the work surface to the baking sheet.” Refreezing does not affect the taste, but it does affect the appearance. “Perfectly cut biscuits guaranteed.”