Kitchen Essentials Part 4: The Secret of Perfect Cookies – Cookie Scoops

Author: L. A. Briggs // Category: , , ,

Posted April 12, 2011 at 11:08 PM

This week, as part of our assignment, we were instructed to make a 2 minute video to post on our blog. Here is the one that I filmed with the help of my three roommates.

  
I know the idea of a cookie scoop as a necessary piece of equipment in the kitchen seems kind of silly, and it probably is to those of you who don’t do much baking like I do. For those of us who are more pastry chef or baker than cook, a cookie scoop is a pretty nifty piece of equipment. It not only makes the cookies the same size so all of the cookies cook the same amount, it also makes the cookies look really nice and pretty. Of course the secret to cooking excellent cookies is to not over-bake them, but the cookie scoop helps.

The cookie scoop also helps by decreasing the time it takes to make cookies. Rather than have to deal with two spoons to make uneven cookie dough balls where the cookie dough sticks to the spoons or comes off in an oddly shaped blob, the cookie scoop is fast, efficient and makes perfectly round pieces of dough. And since the pieces of dough are pretty much the same size, the rate of heat transfer into each of the pieces of dough to cook it is exactly the same. The area of heat transfer for both conduction and convection are exactly the same for each piece of dough, meaning the cookies come out with the exact same amount of doneness.

Now with these perfect cookies all you need is a big glass of milk to go along with it!

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Recipe of the Day

M&M Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened 
½ cup granulated sugar 
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar 
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda 
⅛ teaspoon salt 
1 12-ounce package M&M’S® MINIS® Milk Chocolate Candies
¾ cup chopped nuts (optional) 

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla. In medium bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; blend into butter/sugar mixture. Stir in M&M’S and nuts, if desired. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and centers are still soft. Do not overbake. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; cool completely on wire racks. Store in tightly covered container. 

The original recipe can be found here. It is also the recipe that I used for the cookies in my video.

3 Responses to "Kitchen Essentials Part 4: The Secret of Perfect Cookies – Cookie Scoops"

Carlos Says :
4/13/11, 4:42 PM

Those Cookies look delicious. Great post.

Bre Says :
4/13/11, 4:59 PM

I love this!! I wish I had known such a thing existed a long time ago!

Jen Schneider Says :
5/4/11, 3:21 PM

Well, that does it. I'm pretty sure you should host your own cooking show. If you end up not liking engineering, you have a backup plan.

Your dancing roommate may want to keep her day job, though. ;)

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