Cookies For Dummies
Overview
Have you ever opened a box of store-bought cookies and after the first dry bite, wished you were eating a warm, fresh baked one instead? Even store-bought cookies that claim to taste homemade really can’t compare to the real thing. Well, cookie lovers, thanks to baker Carole Bloom, you can have the real thing—any time and any day of the week.
With Cookies For Dummies, you’ll be whipping up platefuls of the most scrumptious cookies imaginable in absolutely no time. Think Very Rich Cakelike Brownies. Or Almond Butter Cookies. Or Chocolate Biscotti. And not only will the book’s nearly 200 recipes awaken the baker within, you’ll get foolproof tips on making any type of creation in cookiedom—from simple drop, rolled, and refrigerator cookies to the more challenging bar, sandwich, and filled cookies, and finally, the pressed, hand-formed, and molded cookies that’ll let you style eye-catching cookies that bear your unique signature. With help on every page, the book cues you in on:
- Baking basics—such as choosing the right kitchen equipment and stocking up on essentials
- Foolproof techniques for outstanding cookies, plus tips on troubleshooting baking mishaps
- Decorating with chocolate (with tips on piping, painting, and stenciling)
- Creating "slender’" versions of old favorites, while maintaining texture and boosting flavor
- Discovering cookies from other cultures
- Baking for the holidays and making baking fun for kids
With a summary cheat sheet of baking essentials, helpful how-to illustrations, and humorous cartoons along the way, Cookies For Dummies will help you bake awe-inspiring homemade cookies that will have even the fanatical cookie lovers in your family clamoring for more.
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About The Author
Carole Bloom, CCP, is a baking instructor, spokesperson, and the author of six cookbooks. She has written for Bon Appétit, Gourmet, and Chocolatier and has appeared on The Today Show and ABC News.
Sample Chapters
cookies for dummies
CHEAT SHEET
Following a few foolproof baking tips will make baking cookies a fun and delicious experience. If you run out of an ingredient while making cookies, you can find a substitution, or you can reduce the fat in your favorite cookie without compromising its quality. Adding icing to your cookies makes them even more fun.
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These cookies are delicious little gems, each looking like a special jewel with the jam glistening on the cookie. Almond jam slices are perfect with tea or any festive occasion. You can vary this recipe by trying your favorite jam or preserves.
Preparation time: 1 hour; includes chilling
Baking time: 15 minutes
Yield: About 4 dozen
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup apricot or raspberry jam or preserves
Using a mixer, beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Get out your rolling pin! Almond-cinnamon stars are delicious and fun-shaped rolled cookies-perfect for holiday gatherings and cookie exchanges. Try this recipe for festive cookies that taste great!
If you can’t find ground almonds in the store. you can grind your own using the steel blade of a food processor.
Shortbread is a classic Scottish cookie that is always served at afternoon tea in Scotland, as well as in lunchboxes and as a dessert at most Scottish events. Try this simple recipe for delicious cookies that will be a big hit at your next event too.
Preparation time: 1-1/4 hours; includes chilling
Baking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 60 bars, 1 x 2 inches each
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
Using a mixer, beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Following a few foolproof baking tips will make baking cookies a fun and delicious experience. If you run out of an ingredient while making cookies, you can find a substitution, or you can reduce the fat in your favorite cookie without compromising its quality. Adding icing to your cookies makes them even more fun.
If you’re looking to slim down your cookie recipes without giving up on the flavor, try these tips for reducing the fat in your favorite recipe:
Using fruit purées to lower fat — Start with half the amount of puréed fruit to replace the fat called for in a recipe. You may need to add more if the cookies are too dry.
Although these date pinwheel cookies take a bit of work, they’re worth it. To make your date pinwheel creation a bit easier, you can make both the filling and the dough in advance and put them together before baking.
Preparation time: 12 1/2 hours, including chilling
Baking time: 12 minutes
Yield: 3 1/2 dozen
3/4 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup walnuts
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 orange
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Roughly chop the dates and walnuts.
Decorating your holiday cookies can be fun and easy! You can decorate holiday cutout cookie shapes using colored icing, an icing bag, and a few icing tips.
Remember:
Let the cookies cool completely before frosting.
When loading icing in the icing bag, fold the ends outward to get icing closer to the tip.
Keep continuous pressure on the icing bag while decorating.
These yummy gingersnap cookies are great year-round, but gingersnaps’ full-bodied flavor seems to taste best when it’s cold outside. The use of both ground and crystallized ginger makes the flavor really sing.
Credit: Ed Carey/Cole Group/PhotoDisc
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Baking time: 12 minutes
Yield: About 4 dozen
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1/3 cup dark molasses
Sift the flour with the baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves into a bowl.
Florentines are a favorite Old World cookie. Although preparing Florentine cookies requires several steps, you won't regret the extra time, especially when you see the satisfied smiles on the faces of family and friends lucky enough to sample them.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 20
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups sliced almonds
2/3 cup finely diced candied orange peel
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
The look and taste of these classic molded madeleines is anything but basic and they’re sure to impress your guests. Experiment with this basic madeleine recipe by adding your favorite ingredients like toasted nuts, spices, crystallized ginger, or orange extract.
You can use mini-muffin tins if you don’t have madeleine pans.
Lebkuchen are honey and spice cookies that are traditionally served in Germany during the Christmas holiday season. You can make Lebkuchen (LAYB-koo-kuhn) up to 3 months in advance, so you save time during the busier days around Christmas.
Lebkuchen
Specialty tools: Rolling pin
Preparation time: 3-1/4 hours; includes chilling
Baking time: 12 minutes
Yield: About 5 dozen
3-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon crushed anise seed
Zest of 1 large lemon, finely minced
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup finely ground almonds
1 egg
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and toss with the salt.
Buttery and tender spritz cookies are a Christmas tradition in many homes. Give them as gifts, or offer them to guests at holiday gatherings. Made with simple inexpensive ingredients, these delectable cookies are as much fun to make as they are to eat. You can make several different shapes of spritz cookies with a cookie press merely by changing the decorative plate at one end and then pressing the dough through.
Cocoa Brownie Balls are an irresistible, pop-in-your mouth holiday treat. Make a batch of these brownie balls for your Christmas cookie plate if you need to add a chocolate "something." These brownies are dressed up and decorated with confectioners' sugar, which makes them look like snowflakes. They flatten out a bit as they bake and become cakey cookies.
These little gems of a cookie will melt in your mouth. They’re reminiscent of chocolate truffles, but the hazelnut balls pack more crunch. Hazelnut chocolate balls look very elegant when presented in paper candy cups, so try this recipe to impress your guests.
Preparation time: 1 hour; includes chilling
Baking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2-1/2 dozen
4 ounces high-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1-1/4 cups toasted, skinned, and finely ground hazelnuts
Confectioners’ sugar for garnish
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over hot water.
Ischl (pronounced “eesh uhl”) tartlets are deliciously delicate cookies named from the Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl. This recipe uses a heart-shaped cookie cutter but these cookies can be cut into your favorite shapes for a beautiful presentation and dusted with powdered sugar for a “snowy” effect.
Specialty tools: 1-inch round cutter, 3-inch-diameter heart cutter, rolling pin
Preparation time: 1-1/4 hours; includes chilling
Baking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 3-1/2 dozen
1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 scant cup sugar
1-1/2 cups finely ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-1/4 cups (2-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup apricot or raspberry preserves
Confectioners' sugar for garnish
Place the flour, sugar, almonds, and cinnamon in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
These classic German cookies are fun to make and a real crowd pleaser. They look like the popular salty snacks, especially when decorated with coarse sugar to mimic the look of salt, but taste deliciously different.
Preparation time: 1 hour and 20 minutes; includes chilling
Baking time: 11 minutes
Yield: 2 dozen
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1-3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Garnish
1 egg white mixed with 2 teaspoons water
1/4 cup crystal sugar
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over hot water.
Sables (pronounced SAH blay) are a classic French butter cookie that originated in Normandy and are now popular throughout France. The name of these cookies means “sand,” which refers to their crumbly texture. Traditionally, the deliciously buttery shapes are round with fluted edges, but you can use any of your favorite cookie cutters.
If you’re making cookies and find out you’re missing a recipe ingredient (hey, it happens to the best of us) keep this list handy so you know what can be substituted:
In place of
Use
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons molasses or 1/2 cup sugar
plus 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup dark brown
Linzer cookies, a European specialty, are really beautiful, besides being delicious. The Linzer cookies’ scalloped edges made by round, fluted cookie cutters give them an elegant look, and the preserves glisten like little jewels in the center of the sandwich, making them hard to resist.
Preparation time: 3 1/4 hours, including chilling
Baking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 3 1/2 dozen
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1 1/2 sticks plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups finely ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups apricot or raspberry preserves
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Using a mixer, beat the butter in a large mixing bowl, about 2 minutes.
In regular cooking, you can get away with adding a pinch of this and some of that. But in cookie baking, it's important to pay attention to the quantities of ingredients that each recipe calls for. If you add extra amounts or not enough of an ingredient, you're not going to end up with what you expect. Most likely, you'll have a failure on your hands.
These buttery cookies, called Mexican wedding cakes, are served at festive occasions. Cookies similar to Mexican wedding cakes are found around the world with different names: Russian tea cakes, Viennese snowballs, and Greek kourambiedes, to name a few.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 cup pecans
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Moravian molasses spice cookies have a characteristic deep brown color and full-bodied flavor that's perfect for a Christmas tea or coffee gathering. These heirloom cookies are typical of those made by descendants of the Moravians who settled in the eastern United States, particularly in North Carolina. Moravia is a historic area located in the eastern part of the Czech Republic.
Buttery kourambiedes is a traditional Greek Christmas cookie with ground almonds or other nuts. This nut-free kourambiedes (koo-rah-bee-YEH-thehs) recipe makes cookies that are just as buttery and melt-in-your-mouth tender as the original. Kourambiedes are great to make in advance because they keep well.
Nut-Free Kourambiedes (Greek Butter Cookies)
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 11 minutes
Yield: About 4 dozen
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons brandy or cognac
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 to 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 to 3 tablespoons rosewater (optional)*
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Pofer cookies not only taste delicious, but also look beautiful. Using a round fluted cookie cutter gives them an elegant appearance, because of the scalloped edges. Plus, the preserves glisten like jewels in the center of the sandwich cookie, making them hard to pass up.
If you don't want to sandwich them together, they’re delicious on their own.
Pizzelles are classic Italian wafer cookies. Pizelles are baked on a specially designed iron that imprints them with a lacy design. Pizzelle irons are available in the cookware section of department stores, in cookware shops, and through mail order catalogs.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 1 minute per cookie
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon anise extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vegetable oil
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Speculaas are crunchy, lightly browned spice cookies traditionally baked in the Netherlands and Belgium for St. Nicholas Eve. These cookies usually are baked with molds (found in a cookware shop or catalog) to imprint an image. You may recognize them as Dutch Windmill cookies.
If you don’t have cookie molds, don’t worry, you can cut them into rectangles or use cookie cutters.
If you want to top off your cookies with a sweet, creamy icing and keep them looking as great as they taste just follow these handy tips to ensure that your frosting efforts are a success:
Be sure that cookies are completely cool before applying icing or it will melt.
Test the consistency of the icing. If it’s too thick, thin with a few drops of water.
Baking cookies is fun right? It is if you take the time to prepare yourself and your kitchen. Go through these steps to help you get set up and make great cookies:
Set aside enough time to enjoy the cookie-baking experience.
Read through each recipe thoroughly so you know what to do.
Check to make sure that you have all the ingredients needed to make the recipes you choose.
Macadamia nuts and white chocolate give this cookie an extra-sweet bonus. Be sure to mix the nuts and white chocolate chunks thoroughly so that they’re evenly distributed.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 8 minutes
Yield: 3 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces (1 1/2 cups) white chocolate (white baking squares), or white baking chips
3/4 cup unsalted, toasted macadamia nuts
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
These yummy squares can satisfy any lemon craving. A soft lemon topping sits on a crunchy cookie base. Although these cookie squares aren’t complicated to prepare, they take a little extra effort because you have to prepare a crust and a topping. But they’re well worth it.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
Yield: 24 2-inch squares
2 large lemons
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup, plus 3 to 4 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
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