The Perfect Cookie: 10 Top Tips for Baking the Best Cookies Every Time
- Fanoggins
- Apr 19
- 5 min read
Crispy on the edges and chewy in the middle — the hallmarks of the perfect cookie. But this perfect cookie experience is hard to achieve without a few industry secrets.
So, we’re divulging our top ten tips for baking the best cookies every time. We use these in our bakery when creating Fanoggins’ sweet treats, meaning you can rest easy knowing they’re tried and tested.
Table of Contents
Our Top 10 Tips for Baking Perfect Cookies
From understanding the differences between sugars to weighing the dough balls to bringing ingredients to room temperature to always chilling the dough, these ten tips are guaranteed to level up your cookie game.
#1 Know Your Sugar
The type of sugar you choose has a huge impact on the flavour, depth, and colour of your cookie. So, broadening your sugar knowledge will give you the confidence to make better cookie dough decisions:
· White caster sugar — This is the classic baking sugar. The fine granules boast sweetness and beat wonderfully easy with butter to form the best cookie dough base.
· Golden caster sugar — Its darker colour provides more caramel notes. Use it when you want a nuttier flavour in your final cookie.
· Granulated sugar — While many bakers would balk at the idea of using granulated sugar in cookies, there’s no need to be afraid of it. In fact, used in equal parts with caster sugar will give an otherwise-impossible-to-achieve crunch. That said, these cookies will have more of a biscuit finish. So, it’s best used if you plan to decorate them or want to add a bunch of sprinkles.
· Light brown soft sugar — This is an unrefined type of sugar, meaning it retains more of its nutrients. And while that certainly doesn’t mean cookies are nutritious, it does mean that it creates a more caramelised flavour and a pillowy texture, especially when combined with caster sugar.
· Dark brown soft sugar — Keep dark brown soft sugar on the shelf, unless you want an ultra-complex cookie. It has an intense, deep profile, which lends itself well to unique flavour combinations.
My favourite? A combination of white caster sugar and light brown sugar. It gives the ultimate caramelised flavour and chewy centre.
#2 Cream the Butter and Sugar Properly
Creaming is the process of beating softened butter and sugar together until it becomes, light, pale, and fluffy. And it’s a step that often isn’t completed properly, especially in the world of cookie baking.
If you don’t cream for long enough, the butter won’t break down sufficiently, causing big splotches in your finished cookie — and a less-than-ideal texture.
I used to spend five minutes beating the butter and sugar in my stand mixer, scraping the bowl down after every minute. Now? As long as it takes. Still scraping the bowl down after every minute, though.
Five minutes is a great starting point but knowing the texture and colour you’re looking for is best. Aim for as close to white as you have the patience for and it should fall off a spoon easily when scooped up.
If you take only one tip for baking the perfect cookies away from this, let it be this one!
#3 Chop the Choc
You can’t beat chocolate chips for convenience. However, they can bring a waxy flavour that throws off the cookie in the end. To avoid this, you should chop up a chocolate bar.
Not only does chopped chocolate negate the waxiness, but it also provides beautiful chocolate pools that turn standard cookies into irresistible sweet treats.
Side Tip: The quality of the chocolate matters! Go for as high-quality as you can afford, and you’ll be surprised by the difference it makes.
#4 Use Room Temperature Ingredients Only
It can be frustrating to wait for your ingredients to become room temperature before cracking on with the recipe. But practice patience and wait it out — room temperature ingredients emulsify easier into the batter, creating a uniform texture.
How do you know butter is at the perfect temperature? It should feel cool (not warm!), and when you press it, your finger should make a slight indent. Depending on your climate, it’ll take about an hour for it to increase to room temperature after being in the fridge.
But this isn’t just about butter.
Room temperature eggs provide more volume when they're room temperature versus chilled.
#5 Take Them Out Before They’re Ready
Cookies continue to cook when you remove them from the oven, thanks to the residual heat on the baking tray. So, leaving them in for too long causes them to overcook as they cool on the tray, resulting in a crunchy, not-so-chewy cookie.
To counteract this, take them out of the oven just before they’re finished. Let them rest on the tray to continue baking before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
#6 Don’t Scrimp on the Chocolate
Indulgent cookies don’t come from following the recipe’s allotted grammage of chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate). Add more. Like a lot more. Double it, even, for true decadence.
#7 Choose Butter, Never Margarine
Butter provides the rich, fluffy texture your cookies deserve. It’s this that provides the melt-in-your-mouth aspect of all the greatest cookies you’ve ever devoured.
So, skip the margarine and choose butter without any additives (like vegetable oils or sunflower oil).
Side Tip: If you’re vegan, fear not. Flora’s vegan butter manages to create the same fluffy texture as regular butter! In fact, it’s what I use in my chocolate chip cookies (as tasted at Blended Monkey’s Artisan Fayres).
#8 Disregard the Recipe’s Baking Time
Every oven is different. Whether fan-forced, convection, or conventional, baking times on cookie recipes are usually a formality. You want to disregard it and look at the cookies as they’re baking.
You’ll know when they’re ready to come out as the edges are set and lightly browned, while the top centres look slightly underbaked. As discussed earlier, they’ll use the residual heat from the baking tray to continue cooking once they’re out, so don’t be afraid to remove them earlier rather than later.
#9 Weigh the Dough Balls
To ensure all your cookies are the same size and spread evenly while baking, make sure you weigh each ball, rather than relying on a scoop or visual comparison. I like to do 80g per cookie, but they’re traditionally 50g.
#10 Never Skip the Chill
Once you’ve weighed your dough balls, they aren’t quite ready for the oven. Even though it’s tempting to bake them straight away, chilling the dough overnight will yield the best results.
Running short on time? Stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours instead.
Baking the Perfect Cookie Has Never Been Easier!
Follow these top tips for baking the best cookies every time, and your cookies will come out better than ever! But if you don’t have time to perfect the craft, you can always order some from us at Fanoggins — consider us the ultimate cookie time-saver. (And of course, we follow our own tips!).
What wonderful tips! Never thought about chopping up the chocolate before. Thanks for sharing!