How to Make Cookie Dough

There's one major advantage of baking your own cookies from scratch; firstly you can get rid of those artificial additives added to the store-bought ones, and secondly, you can customize them according to your liking. Cookies are perfect holiday treats, and are great for kids' birthday parties as well.

Another advantage of baking your own cookies at home is that, if your child or loved one is allergic to a particular ingredient, you can bake safe cookies, without having to worry about scrutinizing the label.

Often, cookie decoration activities are held during Halloween. Children are given cookies shaped into different Halloween characters, along with colored icing. They decorate their own cookies and eat them. It's a fun activity that is also carried out during various other festivals and birthday parties.

Here's how you can go about making the dough for your cookies.

Before heading into the recipes for cookie dough, let's have a look at some very important instructions you need to keep in mind while preparing cookies. Following these guidelines is crucial for perfect cookies.

For a simple cookie dough, you will need butter, eggs, flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and vanilla extract. Moreover, ensure all the ingredient are fresh, especially the baking powder and vanilla extract. You can check if the baking powder is fresh by adding hot water to ½ tsp. baking powder. If it bubbles out, it can be used.

The butter should be at room temperature, before mixing it with the powdered sugar. If the butter is too cold, it won't combine well with the sugar and will result in clumps.

You could even microwave the butter for 10-20 seconds to soften it. However, make sure you only soften the butter slightly, and not too much. This is because very soft butter results in chewy cookies, rather than crispy ones. The butter should also not be warm.

Baking calls for accurate measurements, and diverting from the recipe can result in bad cookies. Too much flour will prevent the cookie from spreading well during baking, resulting in dry cookies. On the flip side, less flour can cause the cookie dough to spread a lot while baking, resulting in an improperly baked cookie.

To avoid these problems, never dunk a cup into the bag of flour, instead use a spoon to fill the cup. This spooning method will prevent errors in flour calculation. Remember, an error of an ounce can ruin the texture of your cookies.

It is important to sift the flour and baking powder. Baking powder is what makes the cookie dough rise during baking. If you are adding chocolate powder, nuts, etc. sift them as well. Nuts should be added last to the dough, as they will turn out crunchier.

Moreover, while chopping them, add a bit of flour, to avoid clumping. Toasting the nuts before making the dough, is also a good idea, because it makes the nuts more crunchy.

The eggs need to attain room temperature, before adding them to the creamed mixture. If you are separating the eggs, it's best to separate them as soon as you remove them from the refrigerator and then wait for them to warm up.

Creaming is the process in which air is incorporated into the butter and sugar mixture, so as to get light and crispy cookies, with the help of a mixer. Whisk the butter and powdered sugar for a minute at medium speed.

The idea is not to cream them like that done for cakes. Light creaming is all that is necessary. Sugar also plays an important role. The more the sugar, the crispier the cookie. Instead of white powdered sugar, you can also add brown sugar, however, the cookies will be chewy in texture.

It's important to add the flour little at a time, and when the white specks of flour disappear, it's time to add the next spoon. When the last white specks of flour disappear, stop mixing. Overmixing spoils the texture of the final cookie.

Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate it for 12-24 hours, so that the flavors blend well. Refrigerating before use will result in lovely, crispy cookies. If the dough hasn't been refrigerated, the cookie won't rise well, and will have a slight flatter appearance and rubbery texture.

Take out the refrigerated cookie dough and slice it into pieces of preferred thickness. Place them on a parchment paper-lined baking tray, about 2 to 3 inches apart, depending on their size.

If you want to roll out the dough, wait for the dough to reach room temperature and then roll it, or else it will have cracks. Bake in a preheated oven. In general, the oven temperature is set to 350 to 375° F, and cookies are baked for 15 -20 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup softened, unsalted butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp. milk
• ¾ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt

• Take a large bowl and add flour, baking powder and salt into it.
• Mix the mixture and set it aside.
• Put butter and sugar in a stand mixer and blend them.

• Now add milk and egg and beat the mixture again.
• Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add flour.
• Beat the mixture till the final speck of flour disappears.

• Put the dough on parchment paper and roll it into a log. Wrap the log-shaped cookie dough in cling film and put in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
• To proceed, preheat the oven to 375° F.
• Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator. Remove the cling film and slice the dough roll into ¼ inch thick slices.

• Place these dough pieces on a cookie sheet and put them back in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Take them out and bake them for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Either consume them right away or store them in airtight containers.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 1 cup softened, unsalted butter
• 5-6 tbsp. water
• 2 tbsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp. salt

• Add the butter pieces and the brown sugar in a mixer. Turn on the mixer and blend for a minute or so, till it becomes smooth and creamy.
• Turn the mixer off and add one spoon flour, vanilla and one tbsp. water. Blend it well. The flour and water are to be added gradually, spoon by spoon. Make sure you don't add too much water. Water is used instead of eggs.

• Now with the blender on, add chocolate chips to the mixture. Run the mixture for another 15 to 20 seconds.
• Roll the dough into a log and wrap it with cling film. Refrigerate the dough overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 375° F.

• Unwrap the chilled dough and slice them uniformly.
• Refrigerate the cookie dough slices for 10 minutes.
• Take them out and bake them for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Either consume them right away or store them in airtight containers.

• 2 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup softened, unsalted butter
• ½ cups peanut butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt

• 1½ cups creamy peanut butter
• 1½ cups powdered sugar

• Take a small bowl and mix flour, baking soda and cocoa well. Sift the mixture and keep it aside.
• In a separate bowl add brown and white sugar, butter and peanut butter. Blend this mixture well till it becomes light and fluffy. 
• Add egg and vanilla. Beat well.

• Add the flour mixture to the other mixture and stir well till all the ingredients mix well. 
• Refrigerate the mixture overnight. 
• Next day, take the filling ingredients; peanut butter and powdered sugar and blend them well in a bowl. 

• Take out the refrigerated dough and slice them into small pieces. Roll the pieces into small balls and keep them aside.
• Roll the sugar and peanut butter mixture in as many number of balls as the dough balls.
• Preheat oven at 375° F. 

• Spread one dough ball around the filling ball to cover it completely. 
• Place these filled balls on a cookie sheet, that has been lined with parchment paper. Flatten them with the bottom of a glass, that has been dipped in sugar. 
• Bake the flattened dough pieces for 7 to 9 minutes. 
• Cool on wire racks and enjoy! 

Who hasn't tried eating cookie dough! It tastes simply fantastic! It's a pity all that yummy dough has to be saved for baking. Well, not any more! This edible cookie dough recipe will allow you and your loved ones to enjoy cookie dough, without feeling guilty about finishing it.

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1½ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. water
• ½ tsp. salt

• Cream the butter and sugar together.
• Next, add vanilla extract, chocolate chips and salt. Stir gently.

• Add the flour gradually. Also add a tsp. of water gradually. Do this till all the flour disappears in the dough, and the water till the consistency is like that of a dough.
• Your edible cookie dough is ready.
• This dough is only meant to eat and not meant for making cookies.

Baking your own cookies is not difficult at all. It only requires practice. Keep trying till you finally grasp the food chemistry going on with the ingredients. Have fun!