Cookies

The purpose of this lab was to learn how to bake various kinds of cookies, and substitute ingredients of recipes.

Safety and Sanitation

To demonstrate industry standards for safety, I could wash my hands, wear a hairnet and apron, ensure guards are in place when using a stand mixer, and using oven mitts while handling hot trays.

Tools and Equipment

The tools used in this lab were a stand mixer, several metal bowls, some metal cups, some measuring spoons, a baking tray, and a spatula. A zester was used for the lemon cookies and a sifter was used for the double chocolate cookies.

Ingredients

The ingredients consist of 400g of flour, ¾ tsp of baking soda, a pinch of salt, 285g of chocolate chips, 250g of margarine, 350g of brown sugar, 135g of white sugar, 3 eggs, and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Procedure

To start, make sure that the convection oven is preheated to 325F, and is ready. First, measure out and mix your dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then, set that aside, and measure then mix your sugars and margarine. Beat the margarine and sugars in the stand mixer or by hand until the mixture is light and creamy. This usually takes 3 minutes or 8 minutes depending on the method. Next, add your eggs one at a time, and mix each egg in before adding the next one. For the third egg, only use the yolk, and make sure to scrape the bowl in the process. Now, on low speed, mix only enough to combine the wet and dry ingredients (20s). Then, add and lightly mix the chocolate chips (10s). Finally, scoop onto a parchment-lined baking tray with yellow scoops to be frozen, or purple scoops in a 4x6 pattern. Finally, bake for ~12 minutes or until no longer shiny on top.

Challenges

I don’t think I had any difficulties making the chocolate chip cookies. I already made the same recipe in last year’s class, and I remembered what I needed to do for this year.

Successes and Growth

I was able to mix the fats and the sugars quickly and efficiently in this recipe, and I improved on last year's work.

Advice for Beginners

While it is important to not overmix, as long as you’re conscious about how much you're mixing and you don’t mix anymore once the dough is ready, you shouldn’t need to worry.

Ingredients

The ingredients consist of 350g of flour, 50g of cocoa powder, ¾ tsp of baking soda, a pinch of salt, 285g of chocolate chips, 250g of margarine, 235g of brown sugar, 250g of white sugar, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Procedure

To start, make sure that the convection oven is preheated to 325F, and is ready. First, measure out and mix your dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, and salt. For the cocoa, sift it into a bowl, then add it to the dry ingredients. Then, set that aside, and measure, then mix your sugars and margarine. Beat the margarine and sugars in the stand mixer or by hand until the mixture is light and creamy. This usually takes 3 minutes or 8 minutes depending on the method. Next, add your eggs one at a time, and mix each egg in before adding the next one. Make sure to scrape the bowl in the process. Now, on low speed, mix only enough to combine the wet and dry ingredients (20s). Then, add and lightly mix the chocolate chips (10s). Finally, scoop onto a parchment-lined baking tray with yellow scoops to be frozen, or purple scoops in a 4x6 pattern. Finally, bake for ~12 minutes or until no longer shiny on top.

Challenges

With the double chocolate cookies, the only challenge was telling what stage of mixing the dough was at. Since everything was very dark brown, it was hard to tell how well mixed the cookies were, or how they turned out.

Successes and Growth

I supposed the skill that I gained in this recipe was sifting cocoa, since I hadn’t done that before.

Advice for Beginners

You might want to be careful when you’re sifting the cocoa, since it is very fine, and can make a mess. These cookies are nearly the same as the chocolate chip cookies, so if you can make those, you shouldn’t have trouble with the double chocolate cookies.

Ingredients

The ingredients consisted of 400g of flour, ¾ tsp of baking soda, a pinch of salt, 113g of butter, 135g of brown sugar, 350g of white sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 lemon, and 1 lime.

Procedure

First, preheat the oven to 325F. Next, prepare your station with some bowls, a spoon, a juicer, and any other tools necessary. Read through the whole procedure first. To start with, measure out all your dry ingredients. Separate the white sugar equally into two separate bowls. Measure out and mix the flour, baking soda, and salt into one bowl. Next, use a zester and fully zest both the lime and the lemon into one of the white sugar bowls. Mix well. Then, juice the lemon and lime into a small bowl. Separate a little of the zested white sugar off to the side, then combine all of the rest of the sugar, brown sugar, and butter. Mix until light and creamy. This will take a while. From here, add the vanilla, egg, and lemon juice. Mix each until incorporated. Finally, add the dry ingredients. Be careful here, this is the point at which you can overmix. Once the cookies are mixed, use a portion scoop and scoop balls of dough into your remaining zested white sugar. Coat each cookie in sugar, then place on the tray. Finally, bake for about 10 minutes, then remove and let cool.

Challenges

When making the lemon cookies, since I was being too careful to not overmix the cookies, I accidentally ended up undermixing them. When I realized that the dough balls weren’t sticking together, I placed them back in the bowl and mixed them properly.

Successes and Growth

I was able to solve problems in this lab, and I learned to not undermix my dough.

Advice for Beginners

You should never overmix the dough after adding your dry ingredients, but you still need to mix your cookies enough to mix in all the flour. Don’t worry too much about overmixing, and if you’re concerned, maybe experiment and see what different amounts of mixing look like in cookies.

Ingredients

The shortbread cookies use 443g of flour, ½ tsp of salt, 454g of softened butter (a full pound), 152g of icing sugar, 77g of corn starch, and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Procedure

First, preheat the convection oven to 325 degrees. Next, measure out and add your butter, flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla to one large mixing bowl. Then, mix the ingredients in a stand mixer at the lowest possible speed. Once the ingredients are no longer dusty, the speed can be increased slowly. At some point, the dough will start to look like sand. Keep mixing for 3-4 minutes. Increase the speed to high. Once it is ready, it should resemble thick whipped cream. Now, use a piping bag/tip to drop the dough into small flower shapes on your parchment-covered baking tray. Finally, bake for about 10 minutes or until the tops begin to brown, then remove and let them cool.

Challenges

The shortbread cookies were relatively easy to make. I think the most difficult part of the recipe was using a pastry bag to form the dough on the pan, as I had never used one before.

Successes and Growth

The best thing I did in this lab was make the cookie shapes. They turned out beautifully, even though most things made with a piping tip already look good.

Advice for Beginners

If you are making this for the first time, it shouldn’t be very difficult. Just try and keep your cookie sizes consistent, and keep an eye on them while baking.

Final Evaluation

This lab was relatively enjoyable; an 8/10 rating. I liked all the hands-on work like mixing and measuring, and I also loved the result of each batch of cookies we made. Each batch was worth the effort.

I would rate my final product for all the cookies as a 9/10. The chocolate chip cookies were sweet and chewy, while the double chocolates were slightly denser. The tangy lemon cookies had the nice coating of sugar on top of a super soft cookie, and little flecks of zest were visible. And the shortbread cookies were delicious and buttery. The light-golden flower shapes cookies melt in your mouth.