Tis the season for cookie baking. Rich, buttery, golden holiday cookies decorated with colored sugar, icing cooling on the counter evoke memories of childhood and holiday excitement. This year your holiday cookies will be the envy of all at the annual cookie swap if you follow these simple guidelines.

• Use room temperature butter that is still slightly firm - I like to remove my butter from the fridge about an hour before using it. Don't try to hasten the softening by heating the butter in your microwave. If it becomes too soft, your cookies will spread too much. Heating butter can change the structure and texture of your cookies. On the other extreme, if butter is too hard, incorporating dry ingredients will be difficult. Room temperature butter is the foundation for many a perfect cookie.


• Always preheat your oven about 15 minutes before baking -All ovens are different. Each oven has its own hot spots (areas in the oven where temperature fluctuates) and heating time. If you're serious about perfect cookies, invest in an oven thermometer and move it around your oven frequently. This way you'll learn where your oven's hot spots are and you'll be sure you're following baking instructions precisely!


• Baking time - Most recipes give a baking time range. Always check cookies at the minimum time. If they’re not done, check them every minute thereafter.
  


• Allow cookies to cool slightly - Allow your cookies to cool a few minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet or the cookie mold. I've broken many a shortbread by trying to remove it from the shortbread mold too early. There's nothing worse than baking the perfect cookie, then breaking it!
  


• Use fresh ingredients - Each year, buy new baking powder and baking soda. Use fresh spices. Old spices sitting in your cupboard year after year can lose their intensity. Flavorings such as vanilla or almond extract can change with time. Buy small bottles of these ingredients if you don't bake often. Even flour and sugar ages and their textures change with age.


• Chill dough before baking - With molded and shaped cookies, chilling your dough can make or break the cookie's shape. If you want sharp edges and a clear design, you can't go wrong with a firm, chilled dough.
  


• Use the proper measuring cup - Use dry measuring cups for measuring dry ingredients such as flour. Use glass or plastic measuring cups for measuring liquids (be sure to read these at eye level with the markings). When using a dry measuring cup for flour or sugar, spoon the ingredient in and level it off with the flat edge of a butter knife.
  


• Baked cookies can be frozen - Freeze cookies up to three months wrapped tightly in aluminum foil or sealed in an airtight container.
  

Ann Zuccardy, president of Vermont Shortbread Company and dough advisor, has been baking shortbread professionally for a decade in her bakery nestled in Vermont's Green Mountains. Zuccardy perfected her signature shortbread by altering the traditional Scottish shortbread recipe to produce a slightly moister version of this age-old holiday favorite.

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Labels: From the Editor