A Baking Discovery

I've learned through much trial that having a good recipe is only half the equation to acheiving a great cookie. My cookies would look so promising in the mixing bowl, but when I put them in the oven, their future suddenly looked bleak. They would come out inconsitent leaving me with maybe 5 decent ones for every dozen. I found it nearly impossible to get the cookies to that "sweet spot" (not too gooey, not too crunchy) all at the same time. The problem lied in the fact that they were never the same size so I'd end up with the larger cookies not quite done and the smaller cookies burnt around the edges. I had used a cookie scoop in the past, but my experience had been that it was about as effective as a spoon since the dough would always stick leaving me to manually dig it out anyway. Well, no more! The OXO cookie scoop works wonders. The dough slides right out & every scoop is exactly the same size. Yes, I realize that I'm way behind the curve on this scoop phenomenon, but I have to highly recommend this particular one if you're still using one from the dollar store like I was. This one really is superior I promise.

The other thing I got was the Silpat Mat. It's a non stick silicone baking mat you place right on top of your baking sheet. No mess, no stick, sort of works like parchment paper, but it can also be used for kneading dough. I really like it but have a couple of complaints. First, is that it didn't quite fit on my baking sheet (it was a little too big) & it increases the cooking time up to 5 minutes. It's also kind of pricey and after purchasing it I realized there are plenty of cheaper options that do the exact same thing. Oh well, you live & you learn.