Little-known Tips for Easy Holiday Baking
Are you wondering if you have the time to bake homemade Christmas cookies this year? Every year at about this time we all start to get a little panicked that the holidays are coming up fast and we're not really ready yet. Here are a few little-known tips and tricks, for almost every type of cookie, to help you get the most out of the time you spend baking. Cutout Cookies Don't struggle with dough sticking to your rolling pin. Instead, roll out your dough between two sheets of waxed paper. This will eliminate the sticking problem. Do your cutout cookies always seem to turn out dry, tough, and tasteless? The trick with the waxed paper will help with this. Assuming that you started with a good recipe, the problem is that you are overworking your dough and working too much flour into it. Using the waxed paper will help you to manipulate the dough less, and the dough won't pick up any extra flour. Refrigerator (Icebox) Cookies and Pinwheels
Ever notice how your roll of icebox or pinwheel cookies gets flat on one side from sitting on the refrigerator shelf? Keep them nice and round by standing them upright in a tall drinking glass while they're chilling. Do your cookies flatten further when you try to slice them? Try rotating the log 1/4 turn after each slice. Having trouble with the cookies crumbling as you try to slice them? Start with a log that has been frozen for several hours. Then use a very a very sharp to slice through. Cookie Press Cookies (Spritz) Having trouble getting your cookies to form properly? When your dough doesn't seem to stick properly, put your baking sheet in the freezer for an hour or two, while keeping the dough at room temperature. Then when you press out your cookies onto the frozen sheet, the dough will stick to it just like your tongue sticks to a frozen metal pole when you lick it (assuming you've ever been silly enough to try this). Don't forget you can pick up your mistakes and put them back into the press. Bar Cookies When making bar cookies, create a liner for your baking pan by turning the pan upside-down and covering it with aluminum foil, making sure to form the corners and leaving an overhang of an inch or two. Then, remove the foil, turn the pan right side up, turn the foil over and place it inside the pan. It will make a perfect liner for your pan. If required by your recipe, grease the liner. Then continue baking your bar cookies as directed. Once baked, you can lift out the entire batch of bars and place it on a cooling rack to cool completely. You can then immediately re-use your baking pan for another batch without having to wait for the previous batch to cool, and you won't have to wash the pan. All Cookies Eliminate the need to grease your baking sheets and wash them later by lining them with parchment paper. Parchment paper can be re-used several times and gives excellent results. Do your cookies seem to brown too much, or cook too fast? Buy a dependable oven thermometer and check your oven temperature. Your oven's internal thermometer may not be accurate. Or, perhaps you are using a non-stick baking sheet or pan. The dark color of the non-stick coating can make your baked goods brown too fast. Try a shiny metal pan instead or lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees. Are your cookies not browned enough, or take too long to cook? Again, verify the oven temperature. Or, perhaps you're using an insulated baking sheet or pan. Insulated bakeware can prevent your cookies from reaching the desired temperature in the right amount of time. Try using a non-insulated pan, or raise your oven temperature by 25 degrees. For more information on minimizing the work involved in holiday baking, consult these articles:
Hassle-Free Holiday Baking: 6 Easy Days to Perfect Christmas Cookies ( http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/hassle-free.php )
A Cookie Assembly Line: Efficient Cookie Baking for Busy Cooks ( http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/assembly.php ) A pinch of know-how combined with a dash of preparation can make for successful, easy, and stress-free cookie baking every Christmas! Copyright 2004 Mimi Cummins. All Rights Reserved. Mimi Cummins is co-author of the book "Christmas Cookies Are for Giving: Recipes, Stories, and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts." This book, "enthusiastically recommended" by Midwest Book Review, is full of baking tips and hints, including nearly 50 recipes each with a full-color photo. For more information visit http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/ or order from your favorite online bookstore. [Note to webmasters: you may include a link to the book using your affiliate program (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other) if you wish.]
Related News
Campfire cooking menu - Taste.com.au
Taste.com.au |
Campfire cooking menuTaste.com.au, Australia -Aug 24, 2008For campfire cooking instructions, look for the camping tips in the notes section of each recipe. Cooking times may vary according to the intensity of the ... |
Chew on this! Tips on dorm cooking - MSNBC
Chew on this! Tips on dorm cookingMSNBC -Aug 21, 2008Cooking, however, required a piece of equipment that my university did not provide: an oven. I was shocked and dismayed to find that my dorm room was ... |
Thom Scott / Times-Picayune ArchiveIn this week's Food pages, find ... - The Times-Picayune - NOLA.com
Festival offers flavour of modern Taiwan - Vancouver Sun
Local chefs serve up cooking tips on WMGM-TV 40 - Press of Atlantic City
As Gustav Heads for the Gulf of Mexico, The Hanover Insurance ... - CNNMoney.com (press release)
Try These 30 Expert Grilling Tips At Your Next Cookout - CattleNetwork.com
Funny Or Die sites expand into cooking, video games - Encore
Grant High teens learn healthy cooking tips - Sacramento Bee
Grant High teens learn healthy cooking tipsSacramento Bee, USA -Aug 2, 2008His cooking partner, Kheyland McNeil, 14, didn't object. After all, Marcellous said, "It's supposed to be a pizza." True. But the goal this day inside Grant ... |
New Wii Cooking Game Test Your Multitasking Skills - NY1
|
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Eating Healthy with a Meat Grinder
While it may be surprising, owning your own meat grinder can help you in your pursuit to live a healthier life. According to the USDA, the average American in 2000 consumed 300 more calories than the average American in 1985, a 12% increase, including a 24% increase of fat calories. The average daily fat intake was 81.4 grams and saturated fat intake was 27.9 grams in 2000 (ers.usda.gov/briefing/consumption). Americans are consuming too much fat, especially saturated fat.
Caring For Your Wooden Cutting Board
Researchers have found that bacteria have a tougher time surviving on wood cutting boards. However, plastic cutting boards are less porous than wood, making it less likely to harbor bacteria over a long period of time, but only if it is immediately cleaned. Here are a few tips to caring for your cutting board.
How to Make Sandwich Rolls with Your Bread Machine
For that next picnic or family outing, consider making sandwich rolls with your bread machine. They are quick and easy and so much better than what you buy from the stores.
The Best-Kept Secrets of Beef Revealed! Get Ready to Become the Meat Expert in Your Family!
Do you helplessly stand at the meat counter looking from package to package, not knowing what to buy? Do you end up buying chicken because you don't know which cut of meat to buy and wouldn't know how to fix it if you did buy it?
Barbecue for You
In may just be in human nature to barbecue. Well,
we have been doing it as far back as time can
denote. In the Stone Age, man hunted for food and
cooked it over an open flame. And while we still
cook over flame today, there are actually two
different types. True barbecue requires a sauce.
If not, you are just grilling. While both are
good, barbecue involves slowly cooking the meat
with low temperature for hours.
Cooking Lobster at Home
Lobster has always be one of those extravagant meals which few people ever try because of the high cost. With restaurants paying thirty dollars a pound, by the time they put their markup on it, you're easily paying sixty dollars for a ten ounce tail. This high cost leaves lobster dinners for the well-to do or at least only for special occasions. But, this doesn't have to be.
Secret of Light and Fluffy Biscuits and Pancakes
Would you like to lose some weight -- in your baking, that is? This one secret ingredient (that you likely already have in your kitchen) is not only inexpensive and healthy, it'll also add a bit of "cloud" to your biscuits and pancakes!
50% Less Cooking
50% Less Cooking
Digital Kitchen Timers ? Never Burn Another Dish
Digital kitchen timers come in many shapes and sizes. Timers are an indispensable tool in the kitchen. If you do any cooking or baking a timer can avert kitchen catastrophes. No one wants to work hard on a recipe only to have it be under cooked or worse burned because the timing was not right.
Wok this Way! (Part 4 of 5) Cleaning and Caring for Your Wok
Non-stick woks do not require seasoning, and come with simple cleaning instructions from the manufacturers, while steel carbon and iron woks require seasoning. Cleaning a seasoned wok is a lot different than a non-stick wok, and this is what we will cover here.
Moms Easy Cooking - Fast Meal Ideas For Busy Moms
Every busy mom worries about how to prepare fast, nutritious meals for her family. Working moms often find they have very little time for meal planning and preparation. After a long day at work, the last thing on your mind is spending an hour or more cooking and cleaning up afterwards. A little advance preparation and some creative menus are all you need to make mealtime less stressful. You will save a lot of time and energy if you plan an entire week's meals in advance, and do your shopping all in one trip instead of making several trips to the grocery store each week.
Season Your Pans for Non Stick Cooking
Nothing is more frustrating than trying to cook a delicious meal and having it stick to the bottom of the pan. A well season or cured pan will make cooking more fun, easier to clean and create better tasting food. There is a saying in the restaurant business; Hot pan ? Cold oil. Meaning never put the oil in a cold pan and then heat it up. By heating the pan first and then adding the oil, then immediately the food, you'll have much less sticking. Furthermore if you season the pan when you first purchase it, you will have even better results.
10 Smoky Tips To BBQ Food Safely
Cooking outdoors was once only a summer activity shared with
family and friends. Now more than half of Americans say they
are cooking outdoors year round. Use these simple guidelines
for grilling food safely to prevent harmful bacteria from
multiplying and causing food-borne illness.
Modifying Your Recipes, More or Less
You just found that great recipe that you have been trying to find for over year. And now you're dancing around your kitchen in glee!
10 Critical Ways To A Perfectly Food-Safe Kitchen
Food poisoning is related to unsafe food, a dirty kitchen,
and dirty kitchen appliances. If you follow some safety
rules, food poisoning will never occur.
Cake Pans
Cake pans?.the secret behind every successful cake. My husband tells me that if I am the most luscious cake of his life. Well, who am I to disagree with him as long as he is happy being my cake pan?
Peppercorns & Ways To Use Them
New and exciting varieties of peppercorns are becoming available to chefs everywhere. Pre-ground pepper out of the tin no longer provides the complex flavors and versatility that great cooks everywhere are looking for. A small collection of different types of peppercorns provides fine cooks with just the right pepper flavors and colors to create perfect culinary creations. Peppercorns crusts, rubs, marinades, dressings, and sauces are just a few of the creative ways these unique flavors and colors can be utilized.
10 Simple Ways To Safely Store Food
Storing foods can present its own set of problems. And
different types of foods have different storage requirements
to prevent bacteria from setting in. Here's some tips to
protect your family and yourself.
Eat your Veggies! Simple Cooking Methods
Vegetables add colour, taste, texture and bulk to our daily diet. There are dozens of different vegetables that can be prepared in literally hundreds of ways. So what's best?
The Perfect Scone: Keys to Make Your Scone Just Right
Ah, there's nothing like a tender, steaming scone in the morning. (Pronounced "skawn" like "fawn" or "scone" like "tone" ?Webster says either is okay.) They're quick, they're easy, and with a few tips, they are absolutely delectable.
|
