Read Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats for Free Online
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starches act in different ways. Tapioca tends to make goods a bit chewier, and cornstarch and arrowroot provide more crispness. But they all do the job of holding the whole party together, so we use them interchangeably.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Something Wicked Comes to the Cookie Sheet
BAKING COOKIES should be as simple as eating raw cookie dough. Usually it is, but sometimes a little extra know-how can be the difference between bottom-burnt hockey pucks and the kind of treats that get asked for again and again. It’s important to note that the mood swings of flour are often the culprit here. Through no fault of our own, flour can be affected by humidity and elevation, in addition to which it simply varies from brand to brand. Here are some of the most common cookie disasters—and how to prevent them.
EXHIBIT A: Dough is crumbly and dry
Suspect: Too much flour. Did you accidentally sneak an extra cup of flour into the recipe while we weren’t looking? Of course not, but we’re going to have to use our flour extraction lasers to remove some of that flour. Or ...
Solution: You can add a few tablespoons of nondairy milk until the mixture resembles cookie dough and not a sandy beach. Careful about mixing the liquid in, especially if the dough’s got starch in it, as you don’t want the cookies to become gummy. Use your hands to mix it in. Be firm but gentle!
EXHIBIT B: They spread too much
Suspect: Too much liquid. Instead of nice individual cookies, do you have one uniform mass of Frankencookie? The dough is too wet. Even though we have meticulously tested all of the recipes, flour can be a temperamental mistress. Experience will let you know when a cookie dough is just too darn wet, but unless the recipe says otherwise, cookie dough should not spread out like a pancake on your sheet.
Solution: Add a few extra tablespoons of flour to correct the situation.
EXHIBIT C : They don’t spread enough
Suspect: Too much flour
Solution: Again, this is a job for extra un-milk. Get to adding.
EXHIBIT D : Burnt bottoms
Suspect #1: Your oven. It could be hot spots (not the kind you’d want to be seen at). Are your cookies turning up pale on one of the sheet but overly browned on the other? You then have a case of the “uneven oven”: heat that is not evenly distributed can lead to spotty baking.
Solution: Rotate the cookie sheet. Besides throwing out your oven, the next best thing to do to avoid hot spots is to rotate cookie sheets during baking. Turn cookie sheet around halfway through baking time to ensure even browning, especially for thin, roll-out, light-colored cookies. But do it quickly! Have your oven mitts on and act fast so that the oven doesn’t cool down. Close that oven door as soon as you can, what were you, brought up in a barn?
Suspect #2: Dark baking sheet. Dark metal traps the heat while light metal reflects it. Don’t blame us, blame science.
Solution: You might also want to switch over to light metal cookie sheets if you’re using dark ones.
EXHIBIT E: They’re floppy and doughy
Suspect: Your oven. Could be your cookies are underbaked. Do they appear pale and anemic? Do they have absolutely no browning on the bottom?
Solution: There’s no saving this batch (unless you’ve just pulled them out of the oven, in which case stop reading this and get them back in!) but just bake the next batch a little longer. And, hey, have we mentioned that you need an oven thermometer (see page 25)? Because maybe you’re baking at the wrong temp.
EXHIBIT F: Rock-hard pucks
Suspect: We’re pretty sure by this point you have an oven thermometer, so it’s not that your oven temperature is off kilter, is it?
Solution: Rock-hard texture usually means the cookies are overbaked. Check out “The Science of Cookies” (page 25) to make sure that this travesty never happens again.
EXHIBIT G: Greasy grossness
Suspect: Too much oil (obviously). So the cookie looks fine but seems
TROUBLESHOOTING
Something Wicked Comes to the Cookie Sheet
BAKING COOKIES should be as simple as eating raw cookie dough. Usually it is, but sometimes a little extra know-how can be the difference between bottom-burnt hockey pucks and the kind of treats that get asked for again and again. It’s important to note that the mood swings of flour are often the culprit here. Through no fault of our own, flour can be affected by humidity and elevation, in addition to which it simply varies from brand to brand. Here are some of the most common cookie disasters—and how to prevent them.
EXHIBIT A: Dough is crumbly and dry
Suspect: Too much flour. Did you accidentally sneak an extra cup of flour into the recipe while we weren’t looking? Of course not, but we’re going to have to use our flour extraction lasers to remove some of that flour. Or ...
Solution: You can add a few tablespoons of nondairy milk until the mixture resembles cookie dough and not a sandy beach. Careful about mixing the liquid in, especially if the dough’s got starch in it, as you don’t want the cookies to become gummy. Use your hands to mix it in. Be firm but gentle!
EXHIBIT B: They spread too much
Suspect: Too much liquid. Instead of nice individual cookies, do you have one uniform mass of Frankencookie? The dough is too wet. Even though we have meticulously tested all of the recipes, flour can be a temperamental mistress. Experience will let you know when a cookie dough is just too darn wet, but unless the recipe says otherwise, cookie dough should not spread out like a pancake on your sheet.
Solution: Add a few extra tablespoons of flour to correct the situation.
EXHIBIT C : They don’t spread enough
Suspect: Too much flour
Solution: Again, this is a job for extra un-milk. Get to adding.
EXHIBIT D : Burnt bottoms
Suspect #1: Your oven. It could be hot spots (not the kind you’d want to be seen at). Are your cookies turning up pale on one of the sheet but overly browned on the other? You then have a case of the “uneven oven”: heat that is not evenly distributed can lead to spotty baking.
Solution: Rotate the cookie sheet. Besides throwing out your oven, the next best thing to do to avoid hot spots is to rotate cookie sheets during baking. Turn cookie sheet around halfway through baking time to ensure even browning, especially for thin, roll-out, light-colored cookies. But do it quickly! Have your oven mitts on and act fast so that the oven doesn’t cool down. Close that oven door as soon as you can, what were you, brought up in a barn?
Suspect #2: Dark baking sheet. Dark metal traps the heat while light metal reflects it. Don’t blame us, blame science.
Solution: You might also want to switch over to light metal cookie sheets if you’re using dark ones.
EXHIBIT E: They’re floppy and doughy
Suspect: Your oven. Could be your cookies are underbaked. Do they appear pale and anemic? Do they have absolutely no browning on the bottom?
Solution: There’s no saving this batch (unless you’ve just pulled them out of the oven, in which case stop reading this and get them back in!) but just bake the next batch a little longer. And, hey, have we mentioned that you need an oven thermometer (see page 25)? Because maybe you’re baking at the wrong temp.
EXHIBIT F: Rock-hard pucks
Suspect: We’re pretty sure by this point you have an oven thermometer, so it’s not that your oven temperature is off kilter, is it?
Solution: Rock-hard texture usually means the cookies are overbaked. Check out “The Science of Cookies” (page 25) to make sure that this travesty never happens again.
EXHIBIT G: Greasy grossness
Suspect: Too much oil (obviously). So the cookie looks fine but seems
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