Cooking Recipe Cooking Articles >>Cookie Baking Tips
by Michael Paetzold
Making better cookies is a lot easier if you understand the difference between the average commercial bakery and the home kitchen. These tips will allow you to make better cookies at home whether it be for a special party or your annual Christmas cookie baking session.
There are 4 major things that are done commercially that are overlooked by the average home baker.
Number 1 is that the average home baker does not have a stone oven. Most commercial bakeries have stone shelves and that disperses the heat to the pan in a much more even manner. Obviously, buying a commercial oven for this alone is not feasible for most of us. (I have considered putting a commercial pizza oven in my laundry room but my better half vetoed that idea :-( . Thus I settled for going out and buying an oven stone for our regular electric oven. This serves the same purpose with no loss of space in our laundry room and at a huge savings versus the price of a commercial pizza oven (even the used one I wanted).
The second thing is the thickness and quality of the cookie sheet. The average commercial facility uses a sheet pan or half sheet pan which is probably 2 to 3 times as heavy as the ones used by the average home baker. This like the oven stone disperses the heat much better and makes it much easier for the cookies to bake evenly. I definitely recommend checking out your local restaurant supply house to get some half sheet pans which will definitely be better than the cookie sheet available at your local supermarket or Walmart.
The third item I use when baking cookies is parchment paper. It is much easier to remove the cookies from the paper, your tray doesn't get all cruddy and need to be cleaned between batches and you will have much less burning on the edges.
The fourth thing the average home baker misses is portion control. I have a variety of ice cream type scoops that I use for portion control. This allows each cookie to be the same size and allows them to all bake consistently. When i used a spoon I always ended up with a variety of sizes and the cooking was never quite even.
Hope these tips allow you to make better cookies in your ouse. I know using these tips has improved mine.
Best Recipes: Cranberry Salad Squares
by Donna Monday
Cranberries and cranberry sauce are a favorite fall and winter fruit. It’s tart and tangy flavor goes perfect with many holiday meals. Most people enjoy cranberry sauce at the dinner table and don’t realize that cranberries are great in salads and desserts.
If you’d like to try something different with cranberries this season, you can’t go wrong with this recipe for Cranberry Salad Squares. It’s deliciously creamy and brimming with cherries, pineapple and nuts.
What a sweet treat to serve at a noontime brunch or special dinner.
Cranberry Salad Squares
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened – can substitute light cream cheese
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated) – can substitute low fat condensed milk
Best Recipes: Cranberry Salad Squares
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No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
by LeAnn R. Ralph
Homemade cookies from scratch in 20 minutes!!
• 2 six-ounce packages of butterscotch chips
• 1 1/2 cups of chunky peanut butter
• 4 to 5 cups of corn flakes
• 1 cup dry roasted peanuts
Melt the butterscotch chips and peanut butter together in a large microwave-safe bowl in the microwave. Then stir in 4 to 5 cups of corn flakes and 1 cup of dry roasted peanuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on wax paper. Store in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.
About The Author
LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the book, Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm). She is working on her ne No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
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Easy Spaghetti Recipes
by Rachel Paxton
Spaghetti has always been a favorite family meal. My teenage daughter will eat leftover spaghetti for breakfast, lunch, and as a mid-afternoon snack. Not everyone loves spaghetti so much that they will go to that extreme, however, and the same meals can getting boring after awhile. Here are some ways to jazz up this old favorite:
Italian Sausage Spaghetti
2 lbs. Italian sausage
48 oz. spaghetti sauce
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
Green pepper, sliced thin
1 lg. onion, sliced thin
1 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1 c. water
Place sausage in skillet and cover in water. Simmer 10 minutes; drain. Meanwhile, place remaining ingredients in crock pot. Add drained sausage and cove Easy Spaghetti Recipes
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