Ido Fishman Shares Secret Tips for the Perfect Cookies
When you are just starting out as a baker, no one expects you to make the perfect cookies. But, if you have mastered the basics and want to give your cookie game a boost from good to great, you can check out these secret tips shared by Ido Fishman for making the perfect cookies. Before you do, there are a couple of things you should remember. The key is to follow the recipe you have, preheat the oven and avoid opening the oven while your cookies are baking. Now, lets check out the secret tips:
- Don’t grease the pan
This is rather simple to do. Ido Fishman says that your cookies will spread too much if you grease the pans and this will lead to one giant cookie. If your cookies are sticking to the pan, then there must be something wrong with it. You need to take a look at the pan to see if it is shiny and clean, or encrusted with residue of years of roasting and baking. It usually happens in the latter situation. Therefore, it is better to use a sheet of parchment paper, or a baking mat.
- Use light colored pans
It is recommended that you use light colored pans, rather than dark ones. The cookies you bake on dark pans often burn on the bottom. Experts like Ido Fishman say that more heat is absorbed by dark pans, as opposed to light ones, and it is enough to make a major difference in how your cookies turn out. You should bear that in mind when you are shopping for a new baking pan.
- Measure the flour correctly
The problem with measuring flour by volume is that it can be wildly imprecise when units like cups are used. The issue is further compounded by the fact that when you scoop the measuring cup into the bag of flour, you end up getting 30% more flour than what is required. Hence, Ido Fishman recommends that rather than using cups to measure flour, you should do it in grams. When a recipe says that you use one cup of flour, you should measure 130 grams of flour. Having a small kitchen scale can be immensely helpful here.
- Allow the butter to stay at room temperature
It is important to remember that if the butter is too cold, then it wouldn’t cream properly and your cookies will become too dense. If it becomes too soft, then it wouldn’t have enough air during the creaming process and this will lead to a greasy, heavy dough instead of a fluffy one. Subsequently, Chef Ido Fishman recommends that you allow the butter to stay at room temperature for about 15 minutes. No more, no less or the results won’t be what you want.
- Get high quality butter
There is about 19% water in cheap quality butter, which leads to excessive spreading and also makes it harder for the butter and eggs to emulsify. The fat content is higher and water content is lower in European butter, as is the case in butter from some domestic diaries. In addition, butter that has a higher fat content also tastes better. When you want the perfect cookies, Ido Fishman says that you shouldn’t use the spreadable whipped butter that’s available in a tub. Its water content is high and as the name indicates, there is also air whipped into it, which can make everything difficult.
- Be gentle with the dough
This problem is mostly in the case of rolled cookies because a rolling pin is used and that’s not very gentle. The toughness of the cookies depends on how much you roll. Minimize this by dusting the surface with powdered sugar, rather than flour. Plus, the initial dough should also be rolled into uniform shapes as much as possible.
Follow these secret tips by Ido Fishman and you will have the perfect cookies.
