Shaping Techniques, Baking Hints
For Quick and Easy Recipes

This type of cookies is made from soft dough that can be easily portioned on baking sheets in one of three ways:

• Spooning - Pick up a portion of dough with a spoon, then push it onto a baking sheet with another spoon or rubber spatula. For uniform baking time, try to pick up the same amount of dough each time.
  
  
  
  
• Scooping - Use an ice cream scoop with either a spring handle or thumb levers. Overfill the scoop and scrape off excess dough on rim of bowl.
  
  The number of a scoop is equivalent to number of servings in each quart of ice cream. For example, you get 16 servings out of 1 quart of ice cream if using a No. 16 scoop.

  No. 70 scoop is equivalent to a teaspoon.

  No. 64 scoop is equivalent to a tablespoon.

• Rolling into balls - Many quick and easy recipes calls for rolling dough into balls of specified size. Before baking, they are often flattened slightly with the flat bottom of a drinking glass or, in case of peanut butter cookies, the tins of a fork.

Hints for Baking Drop Cookies

• Allow room for cookies to spread by spacing at least 1-inch apart, especially those having liquid sweeteners as an ingredient or a high ratio of sugar and butter to flour.

• Avoid overmixing to limit aeration. This will keep cookies from over inflating in the oven and then falling flat when the heat is gone.

• Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for best result.

  If you must bake more than one, divide oven into thirds and double pan on the lower rack. Switch pan about 1/3 of the way during baking, and also rotate pan back to front for even browning.

• Use one of the following quick and easy recipes for drop cookies.
  1. Almond Chocolate Macaroons (gluten free and low fat)
  2. Applesauce Cookies
  3. Banana-Oatmeal Soft Chocolate Chip
  4. Benne Wafers - Sesame Seed Cookies
  5. Black and White Cookies
  6. Carrot Cookies
  7. Chinese Almond
  8. Chocolate Banana Cookies with Yogurt Icing
  9. Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies
  10. Chocolate Cookies Filled with Peanut Butter
  11. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
  12. Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
  13. Christmas Cookies with White Chocolate
  14. Coconut Butterscotch Cookies
  15. Cranberry Butter Cookies
  16. Cream Cheese Cookies
  17. Date Cookies - Mexican style
  18. Eggnog Thumbprints
  19. Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
  20. Fruitcake Cookies
  21. Hermit Cookies
  22. Lemon Butter Cookies
  23. Oatmeal Raisins
  24. Orangge Cranberry Cookies
  25. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips (gluten free)
  26. Peanut Butter Oatmeal
  27. Peanut Butter Thumbprints
  28. Pennsylvania Soft Sugar Cookies
  29. Pina Colada Cookies
  30. Pistachio Lime or Lemon Drops
  31. Potato Chip Cookies
  32. Pudding Cookies
  33. Raisin-Oatmeal Cookies - Great for breakfast
  34. Ricotta Cookies - Perfect for any tea party
  35. Sandwich Cookies
  36. Snickerdoodles
  37. Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
  38. Buttery Vanilla Wafers
  39. Whole Wheat Chocolate Chips or Dried Fruits Cookies

Images are courtesy of On Baking - A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals by Sarah R. Labensky with Eddy van Damme, Priscilla Martel and Klaus Tenbergen. 2005 Pearson Education, Inc.

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